Road Trip from Milan to Monaco to Nice then Provence, France

Is this the same trip you will be ending up in Amsterdam then needing to come back to Milan?

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/amsterdam-visit-359228-2.cfm

I take that you have already booked your flights so a multi-city itinerary arriving in Nice, departing from Milan (or Amsterdam) is no longer an option?

Considering the drop-off charge involved, why do you want to drive Milan-Monaco instead of taking a train? Are you planning to use your car in Monaco? How about picking up a car in Nice instead?

Well, we want to explore Italy by ourselves so we thought of renting a car. We will be arriving to Milan and needs to take the return flight from the same city for cost-effectiveness reason. Yes, we want to visit Amsterdam during this trip but will be taking a train from Paris. After staying in Provence with friends, we'll take the train to Paris.

But as you say we can opt to take the train from Milan to Monaco, do you have any suggested cities in Italy to visit before reaching Monaco? We actually want to visit Venice and Florence but they seem to be very out of the way if we rent a car. We are also planning to use this rented car in Monaco.

Ah, you want to go the other way from Milan before heading to Monaco.

A car is not useful if your destinations are strictly Venice and Florence. A car makes sense if you want to take a quick trip to Lake Como, Maggiore, or Garda; drive around Emilia-Romagna; or visit Tuscany outside Florence.

An obvious choice between Milan and Monaco is Cinque Terre where a car is not useful.

Where in Monaco are you planning to use your car?

Regarding flight, which is probably just an for a future trip, did you actually look at a multi-city itinerary? This means you choose "multi-city" option, feed yourcity-Milan for flight 1 and AMS-yourcity for flight 2 and see what you get for a price.

Nearly all my trips are booked this way to avoid headaches and cost of having to travel back to the arriving city. It usually comes about an average of roundtrip fares to two cities used. Of course, if you are using award points or sales promotions, you don't have much options.

Yes, I have considered taking the multi-city option but it will cost us a fortune. But I will check further on this option. Just want to know if the alternative of taking Easy Jet from Amsterdam to Milan is safe as well.
The reason for taking the car is to able to see more of the places. But we are still looking into other options of just taking the train within Italy and to go to Monaco. Then, we'll get a car from Monaco to go to France. The South of France stretch is beautiful to see.
If we stop by Tuscanny to go to Florence from Milan, is by a car useful or a train will do?

Milan-Monaco is not really that far; only 300 kilometers (look it up on www.mappy.com). I understand wanting to have a car and going at your own pace. I think renting a car in Italy and dropping it off in France will be very expensive; perhaps better to drop it off in a place like Ventimiglia, or maybe San Remo, and then train to Nice or Monaco.

Instead of going to Monaco and Nice, I would stay in Nice and visit Monaco as a daytrip by train. Nice is a great town, and it's very easy to visit other places along the coast by train. Or rent another car in Nice to allow for more flexibility, and the chance to drive the beautiful roads between Nice and Monaco. Cannes to St Raphael is also a pretty drive.

For budget accommodation try www.accorhotels.com. Lots of hotels in all price ranges.

Easyjet from Amsterdam to Milan is easy and cheap. Much depends on when you are going. For example, August is very busy in the South of France, very quiet in Milan.

Thanks, Tulips.

I have come up with several options now. Instead of renting a car within Italy, we’ll just take the train. We will go from Milan to Venice and then from Venice to Florence. We’ll visit Tuscanny and Pisa during our stay in Florence. But, I am stuck to how we are going to Nice from Florence. It seems that it is going to be a very long drive. I don’t think I can take traveling for 10 hours. Do you think it will be best to come from Venice to go to Nice? So we will just visit first Florence and then Venice then to Nice.

We have 10 days in Italy and I just can’t figure out where and how to exit this country to go to Nice. I will take your advice of going to Monaco for a day visit only. We will then rent a car from Nice. And I hope we can drop this off in Avignon where our friends stay. What do you think?

Hi,

I live in Italy, near Genova, and there are some fanstastically beautiful things to see between Florence and Nice if you have a car, so it would be wonderful if you could enjoy them.

Ten days in Italy is really less than you think. You should really spend your time doing what you most like to do. Milano is great for urban sophistication (food and drink) and shopping. Venice is a unique and enchanting, pre-modern place without cars that is densely packed with art and tourists. Firenze is also packed with art, mainly religious, and a lot of motor traffic. The Italian Riviera is filled with marvelous olive-filled mountains with seaviews and pastel villas, and just off the coast it has fantastically beautiful hilltowns where wine and olive oil has been made for centuries.

