Public Transport on the French Riviera: Trains, Buses and Passes

Public transport on the French Riviera is better than most new arrivals expect and more confusing than it needs to be. A train every fifteen minutes runs the length of the coast. Buses reach villages with four hundred people in them. You can live in Nice without a car and barely notice.

The confusion comes from the map underneath. One railway runs the coast, but six separate bus companies operate the towns along it, and each one sets its own fares, sells its own tickets and publishes its own app. A ticket that works in Nice is worthless in Cannes. Sitting on top of all of it are two departmental passes that cover everything at once, and almost nobody tells you they exist.

This guide covers what runs where, what it costs, which pass is worth buying, and the rules that turn a €1.70 trip into a €60 one.

The coastal railway is the Riviera’s backbone

Nearly everything on the Riviera is strung along one railway line between the sea and the hills. If you can get to a station, you can get almost anywhere on the coast without a car.

Three regional lines matter, all branded ZOU! and run by SNCF:

• Line 3: Les Arcs to Saint-Raphaël, Cannes, Antibes and Nice
• Line 4: Grasse to Cannes, Nice and Ventimiglia in Italy
• Line 5: Nice to Breil-sur-Roya and Tende, climbing inland through the mountains

Between Cannes and Menton, trains run every fifteen minutes, which SNCF puts at 20,000 extra seats a day since the timetable was reinforced. Weekend service runs later than most people realize: there’s a train until 2am on Sunday mornings.

One piece of advice that costs nothing. Heading east out of Nice toward Menton, sit on the right-hand side. The line runs right along the water past Villefranche and the coastal towns, with boats at anchor and small beaches you’d never otherwise know were there. It’s a commuter train doing the work of a scenic railway, and it costs about the same as a bus fare.

Worth knowing before you plan a late trip to Italy: the Nice to Ventimiglia stretch has overnight engineering works from 14 December 2025 to 11 December 2026, with no trains from Sunday to Thursday between 10pm and 6am. Coaches replace them.

What does a train from Nice to Cannes or Monaco cost?

Regional train fares work on distance. These are standard single fares, which is what you’ll pay walking up to a machine without a discount card.

First and last departures are generous at both ends. Nice to Cannes runs from 5:31am to 11:10pm, Nice to Menton from 5:50am to 10:20pm.

The ZOU! Malin card pays for itself in four return trips

The Carte ZOU! Malin costs €20 a year and takes 30% off single tickets on regional trains and buses, including for one person traveling with you. That turns the Cannes fare above into €6.80, Menton into €5.40, Monaco into €4.30 and Antibes into €4.90. Four return trips to Cannes and the card has paid for itself. You can buy it online or at a station counter, and it works across the Sud region as well as toward Occitanie and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

A few other regional fares are worth knowing:

• Regional buses numbered 100 and above run on a flat fare of €2.20 anywhere within a department, regardless of distance. Buy before boarding: there’s a €0.40 surcharge on board.
• 10 journeys on those flat-fare buses costs €15.40.
• Pass Journée gives you unlimited regional trains for one day: €20 within a single department, which for the Alpes-Maritimes means the whole coast from Cannes to Menton plus the inland lines, or €30 across several departments. Add €5 per person traveling with you, up to eight people.
• Pass régional does the same across the entire Région Sud, from Nice over to Marseille and Avignon, for €60 per adult over 3 consecutive days or €100 over 7, with discounts for children and companions.
• Mini-Groupe discounts apply from three people up, starting at €4.60 for three.
• Children under 4 travel free, and 4 to 11 year olds get 50% off single tickets on Express lines.
• Pass ZOU! Études gives anyone in education from 3 to 26 unlimited travel on every ZOU! bus and train for €90 a year, or €45 on a means test.

Bikes and scooters travel free, and so does your luggage.

Lignes d’Azur: the trams and buses around Nice

Inside the Nice metropolitan area, one operator covers trams and buses: Lignes d’Azur. Three tram lines carry most of the city, and one ticket works across both modes.

The 74-minute connection window is the detail to remember. One validation buys you just over an hour of travel across the network, not a single bus.

If you’re here permanently, the number that matters is the formule illimitée (rolling monthly subscription), at €30 a month for adults aged 26 to 64. A standalone monthly is €45. Our cost of living guide breaks down how that fits into a monthly budget.

Everything loads onto a card. La Carte is anonymous and rechargeable, costs €2 refundable, and handles occasional tickets. Ma Carte carries your name and photo, costs €2 non-refundable, and is the only one that takes monthly and annual subscriptions. Lose Ma Carte and a replacement holding your remaining travel costs €15. Lose the anonymous one and your tickets are gone.

