zanyzak

Hi everyone, my friend and I will be docking in Cannes on a Friday in early July on our cruse ship. We want to know if it is possible to get a bus/uber or whatever, and travel to St. Paul de Vence. Spend a few hours, then get transportation over to Old Town Nice and the flower market. Our ship arrives at 8:00 AM and departs at 6:00 PM. We know that we can see everything in St. Paul de Vence in about 2 hours or so. We were hoping to spend 2-4 hours in Nice. Is this doable or are we trying to do too much?
Thanks in advance!

menachem

That would be a taxi then, as there is no bus service to St Paul. Either take one from Cannes (about 40 minutes to St Paul) or take the train to Cagnes sur Mer station and take a taxi from there. Likewise a taxi to Nice at the end of the day and a train ride to Cannes. Very scenic ride!

With that little time and travel that will take more time than you anticipate, going to Nice and not to St Paul (bit of a tourist trap anyway) would perhaps be a better use of the day.

ooogra

You can also try finding a car on BlaBlaCar.

chillout

We did something similer from Nice a few years ago. We were just walking around and happened to come across an office for local tours and they had a guide available whom we hired for the day and went to St Paul de Vence, a perfume factory in Grasse and a couple of pretty villages whose names I don’t recall!

Pepper_von_snoot

The Flower Market, Cours Saleya, of Nice is a tourist trap. The Nicois do not shop there. There are some nice shops in the general area, however.

I recommend La Merenda restaurant.

Do walk around the Old Town.

Thin

greg

The issues here are how to get to St. Paul de Vence and back out, and then how to connect to Nice.This is a tight and a risky move.
Do not automatically assume that a car of some kind would make this easier. You must actually estimate the travel time.

Cannes to Cagnes-sur-Mer station can be connected by
train www.oui.sncf
bus #200 https://www.lignesdazur.com/fr/horai...r=10&Minute=10
taxi or other car. A train is faster than the bus once on board.

Cagnes-sur-Mer station to St. Paul de Vence can be connected by
bus #400 https://www.lignesdazur.com/fr/horai...ur=12&Minute=0
taxi, if you can find one at the Cagnes-sur-Mer station.

St. Paul de Vence to Nice is troublesome depending on the traffic. The surface traffic from Cagnes-sur-Mer into Nice can be vey very bad. Look at traffic stat on your smart phone map to see what route makes sense on that day at that time.
bus #400, stops at Cagnes-sur-Mer then proceeds to downtown Nice near your Nice destination. However, it can take much longer time than stated in the bus schedule https://www.lignesdazur.com/fr/horai...ur=12&Minute=0 depending on traffic.
One possible workaround if the surface traffic into Nice is hopeless is to get off at Cagnes-sur-Mer station and take a train to Nice. You then need to take a city tram to the Nice old town. Taxi/uber-like might not offer you a faster travel if the surface traffic is grid locked going into Nice. As St. Paul is an immensely popular bus and cruise shore excursion, as well as its relative isolation can make it hard to find a taxi or a place on an about twice-an-hour bus #400.

Nice to Cannes would be best done by a train.

You know that the Cannes is a tender port? Take this into your time computation.

dreamon

We actually spent pretty much the whole day in St Paul de Vence, and that's without visiting the well known gallery there, but we weren't rushing around. Rather than stress all day about transport connections, an alternative might be to do something like visit Nice and Antibes instead (all by train and therefore not traffic reliant). There are multiple train stations in Nice but the main one is easy walking distance from the old town. We really enjoyed Nice and spending the day there would be nice and relaxing.

gooster

As noted by the others, it's a very tight timing, given times for waiting, tenders, traffic in early July, etc. First off, you'll need to reverse your order. The Cours Saleya Market is best hit in the morning, when all the vendors are still open. On Mondays, it is a Brocante/Antique Market instead. Yes, it is tourist oriented but you aren't there to find the best prices on tomatoes.

Take the train from Cannes to Nice - walk or transfer via the tram to the Old Town. This can take you to 10 to 11 am+, depending on what train you take and how long it takes to get to shore. Three hours for the market/Old Town and a quick early lunch (or maybe a pain bagnat sandwich while looking at the beach or from the top of Castle Hill), then board the 400 bus to St. Paul de Vence at its origin (Jardin Albert 1er -- not a far walk). The bus takes an hour, but can take more due to traffic. This leaves two hours or less for exploring St. Paul de Vence. Then you can Uber/Taxi or take #400 to Cagnes sur Mer to catch a train back to Cannes. And that makes for some very tight timing to get it all done and back at the dock by 6 pm.

Driving helps shave some of this time, although the traffic can be unpredictable. (We have a place in Nice)