So think about how you would like to divide up your time. You shouldn't rush through the cities, but you shouldn't feel obliged to spend schedule days sightseeing in museums and churches if you'd rather be enjoying strolls or shopping. Italy is a place to be enjoyed, not tested about.

If you could pick up a car in Florence and drive it to San Remo, you could enjoy the best of the Italian Riviera. If you are going in summer, parking will be extremely difficult and there will be lots of crowds. But you might enjoy driving the car to a town like Lerici and staying a couple of nights, to include a boat trip to le Cinque Terre or Portovenere. Or instead, you could drive on further to Santa Margherita Ligure or Camogli, and take boat trips to Portofino and San Fruttuoso.

After two nights in Lerici or Santa Margherits Ligure or Camogli, drive the car toward the French border. Spend a night in the town of Apricale (there is a place called La Favorita that is a both a restaurant and hotel with rooms with good parking). Or visit Perinaldo or Dolceaqua instead. Drop off your car in San Remo and take the train to Nice. You will need a taxi from the car rental office to the train station, alas.


There are many other routes you could take with a car. There are guidebooks to the Italian Riviera with good descriptions and pictures.

The train between Firenze (Florence) and Nice is very slow. If you decide to take the train, consider breaking up the trip by spending a night or two on the Italian Rivera. Camogli is a nice town to stop in to get a feel for the area. So is Santa Margherita Ligure.

Hope that helps.

I see from your other thread that you are traveling in August. Be prepared for intense heat in Italy, and a lot of humidity in Milan, Venice and Florence. And crowds everywhere you go, including the coast.

If you take the train, you need to book your tickets as soon as you arrive in Italy and you should book first class to guarantee having air conditioning. If you go by car, book well in advance, and make sure whatever hotel you book offers parking as well.

If you have specific restaurants or stores you want to visit, make sure they are open, and make reservations. This is true in France as well.

Thanks, Zeppole. These tips are helping me.

We have now changed to going there after the 21st of September. I believe this time will not be that crowded.

I thought of skipping Venice this time and just leave from Milan to Florence and then off for a road trip on the Italian Riviera. Will 8 days be enough to do the road trip from Florence?

If you have 8 days total, I think you can easily divide that time between Milan, Florence and the Italian Riviera. The more time you devote to the Riviera, the more adventurous you can be, but it's hard for me to advise because I like both Milan and Florence, and unless you really aren't interested in art sightseeing, Florence is more rewarding if you don't rush through its attractions.

If you are planning a road trip in the Italian Riviera it is good to have a guide book specifically for the region of Liguria. They can be bought on Amazon. If you are particularly interested in food, David Downie's guide to the Italian Riviera is great, but you also need a book with maps.

The fun of the Riviera with a car is to get up into the hills, especially in the areas near France, provided you are comfortable with narrow, twisting mountain roads. Otherwise, even in late September (a much better time to visit Italy!), if you want to stay by the sea, it is much better just to use the train and boats.

I think I better add:

If you are thinking of doing an 8-day road trip in Italy, that is almost too much time for the Italian Riviera unless you are determined adventurers who would rather be far off the beaten track instead of seeing famous sights like Venice.

I saw on your other thread you have visited Amsterdam. It can be interesting to see the canals of Venice by comparison.

How are you thinking of dividing your 10 days in Italy?

My husband and I are more on the sightseeing and adventure type. We don't fancy museums and arts so much. We want to see nature. And I guess the exploration of the Italian Riviera will be the best idea for us.
Actually, we have 2 nights in Milan where we will arrive from Dubai (we live in Dubai). Then, take the train to Florence. And from Florence until San Remo we have 7 nights/8 days, or probably can extend to another day if we decide not to stay in Nice anymore and just go straight to Avignon, where my friends reside. So I don't know how many days we should stay in Florence.
We will go to Amsterdam as our last city after visiting Paris. I think 2 nights in Amsterdam is just enough.

Since you are thinking about having a car for 7 or 8 days, you can think about visiting some of Tuscany as well as some of the Italian Riviera. You can also think about using the car to visit parts of France that are close to Italy, and just driving back to Itay to drop off the car before taking the train to Nice.

If you are really nature lovers, once you pick up your car in Firenze you might want to visit the Garfagnana area of Tuscany, which is a mountainous area between Florence and the sea. You should do some internet research, but this will give you an idea:

http://www.eliseo.info/tour.php

At the southern end of the Italian Riviera, it can be nice to visit Montemarcello in the hills above Lerici. Seeing le Cinque Terre is best done on foot and by boat, but you can drive your car to parking lots in Monterosso al Mare or Levanto, and go from there.


