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Nice to Alps

Is a "day" trip possible from Nice into the Alps? Train? Bus?

Posted by
32351 posts

Lucky, I haven't checked, but I doubt whether a "day trip" will be possible, due to the travel times involved. Is there a particular "Alps" location that you have in mind? Cheers!

Posted by
39 posts

No where in particular - it just seems so close I would hate to miss something I might be able to fit in - I should check out trains going there huh?

Posted by
1261 posts

Hi Lucky. Check the Rick Steves France or Provence books; he talks about a day train trip from Nice north into the mountains. Enjoy your trip!

Posted by
4161 posts

....it just seems so close ...... Lucky , On a map , EVERYTHING seems close . Not meaning to be smart alecky , in order to reach what I think you mean by " The Alps " , you are looking at a round trip upwards of 700 miles . Not very practical , Save it for your next trip , There's alot to see on the Riviera, have a great time .

Posted by
32351 posts

Lucky, Whether the Alps are "close" may depend on which area you want to visit. I briefly checked trains from Nice Ville to Interlaken Ost, and the trip is about 10 hours each way, with between 4 and 7 changes. That WON'T be a day trip!!! There are trains to Geneva at about 7 hours each way, with 1 or 2 changes, but that's still NOT a day trip. I agree with a previous reply - you might want to leave the Alps for a future trip. Cheers!

Posted by
4684 posts

The highest part of the Alps is not a day trip, but you can get into some quite high mountains as a day trip on either of the two railway lines leaving Nice to the north: the SNCF line towards Tende or the independent Provence Railway line towards Digne.

Posted by
12040 posts

Although I don't know how long it would take to reach by train from Nice, the southwestern-most subrange of the Alps (the Maritime Alps) is actually quite close to Nice. In fact, Nice is the administrative capital of the French department named "Alpes-Maritimes". I'm not sure why the other posters are directing you all the way towards Interlaken, or quoting a distance of 700 miles? Putting Nice and a random town in the Maritime Alps (Saint-Martin-Vesubie) into Via Michelin yields a driving distance of 65 km and a trip duration of 90 minutes.

Posted by
8700 posts

Here's a link to the Chemin de Fer de Provence mentioned by Bob and Philip. It's known as the Train des Pignes (Pine Cone train) and goes from Nice to Dignes-les-Bains. I haven't ridden this train, but it looks like taking it would make for an easy day trip.

Posted by
39 posts

Thanks for the input everyone. We are going to look into the Dighes-ler-Bains trip. That sounds doable.

Posted by
1010 posts

We did the Bernina Express from Lugano over to Zurich. We also did the William Tell Express from Lucerne over to Lugano. Both those trips took one day each. They were absolutely wonderful trains going through the Alps.

Posted by
10623 posts

I once had an ongoing geography lesson from Ed, whose first Master's is in geography. He taught me that officially, the mountains behind Nice aren't the Alps, but have another name, though wikipedia says they are the Ligurian Alps. Go figure. As Philip said, there is a train up to Tende. It's a restored choo-choo with a train employee guide pointing out the sights, which leaves Nice at 9 a.m. and returns later in the afternoon, I've wanted to take for years. It's called the Train des Merveilles because Tende is the jumping off point for people going in SUVs into the Valley des Merveilles National Park. (The Valley is restricted to visitors with certified guides in order to protect the pre-historic petrographs). I've traveled up to Tende a couple of times but always in a car. It's an interesting mountain town, with an excellent museum explaining the Valley des Merveilles. The area has switched from Italy to France over the years. So back to the train. Here is a link with info: http://www.beyond.fr/travel/railcuneo.html Have a great time.

Posted by
12040 posts

"I once had an ongoing geography lesson from Ed, whose first Master's is in geography. He taught me that officially, the mountains behind Nice aren't the Alps, but have another name, though wikipedia says they are the Ligurian Alps". It would be foolish of me to start doubting Ed, because he has this pesky habit of knowing his stuff and being right about it... but for argument sake, why aren't the Ligurian Alps not considered part of the Alps? Are they not high enough? If that were the critereon, that would also eliminate the Appenzeller Alps, the Allgäuer Alps, most of the Wettersteiner except the Zugspitze, the Julian Alps, and several other sub-ranges. Is it because they're not part of the main chain? If so, than that would also cut out most of the above, and even the Berner Oberland. What's the reason?