One quirk worth planning around: on Android you can buy and reload tickets straight onto your phone, but on iPhone you need a physical Lignes d’Azur card to reload.

Bike share in Nice is now Lime and Pony, not Vélo Bleu

Vélo Bleu, the docked blue-bike scheme Nice ran for years, is gone. Since 20 February 2024 the Métropole has used Lime and Pony instead, with about 2,000 bikes across 12 communes including Nice, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Vence and Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Roughly 90% are electric, capped at 25 km/h.

You’ll find plenty of older pages still quoting Vélo Bleu’s prices, which were far lower. The current services are app-based, free-floating and pay-as-you-go, with preferential rates for Lignes d’Azur subscribers, which is the reason to sort your transport pass first. Pony takes riders from 16, Lime from 18.

Two things to watch. Bikes have to go back in a designated parking zone or you’re charged a penalty. And there are no-go zones where the bike slows itself to a halt, including Cours Saleya and the tram platform on Jean Médecin.

Envibus, Palm Bus, Zest and the Monaco buses

Leave the Nice metropolitan area and you leave Lignes d’Azur. Each agglomeration runs its own network at its own prices, and they vary more than you’d guess.

Envibus is the cheapest network on the coast by a distance: €1 a journey, €8 for ten, €12 a month, €90 for a whole year. Its Pass Navette, covering the town-center shuttles and the A and B bus-tram lines in Antibes, is free.

Palm Bus sells single tickets only on board, from the driver or by tapping a bank card. The two Cannes town-center shuttles, Suquet Forville and City Palm, cost €0.90 for the day.

Zest sells singles on board only, at €2 for an hour. Ten journeys cost €17, a month is €38, a year is €350, and under-26s pay €15 a month. Monthly passes go on sale from the 20th of the previous month.

Palm Bus and the Monaco buses sell subscriptions as well, but they price them by rider profile rather than publishing one headline monthly rate, so check their own fare pages if you’ll be commuting daily.

Monaco runs six daytime lines from 7am to about 9pm, three XPRESS lines on weekdays, and two night lines, N1 and N2, after 9pm. Paying by card or through the Monapass app costs €1.50 instead of the €2 the driver charges. Three districts without regular stops, Plati, Fleurs and Annonciade, are served by ClicBus on demand, which also covers every regular stop at night from 9:20pm to 1:30am, and to 2:30am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Carte Azur or Pass SudAzur: which covers more?

Two passes cover the whole department instead of one town, and between them they solve most of the fragmentation above.

Carte Azur costs €52 a month or €450 a year and is the simpler of the two. It buys unlimited travel across the Alpes-Maritimes on Lignes d’Azur, ZOU! 06, Envibus, Palm Bus, Zest and the Monaco buses, plus regional trains and interurban lines. It does not cover specially priced routes such as the ski shuttles.

Pass SudAzur costs €53 a month or €540 a year for one zone and works differently: the department is cut into seven zones and you buy the ones you need. Zone 4 covers the Nice metropolitan area plus the Paillons valleys. It runs on calendar months rather than rolling ones, sales open on the 20th of the month before, and the annual version can be paid in twelve installments at no extra cost.

For most people commuting across town boundaries, Carte Azur is the one to look at first. It’s a euro cheaper monthly, it covers the entire department rather than selected zones, and it doesn’t tie you to calendar months.

Whichever you pick, claim the reimbursement. Private employers in France are legally required to cover half the cost of a commuting subscription, and public sector employers cover 75%. It applies to these passes, and plenty of new arrivals never ask.

The SudAzur Explore pass, if you’re not here for a full month

Both passes above assume you’re staying. If you’ve just arrived, or you’re here for a few weeks working out whether you want to be, the Pass SudAzur Explore is the one nobody mentions. It covers trains, trams and buses across the whole of the Alpes-Maritimes and Monaco, with no zones to choose:

At €80 for a fortnight it works out cheaper than a €53 monthly if you’re only here two weeks, and far cheaper than buying singles across four different networks. It’s the sensible first purchase for a scouting trip.

Unlike Carte Azur, you don’t have to queue at an agency for it. It’s sold at counters from Cannes to Menton, and from Lignes d’Azur ticket machines at every tram station, which makes it the easiest departmental pass to get hold of on day one. It loads onto an anonymous smart card (a €2 refundable deposit at the machine) or a personal ZOU! card.

Which pass for commuting to Cannes, Monaco or Sophia Antipolis?

