French Riviera help
 

Hi. We're planning a trip to Madrid in March but also want to see the French Riviera. Any suggestions on how to get there from Madrid? Plane, train, etc? Then, once there, how do we get around? Rent a car? Lastly, from the French Riviera, we'd like to travel to Cinque Terre in Italy. Again, how do we go about getting there? Car? Train?

Thanks in advance from this rookie European traveler. :o)

Firstly, I would recommend to fly from Madrid to Nice. This is simply the fastest way, and, at least if you book early, the most economical one.

Secondly, I would rent a car on the Cote d'Azur. I am aware that there will be dozens of posters who say that you can perfectly travel by train along the Cote, but IMO there are missing the beauty of the region. Rolls-Royce did not name its convertible "Corniche" for nothing. The Cote d'Azur simply has the most beautiful roads on this planet.

Return the car in France (to avoid steep fees). Then take the train to Cinque Terre. A car will be useless there.

BTW, you may read this thread:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...a-366599-2.cfm

I agree with traveller1959.

10 am train to Monterosso (Cinque Terre) arrive at 3pm
11 am train back to Nice & arrive at 5pm.

Train change in Genoa

Note that the train will pretty much consume the "heart" of 2 days. Unless your trip is 2 1/2 weeks or longer, I would not "waste" two days traveling (you've already wasted much of 1 day from Madrid to Nice).

Stu Dudley

Thanks for the feedback! And StuDudley - do you mean that you wouldn't waste time goign to Cinque Terre? I really have no idea about it - only heard it was nice from a friend. We'd really like to spend the bulk of our time in the Riviera. Our trip (including a day or two in Madrid - my sister is there studying) is only going to be about 12 days long!

Thanks again!
Erica

I agree with the others that it will be best to fly Madrid-Nice. Iberia has direct flights, but single (one-way) fares are very expensive. It would be cheaper to pick an arbitrary return date, buy a roundtrip ticket, and throw away the return portion.

Or you can fly easyJet for even less money, even though you'll have to book two separate tickets: Madrid to Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg to Nice. Be aware that the B-M-F route doesn't operate every day.

For all your airline choices, including national carriers and budget airlines and both direct and indirect flights, go to www.skyscanner.net.

If you're going to spend several days on the Cote d'Azur, then I agree that renting a car for at least some of the time you're there is a good idea.

If you want to get to the Cinque Terre as early as possible, leave Nice at either 05:46 or 06:46, change trains in Ventimiglia, and go on to the CT. If you want to leave the CT as late as possible, you can leave after 16:00 and still be back in Nice by 22:12. See the timetables at www.bahn.de. After you get summary timetables for Nice to the CT town of your choice, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting points.

Day
1 land in Madrid. Explore Madrid for 1/2 day
2 explore Madrid
3 Fly to Nice. Explore Nice for 1/2 day
4 Nice & surrounds
5 Nice & surrounds
6 Nice & surrounds
7 train from Nice to Cinque Terre. Explore CT for 1/4 day
8 explore Cinque Terre
9 explore Cinque Terre
10 train from Cinque Terre to Nice. Evening in Nice
11 explore Nice & surrounds
12 fly home

If you are not going to rent a car, and just take trains to other destination in the Nice area from Menton to Cannes (not St Tropez) then a trip to the Cinque Terre would be a good idea. If you want to rent a car & explore the Nice Hinterlands (St Paul, Vence, Tourrettes sur Loup, Gourdon, villages in the Alps, canyons/ridges/mountains in the Alps, etc) then I think there is plenty of stuff to do in the Nice area for 9 days. If you want to spend a day or two working on your tan in Nice, then factor that in too.

Villages in the Cinque Terre look somewhat like Villefranche (next to Nice), IMO. The CT is very picturesque but there is not a whole lot to do there except hike from village to village, sit at cafes, and enjoy the scenery - which is certainly an enjoyable way to pass the day. If you are young and want to rub elbows with lots of backpackers, then the CT can be an good place to do that (so is Nice). It can get crowded with people in peak season.

