Two thirtysomethings flying into Nice at the end of May 2004, flying out of Barcelona 8 days later. Trying to decide if a car makes sense in Nice for daytrips to Monaco and Cannes, and then for the long haul to Barcelona where we would turn the car in and take public transport, assuming parking a car would be difficult. Or is it easy to get around Nice/Monaco/Cannes by train, and could we take an overnighter to Barcelona? Any pros or cons are greatly appreciated, as well as a good Web resource to look into the train schedules.

Biggest relevant con will be the high drop charge of returning a car from France in Spain. Maybe car to Perpignan, and then train to Barcelona.

...and see this recent thread on someone traveling in the reverse direction: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34471291

Best wishes,

Rex

back up "to the top", for "riviera" since it is your first post ever, here...

Thanks Rex. So is it reasonable to park a car in Nice/Monaco/Cannes?

It looks like it is about 25 kilometers from Nice to Monaco, and twice that to Cannes. I would think that public transportation would be more efficient than renting a car for such short trips. Parking is not a problem in Barcelona as long as you are willing to pay 25 euro per day for parking in a garage, but Rex is correct to point out that the drop-off fee might not make the rental worthwhile.

And should I buy train tickets through a U.S. source or right at the train station in France?

For local travel on the Côte d:Azur you buy the tickets locally. You may want to consider flying between Nice and Barcelona. My recollection from a previous posting is that it will take a long day with two or three changes to take the train between these two cities. SNCF.com can give you more specific information concerning scheduling and cost.

The value of rentig a car is not day tripping, but rather, all the neat destinations between Perpignan and Cannes. I suspect thatit will be a wash financially, or favor the train if your parking is excessively expensive in Nice (I have never stayed overnight IN Nice). But the ability to explore off the "rail route" - - essentially for free is a leading reason to have a car.

We were staying in Nice with a car, but still took the train to Monaco. It's so cheap and so much easier! The same is true for Cannes, in my opinion, and you can still stop off enroute at Antibes or somewhere else if you want. The car would be nice for travel between Nice and Barcelona IF you have a couple days to do it, but if you're thinking of a car and just driving non-stop from Nice to Barcelona, forget it. Relax on a train instead.

Michael is right - I looked up the train schedules through SNCF.com and there are two connections to get from Nice to Barcelona. Not a simple overnight trip, we'd have to navigate train stations at 5 and 7 in the morning. Perhaps we will take two days of our itinerary to make our way by car. What's a good overnight stop? Montpellier? Perpignan?