Antibes and St-Paul-de-Vence from Cannes

[michelle-nh]

Our ship tenders in Cannes from 8 am- 6 pm. We are interested in Antibes and St-Paul-de-Vence but prefer not to take the bus or rent a car. The only tour we have found is 4 hours. We'd like to spend more time in St-Paul-de-Vence than the 45 minutes allowed on this tour. What other options do we have? Taxi? A private tour is probably out of out budget but we enjoy small group tours. Thanks.

[CantSwim63]

NCL Epic?  We were in Cannes off the Epic in June last year; had an espresso and chocolate croissant at a sidewalk cafe, walked to the train station and with the help of Google translate got return tickets from Cannes to Antibes.  Fabulous Picasso museum and interesting fort and marina.  Sorry, do not know if St Paul de Vence is on train route.

 

Cheers!  Roehl

[lamchops]

We spent a week in the Nice area and did day trips to Cannes, Antibes and St. Paul de Vence.

From Cannes, the quickest and most economical way to see both St Paul de Vence and Antibes is by train and bus. I would probably not do both on a port day as getting to St Paul de Vence would take more time on transportation than it would give you in the village. The streets are narrow and would be jammed with people during peak season. 

I would suggest taking the 20-40 minute (schedule dependent) train ride (at 8:30-9:15) from Cannes train station to Gare de Nice Ville. From the Nice train station, it’s a 25 minute walk through downtown (along Ave. Jean Medecin, 1st busy street to the left) to the beach promenade and Old town + flower market.You can spend about 2+ hours there before getting back on the train to Antibes/Cannes around 1:00. 

The ticket back to Cannes allows you to stop at Antibes for a couple of hours before heading back to Cannes.  You should have plenty of time to explore Antibes and take the 4:00 train back to Cannes without any issues. 

You may want to adjust your times but the key is the 4:00 train from Antibes to Cannes. If you miss it, you will have another about every 15 minutes depending how close you want to make it.

 

The route that I’ve described is simple as the train line is straight forward and where you get off is where you get on again though in opposite directions. The walking is straight forward as well. You may want to use/print google maps with the train 🚊 Icon with an ETA to give you approximate train times and station names. 

For Nice and Antibes you can also use/print google maps walking 🚶‍♀️ directions using the walker icon.

Edited December 23, 2018 by lamchops

[Hlitner]

Somebody once asked how they could get from the USA to Europe without flying or using a ship.  That thought hit me when reading the OP's post.  Certainly post on the CC Roll Call for your cruise and try to organize a small group tour.  You can always hire a taxi, but be prepared to spend hundreds of Euros.  You are talking about 45-50 miles of driving plus an awful lot of waiting time and that does not come cheap with French taxis.  Public transportation to Antibes is easy as you could simply take the train from Cannes or even use a public bus.  But St Paul de Vence is inland and not on any train line (the closest train station is at Cagnes sur Mer).   It is possible to get to both Antibes and St Paul de Vence by using a combination of trains and buses, but this is time consuming and a pain in the behind.   Since you have already eliminated the best solution which is to simply rent a car, we cannot offer a good solution other then to get lucky and join a small tour.

 

Hank