Nice

By Inline Skating / Rollerblading

There is a place you can rent skates from called Fun 'N Roll on 13, rue Cassini 06300, slightly northwest of the port/harbor/quay, (http://www.fun-n-roll.com).

On foot

Nice is a large, sprawling city of 300,000 population 5th largest in France with large public housing projects spreading its surrounding suburbs, but most of the tourist and historical attractions outside of Cimiez are within the centre - a radius of a twenty minute walk at the most. You will most likely be concentrating your visit within the old town and the central shopping districts, so you will not need buses, taxis, or other forms of motorised travel. Car hire is a complete liability as parking is scarce and expensive. The only downside of "by foot" is the notorious volume of "dejections canine" that's doggie-poo to you and me and the lack of attention to the needs of those with reduced mobility - wheelchairs - as the dropping of kerbstones is entirely haphazard.

By taxi

If you can, avoid the notoriously expensive taxis, though sometimes you do not have a choice. It is not always easy to find a taxi when you need one. Most will not respond to being hailed, and only ply from a taxi rank, from where cabs take passengers in turn. Taxi-drivers have great solidarity with their fellow taxi-drivers and will not accept offers to jump a line of waiting passengers. Taxi ranks will be found outside the train station and deluxe hotels for example outside Le Meridien at 1 Promenade des Anglais.

Taxis are registered and licenced but like anywhere, it's not unknown for one to take advantage of tourists. If possible, agree on the rate BEFORE entering the cab. If running on the meter, insist on the meter being on the whole time. Try to sit where you can see it so that you can immediately query the driver when/if it goes off "accidentally." Taxi fares within Nice should be less than €20, to Antibes €50, Monaco or Cannes approximately €70 and St Tropez €250. The airport run to Nice is a fixed tariff around €35, depending on time of day, but you may be hit for surcharges on luggage or the presence of a 4th passenger designed to discourage cab-sharing.

Under no circumstances, anywhere or anytime, get into an unlicensed "cab". That applies doubly so at times like the Film Festival, especially if you are female and have been drinking and partying late. Not unless you want your friends to read about you in the next day's newspapers, as happened again! this year.

By train

Nice has no metro and little need for one. The main train service is the national French railway SNCF, which boasts the high speed TGV (slow to Marseilles and then extremely fast on to Paris and the local TER stopping trains, which serve the main Riviera towns between Cannes and Ventimiglia across the border in Italy, including the daily commute to Monaco. Less well-known is the little narrow-guage railway Chemin de Fer de Provence, which runs from Nice through the Var valley and along the Route Naploeon, three hours to Digne in Upper Provence. In the summer months, the latter part of the journey switches to a real steam train, the Train des Pignes.

By bike

Since July 2009 Nice has installed a public bicycle rental system called Velo Bleu. Subscriptions rank from one euro per day to 25/year. The first 30 minutes of usage is free and you will not need any more time to get around in the city. Velo bleu stations can be found all over the city. Their website at (http://www.velobleu.org/) provides a map of stations.

By car

The best access is by car from the A8 autoroute. The airport is well-signed from the A8 and the A8 is well signed from the airport. Just make sure that you know which way you need to go when getting on the A8 and which terminal when leaving. Especially in the morning and evening rush hour, allow extra time to deal with accidents and traffic jams. The A8 has a ferocious bend right near the airport and accidents are frequent.

Even if it is going better, driving a car on the Riviera is for the brave: the region has one of the worst accident records in France and every local has a favourite story about a mad driver. However, all major car rental firms, as well as some less well known ones, are present. Most are located by terminal 2. If you have a choice, try to pick a car that is already well dinged so that no one notices the new dings and scratches that you will add. Never forget to lock the doors of the car at all times, so as not to tempt carjackers.

