Cannes or Nice?
 

My wife and I are planning a trip to the South of France during the last week of May, first week of June for 5 days.

With so many choices, we're having a hard time deciding where to "base" our stay. Should we stay in Cannes or Nice or somewhere else? We would prefer to be a in a central area with a lot to do/explore and take day trips.

thanks!

Cannes is Ft. Lauderdale if that is what you like. I would stay in Menton, Villefranche sur Mer, or Vence.

cannes has very little appeal in my opinion. the film fest (i guess) makes people think of glamour and legend but in reality, it is not nearly as nice to visit as most other places along the coast. if you want a lively city with a lot to do, nice is a far better choice. if you want a quieter village, there are many choices as well. i always stay in nice and do day trips from there.

Will you have a car? Because if you won't, Nice would be the most convenient base with the hub railway station and the coach terminal for various day trips.

There are frequent trains between Nice and Cannes with a journey time of a few minutes; both are on the main line from Marseille to the Italian border, so either place is "central". The station in Cannes is close to the harbour and waterfront. Nice is a big city and the journey from the station to the seafront or harbour is a long walk or a bus ride.

Nice is a large and bustling city, with a pebble beach. Cannes is more touristy, more glamorous, with a sandy beach. Both enjoy a beautiful location, in a bay, with a large boulevard along the seafront. Both are suitable as a base but there's more to see and do in Nice, and daytrips from there are probably a little easier. Only you can decide. Do be aware that Thursday May 25 is a holiday; many people have the Friday off as well, and Monday June 5th is a holiday in some European countries too.

I got a good laugh out of Bobthenavigator's comment that "Cannes is like Ft. Lauderdale." Couldn't agree more! Nice is a much more vibrant and affordable city, so it draws people from all over Europe-- not all of them movie stars and princesses!

Plus, it has an enchanting old town ( Vieux Nice) to explore, as well as several excellent musueums--the Chagall museum among them.

The seaside promenade has wonderful gelato and crepe carts, as well as live entertainment ( dancers, musicians) usually until early in the morning. It's great for people-watching and a leisurely after dinner stroll.

From Nice, it's easy to get to Cannes and Antibes and Monaco by train. You could also easily day trip to St. Paul de Vence, a lovely medieval hill town that's only about a 50-minute bus ride from the Gare Routiere ( main bus terminal in Nice.)

I think Nice is a much more interesting City. Lots of Belle Epoche architecture, Cours Saleya, Old Nice, the Chateau, wandering the Blvd des Anglais, museums, etc. You can easily take a train up into the Alps for an all day excursion. Here is more detail from my Itinerary that I've sent to many people on this travel board.

Overview
Driving through this beautiful area (Alps) by car is the best way to see everything – except for the driver. The Cuneo line from Nice to Cuneo Italy passes through this area with stops in several villages. I spent many days researching train schedules trying to find an itinerary that would allow me to stop in as many villages as possible and still make this a one day event. I found that only 1 itinerary worked. Leave Nice about 8:30 in the AM & take the train to Breil where you will change trains (but no time to see Breil), and then head to Saorge for about a 3 ½ hour layover. Then on to Tende for another 3 hour layover. Then return to Nice on the last train for the day. The train trip was better for my wife than me (she does all the driving & I do all the navigating). When traveling by car, we stopped quite a bit to take in vistas, spend time in villages, watch helicopters drop climbers/boaters into areas, etc. On a train, you can’t do this. Also, the scenery passed too quickly & was often on the “other” side of the train. We enjoyed the trip because we had already spent several days driving in this area & we (she) needed a driving break. We got back to Nice about 7:00 and had dinner there.

Details
Depart from the Nice main train station at 8:30am. There were about 4 other stations in Nice where it would have been easier to park the car & not have to fight the horrible traffic around the Nice station (the 4 lane road that goes behind the station was bumper to bumper at 8:00). When you get to Breil at 9:30, you will have to change trains. You have 20 minutes to do this, but there was no announcement to do so. Also, past this point many of the stations do not have attendants. The train schedule is usually posted somewhere in each station. If you choose to get off at a station, make sure you know when the next train arrives for the continuation of your journey. If you return from your trip & get off at Breil, the trains can split & go in two different directions – one to Nice & one to Ventimiglia, Italy. Some of the stations were pretty far from the villages. Some of the stops were more “hesitations” than stops. When we took this train, one 80 year-old man missed his station stop on the last train of the day and was stranded at the next stop.