Stu Dudley

Also, you can see some nice hill towns and coast in Italy just over the border from France. You could drive that and not have to go all the way to CT. Look into flying from Madrid to Nice, pick up a rental car and stay in Menton which is just east of Nice.

Yup Madrid to Nice is a long long haul by rail and expensive - probably the best way would be to take the overnight train to Paris then a TGV south to Nice - but by all means flying would be cheaper and faster. And the Nice to Cinque Terre is also a long train ride due to very congested and slow going tracks - no high-speed trains on this route. Anyway for lots on European trains i always point novices to www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com. Rail travel from Nice to 5 Lands is cheap so just buy your ticket in Nice - reservations are required on the Riviera Day Trains from Nice to Genoa and on some but not all of the trains from there to Monterosso, the northernmost railhead for the 5 Terre. Actually you can get some really cheap fares on the Nice-Genoa Riviera Day trains by booking in advance - certain number of seats sold at sweet discounts until sold out. Even RailEurope routinely has $25 or so fares - much less than full fare - but the overall prices are not so great to bother IMO.

Since you plan to spend the majority of your time on the Cote d'Azur, buy some good guidebooks. Rick Steves "Provence & the Riviera" guidebook (www.ricksteves.com) does a good job of telling how to get to popular sights by train and/or bus and which sights are best reached by car. The 2010 release is due out this week. The Lonely Planet "Provence & the Cote d'Azur" guidebook (www.lonelyplanet.com) is more thorough and focuses a little more on younger travelers. The current book was released in 2007.

Nice Convention and Visitors Bureau
The official web site of the Nice CVB. Tourist information, on-line hotel reservations, webcam, virtual visit, and dynamic city maps.
www.nicetourisme.com/GB/som.html - Cached - SimilarOffice du Tourisme et des Congrès de Nice Côte d'Azur - [ Translate this page ]
Informations pour l'organisation des vacances, séjours, loisirs, congrès et séminaires.
www.nicetourisme.com/

TimS, as usual, gives great advice and in addition to guidebooks never neglect IME the official tourist office web sites for Nice and the Cote d'Azur - a wealth of info - perhaps not so objective at times, awaits - especially often comprehensive listings of hotels, rated by France's 1 to 5 star official rating scheme.

When do you plan to travel? Nice and surrounds is shut down for 2 weeks in May for the Cannes Film Fest, and the month of August is notorious for the crowds. Check the calendar-

bookmarking ;-)

bookmark

Wow, thank you ALL for your help and insight. I have learned more in this thread than many hours of googling myself crazy!

We are planning the trip in late March-early April. I know that's pretty much the "off season," right? My sister is studying in Madrid (Alcala, really) and this is her spring break so she will be able to travel with us. Is the weather still alright during this timeframe, or should we plan on winter coats, etc?

Again, thank you all for your much needed insight!!!

I think I'm going to disagree with Stu's itinerary a bit. I feel it never makes sense to go to an area twice (wastes time). I would look at flying Madrid to Pisa, Florence (Meridiana should be a cheap ticket to Florence)or Genoa and visit CT before ending with 4-5 nights in Nice. That way you avoid the backtracking and two hotels in Nice (checking in/out/locating always takes time).

> the trip in late March-early April. I know that's pretty much the "off season," right?

Careful, for 2010, Easter holidays fall in the beginning of April (Easter Sunday = 4th of April) that makes the periode high season for the toursit destinations. Your sister is having a school break exactly because of Easter, I guess.

So things can be quite busy, heavy road traffic, trains crowded and the flight can be quite expensive. Don't mean to scare you but that's possible. Maybe better check and book ealiest possible.

Yes, April 4th is Easter. We plan on heading home on the 5th.

I like kybourbon's suggestion. Fly Madrid-Firenze on Meridiana. Take the train to the Cinque Terre. Take the train to Nice.

DH and I almost always travel in March and really enjoy the cooler weather and fewer number of tourists.

The trade-off will be that not all touristy "stuff" is in full swing at that point. But you should be fine. Regarding Easter-watch for travel schedules as Easter Monday may be a holiday. We had to do a last-minute scramble in Lake Como because the ferry was on holiday times!