A Lignes d’Azur subscription stops at the edge of the Nice metropolitan area. If your job sits outside it, that pass won’t get you to work, and this is where most newcomers get caught.

• Nice to Cannes or Antibes. A Carte Azur at €52 a month covers the train and both local networks at either end. Buying the train separately and adding a local bus pass costs more in almost every case.
• Nice to Sophia Antipolis. The train reaches Antibes, and Envibus takes you up to the technology park from there. Carte Azur covers both halves of that trip, including the Envibus leg.
• Nice to Monaco. Carte Azur covers the train and the Monaco buses at the far end, which matters because Monaco’s station sits some distance from most offices.
• Occasional trips only. The Ticket Azur at €2.50 buys one Lignes d’Azur journey plus one connection onto an interurban line, valid for two and a half hours. It won’t get you Parcazur parking.

If you’re weighing up whether a route works as a daily commute at all, rather than which ticket to buy, the honest answer depends on door-to-door time and traffic more than fares.

Where you actually buy a Carte Azur

This is the part that catches people out, because the two departmental passes are still largely sold face to face.

Carte Azur is sold in person only. In Nice, that means the Espace Mobilités at 33 boulevard Dubouchage, the office at 17 avenue Thiers, or one of the mobile “Infobus” agencies. Elsewhere along the coast there are counters in Antibes (Pôle d’échanges, boulevard Général Vautrin), Valbonne Sophia-Antipolis (the bus station on traverse des Messugues), Cagnes-sur-Mer, Menton (21 avenue de Sospel), Vallauris, Roquefort-les-Pins and Villeneuve-Loubet.

Lignes d’Azur tickets and top-ups are the easy part: ticket machines at tram stops, the app, the online agency, or any reseller. Subscriptions are harder. Only an annual paid in full, or a monthly with no commitment, can be set up outside an agency. The rolling formule illimitée runs on direct debit and means going in person.

Regional train tickets are sold online, through the Allez ZOU! app, at station counters and machines, and now at La Poste branches. The free personal ZOU! card, which you order online, is required to load carnets and subscriptions, and it also opens the bike shelters at regional stations.

The Lignes d’Azur rules that cost you money

Validation, and what a fine costs

French transport runs on validation. Holding a ticket counts for nothing on its own: you have to tap it every time you board, including on connections where you’ve already validated once.

This is the part that trips people up, so it’s worth being clear about. Tapping again on a connection does not charge you a second time. A Solo ticket buys you 74 minutes of travel across the network, and a Multi Voyages card only deducts a journey on that first validation. Every tap inside the 74-minute window is proof that you’re traveling on a valid ticket, not a payment. People skip the second tap because they assume it’ll cost them another fare, and that assumption is what earns the €40.

The penalties on Lignes d’Azur are published and specific:

The €40 line is the one that catches honest people. Validating when you spot the inspectors counts as not validating. So does stepping onto your second bus without tapping again, even though your ticket is still valid for the full 74 minutes.

Parcazur park-and-ride: parking on a bus ticket

Nice runs park-and-ride lots called Parcazur, more than 3,000 spaces including 80 for reduced-mobility drivers. Park, take the tram or bus into town, and the parking comes with the transport ticket.

The rules are exact, and getting them wrong means paying to get your car out:

• To exit, you need a ticket validated the same day on an urban-fare Lignes d’Azur line, covering at least a round trip.
• Your first validation has to happen within 2 hours 30 minutes of entering the lot.
• Your second validation has to be at least one stop before the Parcazur where the car is parked.

A round trip, Multi Voyages and the 1, 2, 7, 14 and 30-day passes all work. There’s also a Parcazur Loisirs ticket at €6 for evenings and weekends, covering parking from 7pm on weekdays and from 2pm on weekends and holidays. The Ticket Azur does not include Parcazur access.

Late nights and strike days on the Côte d’Azur

Getting home after the buses stop

Late-night coverage is better than the Riviera’s reputation suggests, though it’s uneven.

The coastal train runs until 2am on Sunday mornings, which covers a Saturday night out in another town. On weekdays the last trains are earlier, around 10:20pm toward Menton and 11:10pm toward Cannes.

In Monaco, the N1 and N2 night buses take over after 9pm, and ClicBus runs on demand to 1:30am, or 2:30am on Friday and Saturday nights. Elsewhere on the coast, once the buses stop you’re looking at a taxi or a private driver, and the night tariff is significantly higher than the daytime one.

What a French strike actually does to service

Strikes happen, and they’re less catastrophic here than the reputation suggests. French operators are legally required to publish reduced timetables in advance, so a strike day is usually a thinner service rather than no service.

