I am new to this forum! My wife and I are coming to Barcelona next spring for a Mediterranean cruise. We are thinking of taking an airline that flies from Newark, NJ, to Nice, France. Then taking a train to Barcelona the day before the cruise. Any suggestions for a safe Hotel near the cruise terminal. or the train from Nice to Barcelona?
Thanks,
BG
Train from Nice to Barcelona will take close to 10 hours with several changes
Not my idea if fun
Are you spending time in Nice first?
You might look at flights from Nice to Barcelona (about 1.5 hours)
Or just fly to Barcelona from EWR
The reason I was asking is that we learned of an airline that flies direct from Newark to Nice and has only business class seating. It is also less expensive than USA commercial international airline flights. One of the problems with cruising is that we end up flying out of Athens for our return to the US. I know we have other options, but this seemed to be one to look into. Seems odd that it should take so long to get from Nice to Barcelona on a train considering how good the rail service is in Europe.
Train service is very good in Europe but that route is 665 km and not serviced by high speed trains as far as I know
Could you share the name of the airline you are referring to?
I’d be very careful of “new” or unknown airlines
Since you have to return from Athens look for a “ “multi city” or open jaw flight- sometimes under Advanced Search
Fly into one city, out of the other
Less expensive than 2 one way flights on 2 different airlines
Just looking at a date in September I see United EWR to BCN non stop, and Athens to EWR non stop for about 2000
I’d also not want to be traveling to cruise port only the day before
Stuff happens, train strikes etc
I've been tempted by that La Companie flight, but it's never worked out for me, logistically. Also, being a stand-alone airline, with few alternate routes and no alliance/code-share partners, if anything goes wrong they might not be able to get you to your cruise on time. (Whereas, say, United, could reroute you through a connecting city.)
The general advice here is to always book directly with airlines, and I largely agree. One acceptable exception could be the cruise line's air department. They have contracts with the airlines for that can be killer deals getting to and from their ships—especially for flying up front. So, I'd strongly suggest you ask your travel agent or cruise line for a packaged fare straight into Barcelona and out of Athens.
Seems odd that it should take so long to get from Nice to Barcelona on a train considering how good the rail service is in Europe.
Historically, rail infrastructure in Europe has been built to travel efficiently inside of one country, especially connecting that country's major cities.
Hi,
I do agree with what you said about stand alone airlines. On one handm the price and the fact that it carries only 76 people per flight and is all business class is appealing. HOwever, the only two cities I know of that they fly to in France is Paris and Nice. There may be others, but I would think they would want to get you into the country and then short hop business people to where they are going.
My sister in law and niece are taking their two girls to Paris prior to taking a cruise out of Barcelona. For them this airline may work out, as they can then train to Barcelona and I would expect that would be on a high speed rail. I think we will check with the cruise company and also through a travel club we belong to for flights. We also like to fly in at least one day early to both catch up on jet lag and also in case there are delays in the flights. Seems to happen to us every time we fly!
BG
The TGV ( high speed) from Paris to Barcelona takes 7 hours
Flights from CDG or ORY take 1 hour 45 min
Hi,
You seem to be a very well seasoned European traveler. I appreciate your input, Thanks! I recently read that because of the increasing high speed rail, in Europe, many airlines are cutting their inter city flight frequency. Personally, I like the trains and don't have a problem using them. The last time we were in Europe was pre pandemic and we ended a River cruise in Basil. Then took the train to Zurich and flew back to the US from there. Ifonly the USA would learn from Europe and improve our inter city rail service.
BG
I'd recommend that you use Google Flights to scope out your air travel before you sell yourself on anything. Do a multi-city search for your potential flight dates and departure and return cities to see what comes up. Limit to nonstop or 1 stop only flights. Once you find some acceptable itineraries, set them up to be tracked so that you can be informed of price changes.
To make your final reservations you can click through from Google Flights to the airlines or go directly to them.
It's highly unlikely that your special airline is listed in Google Flights. It's highly likely that if you plan to fly from Newark to Nice, but back to the States from Athens, the cost will be VERY high because the return would be a one-way trip.
Assuming that's correct and if you are already sold on the special airline, you'd probably do better to make that a round trip Newark to Nice schedule and make either a Nice to Barcelona and Athens back to Nice flight itinerary using European airlines or if you take the train, just an Athens to Nice flight. In either case, I'd definitely spend a night in Nice on both directions because of the lack of coordination with your special airline and any others should any weirdness happen with any of them.
Out of curiosity, I used the DB Bahn website to check train options from Nice Ville to Barcelona Sants next month. The shortest time was a little over 8 hours with 2 generous train changes of 17 and 26 minutes in Marseilles and Norbonne or not so generous ones of 20 and 7 minutes in Marseilles and Nimes. Those train stations may not be the ones you want. That's still a long time, but the other options were much, much longer (like 18-21 hours and 3-4 train changes).
Having been on that train route, I can vouch for the scenery. Although the total time involved counting getting to the Nice station, waiting and boarding and the reverse in Barcelona, would total about 10 hours, the time would be worth it, especially if you've never done it before.
Below is the query link to the DB Bahn search page. You cannot buy tickets for French trains from DB, but it's a great source for seeing scheduling. The schedules for next spring won't be available for months, but you can get an idea of what's frequently available for your planning. Here's the link: https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
Once you get some results, click on Show Details for basics, then on Further Information to see the stops in towns along the way. With those you can easily explore the train route on a map. Note that it will not all be beside the water.
@Lo had done much of the legwork for you if you want to go by train. I found similar results on Trainline and Rome2Rio.
Ultimately, I think you need to decide if you want to create an additional trip prior to your cruise. The only way I'd do such a long, complicated, multi-transfer train itinerary would be to break it up into its own trip: two or three nights each in Nice, Marseille, and Nimes (or Béziers or Narbonne) before heading to Barcelona, and ultimately your cruise. It could be a lovely trip -- it is beautiful country and fascinating history and amazing food/wine (of course!). But do you have time to do that? Or the budget? The savings you are eyeballing from taking the La Compagnie option might be completely wiped out from what it takes to then comfortably arrive in Barcelona.
