I'm again at the phone a friend stage in my trip planning. I'm going from Nice with family to Barcelona to meet with friends in May. I'm trying to find the best way to get there. Right now I have three options that I can see:

1) Train: 10 hour train ride from Nice to Montpellier then Montpellier to Barcelona.

2) Vueling: This would be convenient except that it leaves at 11 pm and arrives as 1230 am. I imagine I could spend the day in Nice hanging out until but I'd have to leave my luggage somewhere then pick it up get to the airport late at night, arrive in Barcelona and check into a hotel for a few hours or check into the hotel I'll be staying at with friends (they arrive the next day)

3) Try to find a flight from Nice to Paris then Paris to Barcelona. the only flight I could find is on easyjet but leaves me with a lot of time hanging out at CDG. Might as well be on the train?

Opinions?

Did the Talgo Med Montpellier to Barcelona Sants...

Pretty journey through pretty country

the way to go if you have the time for me...

I will also be going from Nice to barcelona also but at the end of June. I was looking at the Overnight Bus 42 Euros on www.Eurolines.com

Regarding the train you discussed- how much is it and which line?

on the Tgv site it 82 Euro. I'm not sure which line it is from Montpellier to Barcelona. I think I'm going with the train...

nysmom-Thanks for the TGV info.
The flight through Vueling is only around 64 Euros. I know it gets in late, so a hotel would be needed but at least you would sleep well. There won't be any sights to see in the dark on the 10 hour train right?

While I prefer taking the train to flying, I can tell you that there is another way you could fly via Paris without a long layover time. Fly easyJet from Nice to Orly rather than CDG. Fly Clickair from Orly to Barcelona.

Are you going round trip or flying out of another city in Spain? If so, you might (or might not) get lucky trying Iberia Airlines. They are jaw-dropping outrageous for one way fares but may offer a decent deal for round trip or multiple destinations.

I'll be flying from Madrid to Nice in a couple months and had thought to then fly to Barcelona. Like you,I wasn't happy with the available travel options from Nice. But I was able to get a decent rate with Iberia for multiple locations (although I ended up deciding to go to Sevilla instead of Barcelona).

But if you decide to check out the Iberia web site, be patient. It is by far the most difficult to navigate airline web site I've ever encountered.

Have you checked out boats? The only one I know for sure is the overnight from Genova to Barcelona, but I would try to find one from Marseilles or nearby.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check the flight through Orly.

Zeppole - I wouldn't know how to find out about boats. Any suggestions.

The prem fare for the train is "last seats available". I have to make a decision soon!

I would probably not like to connect from one budget airline to another one in Orly. If anything goes wrong with your easyjet flight to Orly, you are stuck in Paris and have to get from there to Barcelona on your own (expenses).

You just do a google search for "ferries" plus your destinations. I think there is a site called Ferries Direct.

Hi I did the same thing about a year ago but different direction. We did Spainair. It was ok and pretty cheap.

have you tried skyscanner.net or .com it searches all the european budget airlines. FYI - they have train strikes a lot in France (which was our case when we were there).