Planning a Trip

Getting There

Transatlantic and intercontinental flights land at Aéroport Nice-Côte d'Azur (tel. 08-20-42-33-33). From there, municipal bus no. 98 departs at 20-minute intervals for the Gare Routière ; the one-way fare is 1.50€ ($1.95). Bus nos. 23 and 99 go to Gare SNCF. More luxurious is a yellow-sided shuttle bus (la navette de l'aéroport) that charges 4€ ($5.20) for a ride between the airport and the bus station. A taxi from the airport into the city center will cost at least 20€ to 30€ ($26-$39) each way. Trip time is about 30 minutes.

Trains arrive at Gare Nice-Ville, avenue Thiers (tel. 36-35; www.voyages-sncf.com). From there you can take trains to Cannes, Monaco, and Antibes, with easy connections to anywhere else along the Mediterranean coast. The train station has a small tourist center, open Monday through Saturday from 8am to 7pm and Sunday from 9am to 6pm. If you face a long delay, you can eat at the cafeteria and even shower at the station.

Buses to and from Monaco, Cannes, St-Tropez, and elsewhere in France and Europe serve the main bus station, Gare Routière, 5 bd. Jean-Jaurès (tel. 04-93-85-61-81).

Visitor Information

Nice maintains three tourist offices, the largest and most central of which is at 5 promenade des Anglais, near place Masséna (tel. 08-92-70-74-07; fax 04-92-14-46-49; www.nicetourisme.com). Additional offices are in the arrivals hall of the Aéroport Nice-Côte d'Azur and the railway station on avenue Thiers. Any office can make a hotel reservation (but only for the night of the day you show up), for a modest fee that varies according to the classification of the hotel.

Getting Around

Most local buses serve the Station Central SNCF, 10 av. Félix-Faure (tel. 04-93-13-53-13; www.voyages-sncf.com), a very short walk from the place Masséna. Municipal buses charge 1.45€ ($1.90) for a ride within Greater Nice. To save money, consider buying a carnet entitling you to 8 rides for 8.30€ ($11). Bus nos. 2 and 12 make frequent trips to the beach.

No point within downtown Nice is more than about a 10-minute walk from the seafronting promenade, site of such well-known quais as the promenade des Anglais and the promenade des Etats-Unis. Bus nos. 2 and 12 run along its length, dropping passengers off at any of the beaches and concessions that front the edge of the sea.

Opening in the summer of 2007 is the Nice Tramway, with 21 stations running from Comte de Falican in north Nice south to the city center, including Place Massena and Pont Michel. All tickets cost 1.30€ ($1.70) and are available at ticket-dispensing machines located in all tram stations. For more information, call (tel. 08-11-00-20-06) or click on www.tramway-nice.org.

The best place to rent bikes and mopeds is Energy Scoot, promenade des Anglais (tel. 04-97-07-12-64), just behind the place Grimaldi. Open Monday to Friday 9am to noon and 2 to 7pm, it charges 15€ ($20) per day for a bike or moped, and requires a deposit of at least 54€ ($70), depending on the value of the machine you rent. Somewhat less appealing, but useful when Energy Scoot is closed, is Nicea Rent, 12 rue de Belgique (tel. 04-93-82-42-71). It charges about the same rates, but the staff isn't always on the premises.

Special Events

The Nice Carnaval draws visitors from all over Europe and North America. The "Mardi Gras of the Riviera" begins sometime in February, usually 12 days before Shrove Tuesday, celebrating the return of spring with 3 weeks of parades, corsi (floats), veglioni (masked balls), confetti, and battles in which young women toss flowers. Only the most wicked throw rotten eggs instead of carnations. The climax, a fireworks display on Shrove Tuesday, lights up the Baie des Anges (Bay of Angels). King Carnival goes up in flames on his pyre but rises from the ashes the following spring. For information, contact the tourist office .

The Nice Festival du Jazz (tel. 01-47-23-07-58; www.nicejazzfest.com) runs for a week in mid-July, when jazz artists perform in the ancient Arène de Cimiez.