Nice (Castagniers les Moulins) - evening out in Monte Carlo

[UKAuto]

My son and I are going to be in France mid next week. We are 'stuck' on a tour bus, and will be checking in to a hotel in Nice Tuesday evening, March 11th (not sure the time, may be a wee bit late). We are planning on breaking away from the group to find our way to Monte Carlo for a visit to the casino.

Any advice on how we can get to Monte Carlo? We won't be able to drive, and although I prefer reasonable cost options I am pretty wide open to suggestions. Seems trains stop running very early. Taxi a good option?, perhaps the train from near our hotel stops early, but some other trains that are reachable by a short taxi ride are avaiable later in the evening to control cost over a taxi. Or do we just bite the bullet, get to the airport by taxi, and take a helicopter?

Key is we do need to get 'home' - ideally before our tour bus loads up and leaves bright and early Wednesday!
The hotel seems well off the beaten path, as I think we will be about 10km out of town;

Servotel Castagniers
1976, Route de Grenoble, RN 202
Castagniers les Moulins 06670
France, French Riviera


Cheers,

Rob
Canada.

[trunnie]

The train near your hotel is basically a somewhat slow commuter line. I wouldn't call the hotel location "Nice" and realistically your best bet may be a taxi, that'll head down the valley towards Nice and then before getting there pick up the Autoroute that cuts over the hills behind Nice towards Monaco and the Italian border. Count on a good 40 minutes. The views are only really interesting when you leave the Autoroute and drop down to Monaco.

If the train times tie in or you're happy to pay the taxi fare then the coastal route through Nice and one of the corniches is possible, but nearer an hour (or more if there's any traffic). Bear in mind that there's a short walk from the terminal where your train will arrive in Nice and the main railway station (have a look on Google Maps) and as usual with railway stations in big towns, the area around the station is a little dubious at night.

There are buses that run along the valley to Nice and bus connections to Monaco http://www.lignesdazur.com/index.asp

[UKAuto]

Thanks for the reply Steve.

I have printed off the 100 line bus schedule, it seems the way to go if we don't just to the Taxi the full way. One way or another we will get there!

Cheers,

Rob.

[rswift]

Nice to Monaco is an expensive taxi ride !

It might be cheaper to hire a car which you should be able to arrange to collect & drop off at your Hotel as well.

Scuppers the drinking options, but as a small beer will be at least €10 in MC, maybe not a bad thing.

[UKAuto]

So, all went well. We had a great guy on our bus as tour guide, when we arrived in Nice he offered to ensure our bags got to our room later that evening. This allowed us to walk to the train station that afternoon, and taking a very inexpensive train to Monte Carlo (I think it was about 15 euro for the two of us return).

We spent some time walking around Monte Carlo, looking at some of the familiar sights from the Grand Prix circuit, and ultimately we found our way to the casino. Only had one drink each (a wee bit pricy), but was worth it, as my son had just hit European drinking age on the eve of our trip; he still has a bit of a wait for drinking age here in Canada. He had a great time, we spent 15 euros each on the entertainment of throwing money away gambling - he was sensible enough to know we wouldn't win.

Finally we were done what we came to do, and managed to get on the late train back to Nice. We then took a taxi to the hotel for about 70 euro.

All in all with transport, drinks, gambling, and a snack; about 165 euro. Not bad considering it was a good adventure away from our tour group. And apparently they didn't have any fun in Nice.

Cheers.