Nice to Paris, Rail or Air?

On my journeys from Paris to Monaco and Nice I have never considered flying. The train zips at great speed through the countryside - and since my trips tend to be winter time it is great fun seeing the snow from my 300 kph warm train dissolve into Riviera warmth and beauty as the train has to slow down and go slowly for the crossing of the mountains near the coast (sit on the right, preferably upstairs) and pops out right along the beaches.

A plane's a plane. An airport's an airport.

Overall time is probably similar. Turn up just before the train leaves, just enough time to walk to your assigned seat, about 5 hours (off the top of my head) Gare de Lyon to Nice Ville and you are there. Or an hour to get from central Paris to CDG, 2 hours check in, an hour in the air, 30 minutes to the outside of the airport and half an hour into the town including waiting time = 5 hours.

Ya pays your money and takes your choice...

Or pretty much the same going the other direction, sit on the left....

Having done both between the two cities several times, it's a toss up. Nigel is right about the train, but I love the flight too. I always use Orly, not CDG, so it is much easier. Since the planes fly fairly low, I love watching the scenery change, and I love spotting and recognizing certain chateaux from the air. The take off and landing over the water in Nice is special, as is climbing over the mountains. So it's six of one, half dozen of the other. It is faster by plane city center to city center, especially if using Orly.

two to one - train. For us anything under six hours is train. FAR, far more relaxing than dealing with airplanes, security, and economy class.

I'll even the score for now, two all. -- fly EasyJet if you can get your tickets early enough. The train is just a little too long for me as it can't run high speed along the coast (although I agree that it's a beautiful run!).

Train! For us, it's a no-brainer. Like Frank, we have an "under 6 hours" rule about train vs. plane. There's just no contest, IMHO, when you weigh the buzz-harshing of airline travel (anonymous airport, taxi/train/bus to and from, lines, scrunched little seats, screaming babies, security pat-downs, shoe-doffing, etc.) against the civilized sightseeing-while-drinking-and-relaxing experience of a train.

I'd fly. The rail line hasn't been completely upgraded/reconstructed/built to high-speed on the last sectors, which make trains painfully and annoyingly slow on the last 80km, negating part of the high-speed gains from the vicinity Marseille onwards.

Celeste,

My suggestion would most definitely be to travel that route by train. That trip is about 5.5 hours by TGV, and it will be a relaxing and pleasant trip compared to the alternative. Using a budget flight will probably take longer as you'll have to deal with check-in times, waiting, boarding & de-planing, travel to and from airports and all the usual airport annoyances.

Happy travels!

Well we took the train summer 2012. I bought the ticket via iDTGV several months ahead of time and saved a ton.. was able to go first class even though we would have been happy in second.. but first was only about 10 euros more.. we paid 40 euros each for a one way ticket( we met some Americans who were living in London, they purchased their tickets two weeks before and paid 200 Euros to be in seats across the aisle from us.. so shop around and shop early!! )

My thoughts are this.... it was fine, we brought a picnic and enjoyed it.. but frankly the last hour I was ready to get off the train.. our ride was 5 hours and 50 minutes.. and I have to say, that is now my limit.. anything less then 6 hours I will consider a train,, otherwise I like and use the cheap flights( Easyjet and Vueling.. a few times now, and they are fine )

We had a few weeks in Europe so weren't on a super tight time budget..

For goodness sake bring your own food, the train food is pathetic.. unless you like macaroni salad .. lol

With what we paid it was cheaper then flying.. consider costs of getting from city centers to airports when doing calculating. Its 9-10 euros to get to CDG or Orly.. and from Nice you can take the bus for I think it was 3-4 euros to city.. so add that extra 14-15 euros onto whatever cheap flight you find..

Another die-hard train fan. We also bought 1st class tickets 90 days prior to departure and they were not much more than 2nd class. We brought our own picnic aboard with wine (try that on an airline) and enjoyed the delightful round trip ride, Paris to Monaco. Six hours is about our maximum before we opt for airplanes but the entire hassle free experience of the train makes us think about extending our maximum to 8-10 hours. We're retired and have lots of time and use seat61.com for all our train and ferry homework.

Thanks for your comments. I have taken the Venice to Rome train twice and swore four hours would be my limit on a train in the future. So I'll keep checking prices and keep all your comments in mind.

But how to you account for the time necessary to get to and from the airport, checking-in 90 mins to 2 hours ahead of time, maybe waiting for luggage, security lines, and waiting in a airport lounge?