We will be driving from Provence area ( namely Bonnieux) to the South of France for 7 days in late May. We are not sure whether to a) Stay in Nice after dropping off the car at the airport and perhaps train/taxi into town b) dropping car off at Nice airport and taxi into Villefranche and doing trips from there c) taking the car to Villefranche. we are looking to stay at the Hotel Welcome and I am reading posts that say there are no taxis at the train station and you have to walk uphill to the station anyhow. We will have at least 2 medium size bags and dont really want to carry them everywhere! It is our first trip to the area and we are novice drivers as well! Any help would be appreciated!
Posted by
Granite Bay, CA
111 posts
Hi Tania
We drove from Avignon to Nice and dropped our rental at the airport. We did take a taxi to our hotel (Hotel Grimaldi) and used trains/ buses to visit the local sites (Villefranche, Eze, St. Paul de Vence, Monaco). We use local transport wherever possible because neither my wife or I trust ourselves driving in city traffic.
Posted by
Bellevue, WA, USA
811 posts
vsm is pretty small, so it's not very easy to serve as your base. if you only visit towns on the coast it's fine but if you visit the hill towns i suggest you stay in nice to take bus. it's probably easier to just use bus and train in that area, everything is well connected you don't really need a car.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
The taxi fare from the Nice airport to Villefranche-sur-Mer will be around €50.00. I suggest that you save yourselves some money by dropping off your car at the Nice Ville train station and taking a taxi from there to Villefranche.
Posted by
white plains, ny, usa
4140 posts
The previous posters all raise sound points . I would add several considerations . While Villefranche is beautiful ( one of my favorite places on the riviera , I agree that it's not the best base . We stayed in Nice at a Mercure located several blocks south of the train station . We used the car particularly to access the hill towns such as Eze and La Turbie . We also found it useful in Villfranche to get to St. Jean Cap Ferrat and to see the villa and gardens of Ephrussi de Rothschild . Aterwards we ped the car at Nice Ville station which was a few short blocks to our hotel near Nice Etoile and used the train to get to Monaco . The combination of car and train and tram worked very well for us. You could also the car at the airport and take the bus ( I think it's the #99 ) to Nice station . All told I feel that Nice makes the most suitable base. Have a great time there !!
Posted by
OP
Melbourne
3 posts
Thanks everyone. I appreciate your advice. I think you are right - Nice seems an easier base to do day trips from. Is it easy to get to the Rothschild garden without a car?
Are the buses fairly reliable?
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32830 posts
Is it easy to get to the Rothschild garden without a car? Absolutely easy. Are the buses fairly reliable?
We've never had any trouble. Some of the buses, particularly the one which goes down the peninsula and the one which connect the two parts of Eze, are quite small. Large enough but compact and can be sometimes a little crowded.