If you come to stay by the sea on the Riviera, be sure your hotel offers parking, even in late September.

Between Genova and the French border, the towns of Triora, Apricale, Perinaldo and Baijardo are very scenic. Dolceacqua is nice, but it is further down. At the seaside, Bordighera and Cervo are very nice.

You can drive over the Italian border and discover pretty towns in between Italy and Monaco, both at the sea and in the hills. Eze is once such town, and people who know France better than I do can name more.

You can use the internet and do searches for all the places I've named. If you really mean to have a driving adventure, I highly recommend that you get the Michelin Red Guide to Italy, even though it is in Italian. You will quickly figure out how to use it.

I don't know how easy it is for you to get books in Dubai. But I highly recommend that you get a good guide for the region. If you can't get them in Dubai, look at bookshops at the airport and in Italian train stations. There is an English-language book shop in Milan at the end of via Dante closest to the Castello Sforzesco. Your hotel can help you find it or another good bookstore with guidebooks.

Have fun!

You should look at some guidebooks for Florence and figure out what you want to see and do. It is a compact town, so it is easy to get around. In my experience, the small museums and churches are more enjoyable than the big museums.

If you end up spending three days in Firenze, and the rest of your time driving, be aware that driving in the mountain roads of Liguria is slow driving. Driving on the autostrade is fast.

This is excellent. Thanks a lot!

Do you think that it is still worth staying a couple of days in Nice after spending time in the Italian Riviera?

Since you have described yourself as not being big on museum-going, it is one of the main reasons people enjoy being in Nice. It has several lovely and unusual museums.

That said, I think Nice is extremely pretty French Riviera city. It has a very sunny, bright, holiday feel with its white buiidings and blue and yellow awnings, and it is a fun combination French and Italian silly decoration. (It used to belong to Italy).

One Nice thing about Nice is that if you don't like it, it's very well connected by nice fast trains to other places, you can just leave for the day.

Much of the pink and orange Italian Riviera is old and falling down, and its charming that way for being so backward. It can feel good to get into zippy modern France and eat those delicious buttery pastries after all that olive oil and slow driving around antique Italy.

Are you prepared to pay about $500 extra to drop your car off in a country other than where you picked it up?

And why Florence and Monaco if you don't like art and museums but prefer nature and scenery?

st cirq,

The poster is dropping the car in San Remo and taking a train to Nice.

Are there art museums in Monaco?

Thanks, guys.

I think we will opt to just taking the train from San Remo to Avignon or Nice. Will drop the car in San Remo. it will be a great adventure for me and husband to drive around the Italian Riviera where both of us have never been.
I lived in South of France for 3 years and I kinda know Nice a little bit. I just wanted to show it to my husband. But somehow we both agreed to go straight to Provence after our escapade in the Italian Riviera.
Well, we thought of visiting Florence being one of the cities in Italy. We heard a lot about how romantic this city is. So we'll try to fit in.
Anyway, I will get back to you when I have more questions about the trip.
thanks a lot

Zeppole, I read with great interest your suggestions to this poster. You mention the Italian Riviera. We will train from Nice to Italy on Sept. 7 and must leave from Rome on the 14th. My husband has a little difficulty walking so the hills of Cinque Terra are for the most part not an option. But I would like to spend at least two days there, and then train and perhaps stop in one other Italian city. We have been to Pisa as well as most major cities. I am a retired cooking teacher, so a foody city would be great. Any suggestions?

I have really enjoyed reading all the great advice and amazed of how helpful people are. I am thinking of driving from South of France through the Italian riviera but I have not a clue were to start - car / train what is the best option? Would like to stay in nice, monico or cannes for a night or two, then head off to Italy. Not really into museums and art etc, just purely the sights, the coast lines and adventure and of course the glamour etc. Also as a hilton honors member, any nice hilton hotels along the route that I could take advantage of? Would probably fly from London to Nice but still open to driving but thinking it may be a bit too much as drive a lot with work in the uk. Any advice would be really helpful

If you are including Florence on your trip, the Hilton Florence Metropole Hotel is fairly reasonable, has free parking and a shuittle service to the city center..stopping at Duomo, train station, and ?? All very convenient! Cinque Terre, at the north end of the train line is Levanto where the Gsarden Hotel is not bad at all and has parking nearby. The train is a sort of hop on hop off that allows you to see much in C.T. Do a little research on this as you might want to NOT use the autostrada but the curvy, time consuming but absolutley beathtakingly beautiful coastal roads..Envy you this itin. as I did it with my daughter 2 years ago and still tingle at the memories...