The practical response is to check the operator’s own disruption page the evening before rather than trusting a journey planner, which often shows the normal timetable. Lignes d’Azur, Envibus and SNCF all post notices on their homepages. During rail strikes the coastal train tends to keep a skeleton service running, because it’s the only link along the coast.

The Train des Pignes and the line into Italy

Two railways out of Nice do something different from the commuter run along the coast. Both are worth knowing about as part of the network rather than as excursions.

The Train des Pignes climbs into the mountains

One line on the Riviera isn’t run by SNCF at all. The Chemins de Fer de Provence operate a narrow-gauge railway from Nice up into the Alpine foothills toward Digne-les-Bains, known as the Train des Pignes. The line is a century old and the trains are slow, which is the point of taking it.

The useful detail almost nobody knows: a Lignes d’Azur ticket is valid on the Chemins de Fer de Provence between Nice and Plan du Var / Le Chaudan. That turns the first stretch of a mountain railway into a standard city fare.

Service currently runs by train from Nice as far as Saint-André-les-Alpes, with a coach connection onward to Digne-les-Bains. A separate historic steam train runs on the same line and needs booking ahead.

Crossing to Ventimiglia for the Friday market

Line 4 carries on past Menton and over the Italian border to Ventimiglia, and on Friday mornings half the coast seems to be on it. The Friday market there is large, cheap by Riviera standards, and a genuine local ritual rather than a tourist attraction.

Two practical notes. Ventimiglia is in Italy, so a departmental pass covering the Alpes-Maritimes and Monaco won’t take you the last stretch, and you’ll need a ticket that covers the crossing. And with the overnight works on that section running through 2026, check the evening timetable before you plan a late return.

Riviera trains and buses with reduced mobility

ZOU! states that its regional buses and trains are accessible to passengers with reduced mobility, and asks that you contact customer service ahead of travel to arrange assistance. The Parcazur lots keep 80 reserved spaces.

Fares are heavily reduced. On Lignes d’Azur, unlimited travel is free for civil and workplace disability, blind passengers and war-wounded, with a €15 charge for the card itself, and a companion pass is free on the same terms. Envibus prices its Pass PMR and its companion pass at €5 each. All of these need supporting documents and are set up at an agency rather than online.

Does your phone roam in Monaco?

Monaco is not in the European Union, which used to make this a real trap: a phone would latch onto a Monegasque network as you passed through and bill you international roaming rates, the same way Switzerland catches people.

That changed on 5 March 2024. Under an agreement between the Monaco government, Monaco Telecom and the French operators, customers of Orange, SFR, Bouygues and Free now use the Monegasque network directly, and the major French plans treat Monaco as domestic for calls, texts and data.

The trap moved rather than disappeared. If you’re here on a SIM from another EU country, Germany or the Netherlands or Spain, the EU’s roam-like-at-home rules still don’t extend to Monaco, because Monaco isn’t in the EU. Your German plan can bill Monaco as international. Check the “Europe/étranger” line on your own tariff sheet before you start commuting through, and don’t assume an EU SIM behaves here the way it does in France.

If you’re still choosing a French plan, our cost of living guide covers what the main operators charge.

Where the Riviera network thins out

Coverage on the Côte d’Azur is lopsided, and it’s worth knowing which side of the line your address falls on before you sign a lease.

Everything within reach of the coastal railway and the Nice tram lines is well served, at high frequency, late into the evening. Move away from that spine and the picture changes quickly. The hill villages above the coast, the inland communes and the residential edges of Antibes and Menton are covered by buses that run a handful of times a day and thin out further at weekends. The difference between a ten-minute walk to a station and a twenty-minute walk to a bus stop with six departures is the single biggest transport variable in choosing where to live here.

Our guide to where to live in Nice covers how each neighborhood sits relative to the tram lines, and the cost of living guide puts transport alongside the rest of a monthly budget.

Sources

• Lignes d’Azur, Guide des tarifs, July 2026 edition (PDF)
• ZOU!, Dépliant des tarifs, June 2026 edition (PDF)
• SNCF TER, ZOU! sur la Côte d’Azur
• SNCF TER, SudAzur Explore Pass
• SNCF TER, bons plans and regional passes
• Envibus, gamme tarifaire
• Palm Bus, tickets et titres occasionnels
• Zestbus, tarifs
• Visit Monaco, getting around by bus
• Chemins de Fer de Provence
• Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur, louer un vélo en libre-service
• Gouvernement de Monaco, unified mobile network FAQ