Arrive in Saorge** at 10:30. This is a beautiful village. The station is quite a ways away from Saorge & there’s about a 20 minute walk up to the town. The walk up has some great views of this perched village. You will be there 3 ½ hours, so there is more than enough time to explore. Have lunch at the Bellevue restaurant. It might seem like nobody’s in town (we were there in mid June) but the restaurant was somewhat crowded at 1:00.

Get back to the station (unattended & it was even closed when we were there) for the 2:00 departure. Get off the train in Tende* at 2:30. This station is close to town. Explore Tende for 3 hours. Tende is a very popular starting point for hikers, so there will be lots of people there in full hiking regalia.

Take the train back to Nice at 5:30. This is the last train of the day. We got a little worried when there were dozens of people lining up to take the train back, and we knew that there would be people already on the train coming from Italy (the 80 year old man). Everyone got on the train OK. It arrives in Nice at 7:00.

WOW! Thank you all ever so much for the insight! I think we're pretty much sold on Nice now. Many, many thanks!

We will in fact have a rental car while in the area. Sounds like traffic congestion could be an issue. Do you all reccommend taking short train trips out to the various hill towns, etc. vs. trying to drive from town to town? Is is feasible?

> ..both are on the main line from Marseille to the Italian border, so either place is "central"...

Perhaps Geoffhammer's above comment is referring to my post just before his. In that case, he did no consider so many coach (bus) lines depart from and to Nice that I mentioned. I still say in term of public transportation, Nice is much better and more "central" than Cannes. Not surprising as Nice is 4th(?) biggest city of France.

Nice is the capital of the Cote D'Azur, and naturally, has a lot to offer both its residents and tourists alike. It is a bustling, vibrant city with its morning Cours Saleya market and shops in the "old" Nice near the water. The Cimiez district in the hills above has both Matisse's home and Roman ruins to explore; the "Chateau" hill on the opposite end of the Boulevard Des Anglais affords nice views of the harbor; as well as shops and cafes lining its many streets. Both the bus station at Place Massena (to neighboring towns such as La Turbie above the Corniche) and the train station offer frequent connections going back and forth along the French Riviera towns and Italian border. Save Cannes as a day-trip!

Take the train to visit places along the coast; Monaco, Cannes, Antibes, are easily reached by train. Take the car for the hill towns.
Having said that, I always drive everywhere, even in summer, and it's usually not too bad (except after July 14 to the end of August when it gets very congested). I prefer the liberty of a car. Some hill towns have large car parks before you get to the village. In Haute Cagnes, for example, you can park at the bottom, and take stairs along the mountain up to the village.
Check with the hotel about parking; it's not easy in Nice, and can be expensive.

I plump for Nice. Consider staying at the Hotel Windsor - I love the balcony rooms "privilege with balcony" but the hotel has a nice garden and little pool and a good inhouse brasserie for breakfast and dinner if you feel like eating in - the website is irritating to navigate

http://www.hotelwindsornice.com/

dunhilldk,

Dump the car idea and take the train or bus wherever you want to go. That way you'll have a chance of enjoying yourselves! In our experience the Riveria and hill towns are a traffic/parking nightmare in the summer months.

Cars are the best way to get to the many hill towns around Nice - bus/train access is limited. Perhaps trains are the best way to go from coastal town to coastal town.

Stu Dudley

Stu, I agree, doing it by car has its great advantages, except :

I did Nice > Eze-Village (moyenne corniche) by Bus No.82 (great view over the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer), visited the nid d'aigle like village of Eze, hiked down the Nietzsche's path (need a good/solid walking shoes)to Eze-Mer and took bus No.100 back to Nice. Great coastal view.

I could not have done the hiking part if I had a car parked at Eze village. That was one time you have certain flexibility of not driving a car. Extra advantage is this bus costs only 1.30 Euro par ride for any distance, even for No.100 that runs between Nice and Menton (Thank you, Nice-Cote d'Azur Bus Network !), mostly on the coastal route so I found the bus trip more scenic than train. Depending on the hour, bus can be stuck a bit in the traffic especially going in and out of Nice but that was only a slight disadvantage to me.

