Planning French Riviera trip in the end of May. We'll probably be staying in Juan-de-Pins or up in the mountains. I'm wondering whether we should rent a car or rely on public transporation. given it;s going to be cannes festival and grand prix weekend i can imagine all the trains and buses are going to be packed? On the other hand if we rent a car we'll be stuck in traffic and will have trouble finding parking. What should we do?

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I am under the belief that the Cannes film festival impacts Cannes and that's about it.

It's still off-season here before the place gets really mobbed in July and August, times at which the roads are truly gridlocked IME

Trains along the coast and buses up into the hills run extensive routes and are cheap and ican't imagine them being impacted by the film festival at all.

Now if you're looking at parking your yacht in Cannes harbor you probably won't be able to.

Well that's mu opinion anyway.

I'd do trains and busses. The traffic/parking thing scares me.

Also, any particular reason you've chosen Juan-les-Pins? It's one of the least charming, most modern towns on the coast. Antibes and Nice are a lot more appealing IMO.

Thanks PalenQ and Cimbrone,

I have very limited options-most hotels are already booked and there's nothing in Nice or Antibes. I heard Juan-les-Pins is kind of hip, but apparently not. Well, beggars can;t be choosers.

There're only few suitable ones left in the area, St Charles and Ibis Sophia-up in the mountains. For the second one we would need to rent a car. Any opinions on these hotels? Would it be better to stay in the mountains instead of Juan-les-Pins?

From a public transport aspect Juan-pins has a lot better rail connections than up in the hills where buses are the only option.

The rail line aka Cote d'Azur metro along the coast takes you to Antibes, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Menton, etc. Buses mainly go back and forth to Nice it seems so Nice - Grasse is also reachable now by rail once again. But hilltowns like Biot and Cagnes are quite close the the coastal rail line.

Even staying in a place like Villefranche, over the hill from Nice to the east would be great as the train runs right thru it and it's a swell swell seaside town.

Do you have the name of a town in the mountains?

Juan isn't horrible or anything. Just not very picturesque. There's supposedly some good night life. It's sort of a slightly tacky beach town. But it is centrally located, so you may want to stick with it.

Is the train line really like a metro? Are the trains frequent and go late in the night? Where can I look up the info, SNCF site?

We were in Nice last May, during the Cannes Film Festival. We used public transportation to Antibes and St. Jean Cap Ferrat. No problems at all. We didn't think it was crowded in the least in the places we visited.

We thought Nice was a perfect base for our three-night stay. We liked our hotel there a lot. Here's our trip report, with details on the hotel and restaurants and day-trips:
Nice-- http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34810691
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Cimbrone, this Ibis hotel is in Valbonne, I know for sure we would need to rent a car. There's one available hotel in Antibes proper, but it's way more expensive. I don;t know if it;s worth it.

Maureen, how far in advance did you book the hotels? I started looking three weeks ago and even then everything had been booked up.

Ivan, I probably booked the Nice hotel in March, for our early May visit. You might try them just to see. It's the Hotel le Grimaldi, which I highly recommend. Good luck.
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www.accorhotels.com or www.Ibishotels.com and check to see if the IBIS at the Nice train station is booked or not - not very fancy but like a Holiday Inn.

Grimaldi was one of the first hotels I checked. Out of luck.

PalenQ, I've never stayed at Holiday Inn, so i have no frame of reference here, but if it's clean and has basic amenities that will do. Isn't the area around train station in Nice really seedy?

Sorry le Grimaldi won't work for your visit! I just searched it, too, and found availability in mid-May for a special:
"Summer Beach Break at 710 € including:
* 4 nights in a double room
* Buffet breakfast each morning
* A day at the beach - with sun-beds, towels, parasols and 3-course lunch"

Maybe contact them again and see if any cancellations have occured. What dates do you need?
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Valbonne looks like the kind of quaint, out of the way place I enjoy, so I'd consider it. It's only 14 miles to Antibes. On the other hand, I found a site with bus schedules and it doesn't seem very convenient for getting around.

If you decide to go with the place in Antibes, you can try to think of it as saving you in car rental fees.

Juan will be fine, especially if you plan to spend most of your time exploring the whole region. If you were wanting to just stay put around your hotel, then I'd say it would be a problem.

Maureen, we're looking at 25-27 May.

Also, is being near the coast essential? Making this more of a trip to the interior (Provence) might give you more lodging options. (I booked my hotels for June in January.) I'll be staying in Uzes at the Hotel General d'Entraigues. The town comes highly recommended on Fodors.

Cimbrone, we'll be staying there for only two days and definitely hotel would be only a base, a place to sleep. We plan to visit Cannes, Monte-Carlo, Nice. Then we'll take an overnight train from Nice to Venice.