This is for 4 adults/one family so Mom and Dad are paying the bill. Plane is only $83per person and 1 hour in flight with Taxi transportion divided by 4, train is $700+ for 4, car needed for 1 week in the south, so we will have the car anyway and could drop off in Paris. Price is a factor, but also is there anything to stop and see between Nice and France if we spend an entire week in the south and 5 days in Paris? We are trying to find the best choice combining pleasure and cost. What are your thoughts? Should we spring for the train, or drive the trip stopping along the way for lunch and snacks.
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Firstly, if you book rail fares about 3 months before you travel when bookings open, you should be able to get substantially lower fares than those that you have been quoted and this will be for city centre to city centre travel without the time spent checking in.
Secondly, you ask if there is anything to see if you keep the car and drive - the answer is a substantial part of France and you could easilly take several days over the journey A route could start off with either the Alps or Provence and then take in Lyon and Burgundy. You could do it in a day by sticking to the autoroutes and eating at service areas.but you would be missing a lt and the cost of fuel and tolls would mount up to a figure comparable to the train or flying.
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That is a great answer! Thanks very much--it helps a lot since we are on a limited amount of time and can%26#39;t afford to stop too often along the way.
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Advance purchase PREMs fares between Pars and Nice are as low as €35, sometimes even lower if you travel on the iDTGV. You can usually book iDTGV tickets up to 6 months ahead, ordinary TGV tickets only 3 months ahead.
It%26#39;s a very long drive from Nice to Paris, about 10 hours with minimal stops. Even with an overnight along the way you wouldn%26#39;t have time for much sightseeing.
What you might want to consider is taking the TGV one way and flying the other. Flying will save you about 1-2 hours compared to the train.
BTW, do you have decent regional (e.g. Michelin) guidebooks for the area(s) you intend to visit in the south of France? What about good road maps? Again Michelin is your best bet here, at least 1:200,000 scale.
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Should have added..
Book your train travel on voyages-sncf.com or tgv-europe.com. Do not change the default country to the US. Leave it as France on the SNCF site and select Great Britain on the TGV site. Do NOT use RailEuriope. Go to seat61.com for a detailed %26quot;how to%26quot; on buying train tickets in Europe.
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After checking again on the website, I see I made an error and multiplied the fare for 4 again by 4 since I was trying to practice my french and used the french website. Thanks to this forum I took a double look, so this is resolved; we will drop off the car in Nice after our 1-week stay and take the train to Paris. Thanks again.
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As previous posters have mentioned, your train cost will
be much lower than you think if you buy %26#39;Prem%26#39; fares online 3 months before your travel date. In the summer of 2008 it cost about 150 euros for 3 of us in first class from Paris to Nice. The trip takes 5 1/2 hours.
When you factor in the extra time on the ground needed for a flight (farther to get to and from airports, need to be at least an hour early to check in, have to wait for bags to be unloaded) the train doesn%26#39;t really take much longer at all.
You need to decide just what you want to see and how long you want to spend on the Cote d%26#39;Azur and Provence before deciding on driving to or from Paris.
If you think you%26#39;d just drive via autoroute you%26#39;d be better off on the train or plane.
You can use http://maps.google.com and http://viamichelin.com to plan your routes and check travel times.
Rob
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