Oh, dunhill, if you decide on Nice, don't be put off by the tramway construction work on the main street (Ave. Jean Medecin?) between the railway station and Place Macena. That blocks the car traffic completely and makes the street ugly since at least 1,5 years now and last November when I was there, it did not look the construction will terminate any time soon. The rest of the city is fine fortunately.

We had a car and I like the freedom. But my husband also had a broken foot so we had a handicapped parking pass which made things much easier. We got to drive half way up Eze with that thing. And even with that, we couldn't park in Monaco. It was Grand Prix week and we pretty much just saw that place from the car!

But it was nice going back to the beach for a day and just having all our stuff in the car with us.

Like most of the others, I'd vote for Nice hands down over Cannes. My wife, adult daughter, and I stayed there for five days at the end of May last year. There is lots to see and do in the city and it makes a great base for day trips. However, if you'd prefer something a bit smaller, then either Antibes or Villefrance-sur-Mer would work very well (only a few minutes by either train or bus from Nice).

You all are awesome - thanks SO much for all of the info!!! Hopefully, we can still get a reservation at this late date...

What do you think of these daytrips from Nice? Any "must-do's" that we're totally missing?

1 day - Train it to Cannes /Antibes
1 day - Train Monaco/Villefranche
1 day - drive out to hill villages: maybe check out Vence, Cagnes?
1 day - drive out to Grasse and Aix?

You HAVE to see Eze.

The following pohots might give you some ideas, taken by me last November.

Villefranche-Sur-Mer
http://photobucket.com/albums/b388/k...%20Nov%202005/

Antibe
http://photobucket.com/albums/b388/k...%20Nov%202005/

Cap-Frerrat (La Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild) & Beaulieu-Sur-Mer
http://photobucket.com/albums/b388/k...%20Nov%202005/

Eze-Villages
http://photobucket.com/albums/b388/k...%20Nov%202005/

Forgot to say I was most impressed by Eze-Village (without S at the end)at my last trip though I loved all.

Yeah I want to see Eze too.

I had to pay for parking in Nice.

Maybe it's better in one of the smaller towns.

Even Cannes seems to have a lot of apt. complexes where parking may be on the premises?

But usually, these are away from the coast.

Aiz isn't that close to Nice. I think it's easily a few hours each way by car.

If you go to St. Paul de Vence, try to have lunch at the restaurant in HOTEL LE ST. PAUL. The hotel dates from the 16th century, and has a beautiful terrace overlooking the valley. The food was very good, too!

Excuse the typo! That should be "Aix" not "Aiz"!

Dunhill; don't go to Aix; it's too far for a 5 day trip, and there are so many things to do closer to Nice. Grasse is closer (and has the perfume factories to visit). Mougins is nice too; lots of good restaurants.
It's true, in my experience at least, that it's easier to park a car in Cannes than in Nice; just past the Martinez on the Croisette the parking is free. We go to the beach in Cannes in July and park for free on the Croisette.

If you are planning to spend a day in Villefranche, consider taking the train there and walking back around the headland to Nice. We did this on a walking trip and you can see that place - Villa Euphrenie(?) - with the nice gardens on the way back. It is not very far - perhaps 8 kms around the coast track back to Nice.

Thanks, dunhilldk, for posting this question...it was mine as well. My husband and I will be in Cannes for 3 nights for a business trip at the end of April. We'll then have a free weekend before flying home. After reading this post and others, we plan on moving to Nice for two nights.

Thanks, kappa, for the awesome pictures. I assume it will take us a day to see Nice. If we only have ONE other day to see other towns, would you all recommend Eze? We will not have a car but are comfortable taking trains, buses, or hiking.

I will do a search for hotels in Nice...does anyone on this thread have suggestions?

Thanks

We spent a week in Nice at Christmas and visited several places in the area. We absolutely loved it!

Here's our travel album with notes:
http://rozault.com/riviera2005

We stayed at the Hotel Windsor, recommended above in this thread. It was a good value, if you don't care about a sea view (which comes at a premium price).

Our favorite hotel in Nice is the La Pérouse, where Raoul Dufy once lived and painted.

As for visiting one or two of the hill villages, ask your hotel for directions to catch a bus that goes to St-Paul-de-Vence and on to Vence. Both are well worth a visit; St-Paul is a medieval village, while Vence is part modern town and part lovely old village. You could make a day of it and have a fine time.

If you're going up to St. Paul de Vence, don't forget Fondation Maeght.

topping for wanderlust125