My wife and I will be spending only two weeks in The South of France. We will be based in Antibes and would like to know what is the best and least expensive way to see the rest of the French Riviera and also The Italian Riviera? Are there coastal only trains that just run back and forth from Italy to France. The euro pass just seems like overkill for the area we will be covering. Thank you
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
7581 posts
A pass is definitely not necessary or remotely a good deal since your jumps will be short. As for Coastal routes only, not really, except there is a main route that follows the coast, has frequent trains, and is easy to use. When you get a firmer itinerary figured out, you might check out buses, probably handier for getting from the main line to the coast, or to smaller towns along the coast. However to do parts of the coast justice (Portofino, the Cinque Terre or West towards Spain) you might consider spending a night, otherwise just the train may eat up most of your day.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32929 posts
Our experience is that the train is the way to go, but don't try to get everywhere in one day!
Nice, has 3 stations, you want the middle one, one block away is the new tramway which whisks you to the edge of the old town. Bus slower; parking nearly impossible.
Villefranche-sur-Mer very easy by train, pretty easy by bus from Nice's Gare Routier, as is Eze-le-Village but less frequently; parking tough to impossible at Villefranche, pretty easy at Eze-le-Village. Can also catch small bus from Eze-sur-Mer station for the vertical trip up the mountain.
St Jean Cap Ferrat very easy by bus from Beaulieu station.
Cap d'Ail to Monaco best done walking along the Med, but its a long walk.
Monaco station has nearly a dozen exits, if you know which one to take you where you want to go, the elevators, escalators, and tunnels will take you directly to your destination.
Menton, perhaps better by bus for being in the middle but faster by train.
Ventimiglia station drops you right into town, don't know about bus or car - I've only gone by train there.
There is a large gap of 120 miles between there and the Cinque Terre, and as suggested by another poster, I would not do it as a day trip from Antibes.
All Cinque Terra towns, except perhaps Portofino, are best done by milk-train. They are only moments apart from each other - see RS. A car there is a real burden, I've never tried by bus.
Sounds like a wonderful trip - enjoy it.
Posted by
OP
Long Beach, CA, United States
2 posts
Thank you so much for your information! It will be very useful to us. Do you recommend buying our tickets on the day or ahead of time for the coastal trains?
Posted by
San Francisco, Ca, USA
4 posts
Greg:
Also, be aware. I just, today, tried to book a similar trip (allbeit reversed) from Genoa to Nice. I was told by RailEurope that the trains are EXTREMELY limited as they are doing significant maintenance on the tracks there. It was supposed to be finished by 8/15 but that's not going to happen. Just be careful that you don't purchase something that you can't get out of.
Rob