spring212

I've read that the bus is faster than the train - true? Looks like the TGV is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Can't find any bus schedules to compare. I was looking for something from the bus station in town, not the airport.
Thank you.

Christina

The bus can be faster than the train in some countries with old trains or on routes with many stops (the milk run or whatever). I don't think there is any real TGV between those cities, it's just a regular train. I think they may call it a TGV just because you may not have to transfer when you get to the point where there really are high-speed tracks (which I think is around Aix or Marseille).

I think it's about the same time by car or train, as it's around 200 km by car. A car can go on the big autoroutes and cut across after Frejus rather than going along the coast like the train. Probably depends on the traffic and day of the week/season, etc. Given a bus or car can encounter some traffic problems, and you wouldn't save much time anyway, why bother.

Intex

I'd just rent a car , then if you wanted you could continue straight on to Avignon. We did both in one day, and it wasn't that long of a trip.

sglass

I traveled from Avignon-Arles-Aix-Marseilles-Nice during the summer and all by train/bus. As in Avignon, in Aix there is a totally separate new station for the TGV train. There is a shuttle that takes about 15 minutes that would take you there, but I didn't bother. Transfering in Marseilles to/from Nice was not difficult. If you look online at the SNCF schedule you will see (I think- don't remember for sure) that the bus might be the only option for the Aix-Marseilles leg. That bus is linked to SNCF and is part of your ticket...Cassis was a delightful stop along the way, if you have an extra day or two, which would also break up the trip.

TimS

According to the timetables at www.bahn.de, the fastest time by train is a little over three hours.

The express bus service takes 2hr45min from the Nice airport. Service is less frequent than the train. See the timetables here: http://tinyurl.com/2y27w2. You would need to take a city bus from Nice to connect at the airport.

spring212

Many thanks for the information and suggestions. I was able to sort out all the train options from the SNCF website - just having a hard time figuring out bus options. All in all, sounds like the train is the way to go.
From what I've been reading, it appears that the direct TGV between Nice & Aix might be fairly new, and, just in case anyone else is researching this, it looks like it's bus only between Aix & Marseille while work is underway on the rails.

buddle

TGV is great. We got the early train from Antibes in our shorts and Tshirts. Arrived in Aix station where the Mistral was blowing hard-we were frozen but found Oxfam shop and warmed up.

Aix, Avignon all wonderful. Train very fast