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Trains on the Riviera

I have a quick question about train travel on the Riviera. My family and I will be in Nice in June 2021 and I was wondering if its safe to buy tickets to local towns like Cannes and Menton, to name a couple, on the day of travel or should I purchase them in advance? Will the price be the same and do certain times sellout? Thanks

Posted by
32523 posts

trains beween Cannes via Nice and Monaco to Ventimiglia just over the border in Italy are local commuter trains operated by the SNCF national train operator for the regional authority.

The fares don't go up or down, are cheap, can be bought on line or via an app or from a machine or a human. There is no price difference and there is no advantage to getting them before the trip, and unless there is a strike no advantage to getting them before the day of travel.

Sit upstairs on the coast side - right hand side on trains toward Nice and Monaco and Italy from the west; on the left on trains back to Cannes. The views are short but fabulous.

Posted by
26840 posts

Those are local trains; there's no financial advantage to buying tickets in advance. Prices vary a bit depending on what time of day and day of week you travel (blue periods vs. white periods). There should be a sticker on the ticket-vending machine detailing those periods, but they are sometimes not terribly legible. If you fiddle around on the internet next year, you'll eventually turn up the calendar, which is a handy thing to have if you don't wait till the last minute to buy your tickets. The calendar is a bit different each year if only because of floating holidays.

I stayed in Nice in May 2017 and found the ticket machines sometimes had lines in the morning. Trains are frequent, so it wasn't a big deal, but I decided it was best to get my ticket the night before if I knew where I was going and it was convenient to do so. When doing that I needed to know whether to buy a blue-period or white-period ticket.

Be careful about wallets and purses on those trains. There are pickpockets, some working in teams. I was targeted by a trio of early-20s females and was lucky to escape without losing anything.

Posted by
23178 posts

Your are over thinking. All local trains with no reserve seats. Just get on, no seat, stand till becomes available.

Posted by
7129 posts

Between the tram in Nice, the buses to nearby towns and the local train, it’s easy to get around the Riviera. I bought my local train tickets at the station. It’s helpful, if you’re using one of the cashiers, to hand them a post-it note with the destination, preferred time of departure and number of people.

None of the trains were sold out, but I was on a very full train to Menton where people were standing in the aisles. After Monaco, there were plenty of seats.

Posted by
37 posts

Thanks everyone. Yeah I overthought the trains a bit last year in Rome and didn’t want to do it again.

Posted by
546 posts

It's worth noting, if you are comfortable with the technology and have some basic French, that you can buy TER (local/regional train) tickets from the SNCF app.

I've done this myself in Normandy and Provence (obviously not this spring/summer, alas) and found it very convenient -- it allowed me to skip the lines at the ticket machines and just turn up and go. You obviously also don't have to validate (composter) tickets on your phone.

It's even something you can test from home if you're willing to spend $3 or so on the experiment (to make sure it works with your card, etc.) -- the cheapest TER ticket I've found in a quick search is a one-way ticket from Nice to Saint-Laurent-du-Var which goes for €2.30.

(I'm happy to walk through detailed instructions on how to do this on the app for the OP or for anyone else who may be interested in doing so for their next trip, whenever that might be (!))

Posted by
667 posts

You can also use the Oui SCNF app. I've been told they provide discounts, but usually on the longer journeys (I've used the app in the past). The user interface (and online) makes it easy to find the best fare (time dependant). But advance ticketing really isn't necessary, as noted. Also online at the TER site you can access deals between Nice and Marseilles using the Prix Cool. These are online only.

If you have a family, the best deal along the Cote d'Azur can often be the Passe Isabelle. It is 35E for two adults and up to two children under 16. Unlimited travel anywhere along the coastal TER for a day. There are also a variety of discount schemes and passes, but they usually require staying a long time, etc.