Travel from Nice to Cinque Terre

Maria, I went to the DeutschBahn and the trenitalia.com sites (see Favorite Links above left) where I was able to find trains that take about 6 hours from Nice Ville to Monterosso al Mare with 1 change in Ventimiglia. Neither sncf.com or tgv-europe.com (the French rail sites) would give me info. Since most US credit cards are not accepted on the trenitalia site, you will probably want to purchase your ticket when you arrive in Nice. Since 2 countries are involved, (I guess) I couldn't get the price even though I used next month for departure. Hope this helps!

Maria, Yes, train is the "best form of travel" on that route. As the previous reply indicated, the trip is about six hours and there may be one change at Ventimiglia (border point) and possibly another at Genova Piazza Principe or Genova Brignole. The fare will depend on which if the C.T. villages is your destination (there won't be a huge difference though). I don't have information on the fares for the whole trip, however here's an example of the second class fares for the Italy section: > Ventimiglia to Monterosso (with change in Genova P.P.) - €26 > Ventimiglia to Monterosso (with change in Genova Brignole) - €14.60 > Ventimiglia to Monterosso (direct - no changes) - €14.60 The travel time for this part of the route is ~4H:50M. The trip from Nice to Ventimiglia will add about 50-minutes. Note that you'll be travelling from Nice Ville station. You might consider buying your ticket the day prior to travel. Since you didn't specify which of the villages you'd be staying in, I used Monterosso for these examples. NOTE that these schedules and prices are of course subject to change. I'm assuming you'll be taking the Paris & The South of France tour? If so, I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time!!! Happy travels!

Much thanks to both Darcy and Ken for the response on my travel question. The train information helps tremendously. So grateful for your consideration. And, yes, Ken - am taking the Paris/South of France tour. My daughters kept on me about this as everytime I travel, Italy is my destination..so this will be a good change for me. However...I could visit Italy a thousand times over... Happy travels to both of you!

Maria, Ken and Darcy- thanks all 3 this forum has answered my Q- 4 x 55+ ladies leaving Carmarque canal area for Levanto to do 4 days CT walks early June and it had seemed the train changes would be endless. I will take your advice and try for timetables/map at stations closer to time, but now will look at getting from Nimes to Ventim. and try for a direct one as staying in monastries does mean we can't check in too late and had thought we may have to go right thru to Milan from Ventimiglia and then backtrack.
Very helpful you 3- much appreciated.

Maria, To get all your departure times and route choices, do as Darcy did and use the timetables on the German Rail site. Ken quoted you the fares for various routes from Ventimiglia to Monterosso. The fare from Nice Ville to Ventimiglia is €6.70.

Alison, You don't have to wait until closer to your travel date to get timetables from the German Rail site. Enter any date between now and the end of May for the same day of the week as you'll be traveling. IMO, your best route is Nimes-Marseille-Nice-Ventimiglia-Levanto, departing at 07:43 and arriving at 18:37.

Hi Maria, I'm going from Nice to Cinque Terre as well. I will be staying at Manarola. As you didn't mention your departure date and village destination, I'm using my itinerary here: May 13, 2011 1. Nice -> Ventimiglia, Nice 13:53 - Ventimiglia 14:42 by TER Fare: 6.7 euros (regular), or 5.1 euros (less than 26 years old) Booked via tgv-europe.com 2. Ventimiglia -> Monterosso, transfer via Genova Piazza Principe Ventimiglia 14:58 - Genova Piazza Principe 17:06 by InterCity (IC) Genova Piazza Principe 17:48 - Monterosso 19:02 by InterCity (IC) Fare: 26 euros (base), or 13.5 euros (mini) Booked via trenitalia.com 3. Monterosso -> Manarola Monterosso 19:22 - Manarola 19:34 by Regionale (R) Fare: 1.8 euros
Not yet booked, can only booked in the Italian train station I think. So total cheapest fare will be 20.4 euros. I hope it helps!

Tim, Thanks for providing information on the fare from Nice to Ventimiglia. Unfortunately, I haven't quite mastered the SNCF website yet, so have trouble with it on occasion. The bahn.de website doesn't always indicate fares, so I only provided information for the Italy portion of the trip. Cheers!