By public transport

Each main town on the French Riviera has its own local bus network, for Nice it is Lignes d'Azur (http://www.lignedazur.com) Antibes has Envibus, Cannes has Bus Azur, and so on, and the 100 or more Lignes d'Azur routes are the main form of urban transport for locals going to work or school. Of more interest to tourists, an inter-urban network, the TAM Transport Alpes-Maritimesconnects all the Eastern Riviera towns between Cannes and Menton and all the main villages like Èze and Vence. Its routes radiate from various bus stops near Vieille Ville until the new bus station is completed in 2016. Bus fares are only €1, with a change to a non-return connecting service also permitted within 74 min, so it is worth mastering the bus system to get around.

The Lignes d'Azur and TAM routes overlap in and around Nice, so the ticket and tariff system is integrated to a common ticket zone, in which the local Lignes d'Azur tickets and passes are accepted on the longer distance TAM buses only between Cagnes-sur-Mer to the west and Cap d'Ail short of Monaco to the east. The fare is identical on both networks - €1 for any distance - but with TAM, you must always tell the driver your intended destination, so he can judge whether you should purchase a TAM ticket or a Ligne d'Azur. Outside the common zone, Ligne d'Azur passes are not valid and you need to pay the €1 fare in cash.

The one exception to the €1 fare is the Airport Express bus, which has a €4 flat fare. This buys you a Lignes d'Azur all day pass in the bargain - handy if you're arriving, maybe not as beneficial if you're leaving.

Visitors depending on the bus system should promptly consult the first local information center they can find, or do some on-line research. Several local sites report that the main bus station was demolished in January. Until the new station and several inter-dependent, major civic projects are finished 2-4 years, various bus routes will be served by different temporary "stations".

The long awaited tram line opened in November 2007 and forms a U-shaped route from Las Planas to the northeast to Pont St Michel to the northwest. It links the main train station, bus station, downtown and the university, but it is basically a mass transit system designed to get workers and shoppers to the centre of Nice from the suburbs and is not of any particular value to tourists. It uses the same tickets as the buses, but you buy these from the machines at tram stops unlike buses, where it is usual to pay the driver or show your pass on entering the bus. Another innovation is the hourly "commuter express" bus service direct to Monaco via the Autoroute, the 100Express, though visitors may still prefer the slower and more scenic 100 route along the coast.

The SNCF rail service also links all the main coastal towns, so which is the best way to get around - bus or train? The journey from Nice to say Cannes by the 200 bus at €1 is considerably cheaper than the train, which is currently over €5. But buses are liable to dreadful overcrowding and you may face standing for nearly 2 hours as it is slow with frequent stops and many traffic lights along the route. If you're short on cash and don't mind discomfort, take the bus. If you're short on time and prefer to sit, take the train.

When taking the bus, be aware of the somewhat odd way the bus schedules are laid out. They list the departure time at the first bus station, not the one you are currently at. At the right hand side of the bus schedule, you have a list of stations, and, next to some, you will find the time listed it will take the bus to get there +20', for example. This means that you will have to do a lot of guessing. It is best to ask a native and leave some extra padding time if you plan to take a bus to any scheduled event that you really do not want to miss airport, train, concerts, etc..

You can find local bus and tram route maps and timetables online (http://www.lignedazur.com...). Route maps are listed under 'Maps' and timetables as 'Timetables' in PDF format. Also, a new service 'Stop timetables' purports to display the times at your stop. From previous experience with the bus company, those should stand somewhere between educated guesses and outright fiction, due to unpredictable road traffic conditions like one hour traffic jams around Villeneuve Loubet.

Apart from the airport express routes 98 and 99, buses rarely run after 8:00PM. The tram however operates from around 4:30AM to after midnight. Five nightly bus routes called Noctambus serve the main parts of city, from 9:10PM to 1:10AM, and TAM has also now introduced infrequent buses throughout the night on the 100 line. The night buses leave from the Station J.C. Bermond, near the bus station, and the day fares apply on these night routes. If you are planning a visit involving a late evening return, consider train services, which provide the most reliable form of late travel.