The railroad buff in me just has to feature an historic train station for my 2000th review. Gare de Nice-Ville is the main train station in Nice. This spring, we arrived here from Paris and later departed from here for Florence. The historic Beaux-Arts exterior has been well maintained, and a pleasure to behold. Trains arrive and depart from the glass-domed train shed behind the station. Platforms are accessible by stairs and lifts. Be prepared to stand on a platform waiting for a train. Ticketing kiosks are located near the station entrances, and the queues are long in the morning. If you need to buy a ticket, allow 20-30 minutes -- kiosk instructions could be clearer. There's also a small but nice concession for take-away coffee and food. Taxis and ride shares stop out from of the station. read more

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Quality/Quantity - A major train station in Nice. Unlike the station in Cannes, France, there are plenty of employees to help. Especially since the self service kiosks are only in French... There is an English/UK button to click, but that only translates minimum information on the kiosk. Ambiance - It is a major public train station, so come early if you are not experienced. Crazy busy as expected. Pay to use toilets. Service - Overall good. The best service was our train station, Inoui in Marseille. Price - 20-25 Euros depending on where you are going. Owner Comment - Thanks for having affordable and smooth transportation in Nice. With this station, we made day trips to Cannes, Monaco and now Eze. read more

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Love the stations in France. This one is cool looking, very busy, cafes and restaurants right outside. Oh BUT it will cost $1.00 to use the toilet ( they take credit cards) read more

Gare de Nice-Ville - Cute. Clean. Cafes. Restaurants AND $1.00 to use the toilet - Train Stations Near Me - Nice, 06

Came here twice for our January vacation: once coming in from Paris - Gare de Lyon and once leaving for Italy. It has a beautiful facade in the front, and the walkways from/to the train are relatively wide, letting a large group of people go in/out with their luggage. There didn't seem to be much inside, so you have to nearby restaurants for a bite to eat. For our outbound trip, we needed to catch a SNCF train to the nearest Italian town (Ventimiglia). We used our ticket to scan through the gate into the departure area, but was not used after that. The train runs every 30 minutes in the morning, and we caught the 7:50 train. The track doesn't get assigned until 30 minutes or so. There were no elevators with easy access, so needed to carry our bags using stairs. Track E ended up being our stop. The train came on time. It was a beautiful ride through the coast (so choose a seat to the right to see the sights). We arrived at Ventimiglia by 8:40, stopping at the following stations (Nice Riquier, Ville Franche Sur Mer, Beaulieu Sur Mer, Eze, Cap D'Ali, Monaco, Roquebrune Cap-Martin, Carnoles, Menton, Menton Garavan). It was open seating, and there were plenty of choices. There is no overhead racks for luggage, so had to store the luggage in the baggage racks in each car. read more

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Normally this train station would be a 3 easily, based on overall aesthetic, convenience of location and accessibility to surrounding retail and dining amenities (convenience stores, restaurants/bakeries, groceries), but like some other reviews have mentioned, the customer service is beyond horrible and very unfriendly to non-French speakers. I arrived 30 min prior for a 8:50am departure and being prepared, had purchased my ticket the night before on the SNCF app and with QR code on my phone. 10 minutes prior to departure I scan said QR code at one of the turnstile gates and it won't scan. There are 4-5 station workers standing around directing customers and I get their attention, showing them my phone and try scanning a couple more times. The attendant points over to the right and says something in French about going to the machines on the side. When I look confused I politely ask another attendant who basically says something similar and when I ask them if they could help me another attendant basically yells at me in French to go to the machines, very irritated and without further explanation. I back away and go over to the ticket machines. I see a white machine with the word échange and figure it means exchange so I try this first. Wow. Incredibly frustrating. A) it has a touch screen but you need to double tap on options (as if you're using a mouse), this took me a couple minutes of angry tapping to understand. B) all initial instructions are in French, you have to choose a the language selection written in French to get to the English wording, super backward and unfriendly for non-French, non-European language speakers. C) in order to exchange a ticket you need to log into you SNCF account, and enter your personal email and SNCF password on screen, visible to all around you. D) after doing this THREE times, on TWO different machines, they both said the exchanged tickets could not be printed on the machine. E) BUT on the same machines if I wanted to buy a new ticket it was not a problem to print a ticket. WTH. Meanwhile in between my trying I had walked around trying to find a ticket office (none) or help desk (not open/manned, which was the case multiple days when I arrived to the station). I had gone back to another attendant who told me he couldn't help me and pointed me to the yellow helpline telephone to the right of turnstiles. I saw another few people trying to use this and basically overheard the speaker reply by an automated help line, again in French. Not surprisingly as all of this is happening I notice about a dozen other confused parties of non-French origin similarly confounded by how to proceed. We ask each other but no one knows what to do. By this point I've totally missed my train by 10 minutes and in my desperation not to miss the next one, i go back to one of the white machines and buy a new ticket. The next couple days I end up using the blue machines bc the double tapping just felt idiotic to me on a touch screen. Those are NOT touch screens and are slightly easier to figure out. Press the green button to start and confirm options, and then use the circular dial (around the green button) to select options. So yea....don't bother buying tickets online and get there early to buy your tickets at the machines. Other than that the departure/arrival screens are straightforward and the platforms are clearly marked. read more

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This is a pretty nice train station overall. The building is pretty on the outside. It's clean inside. The layout makes sense. It has a good newsstand/convenience store, and a couple of decent places to eat. It also has vending machines that are good for a snack or soft drink trackside. The lines get a kind of long at the ticket machines near the main entrance. It's worth checking down the hall (especially on the right side) for machines that have less of a line. And, the mix of tourists and such with varying degrees of experience/competence with transit can delay getting through the turnstiles... It doesn't hold things up that much, but it's a good idea to allow a few minutes cushion for delays getting to the tracks rather than planning on running in at the very last minute. Again, a pretty nice train station overall. read more

The building is nice but not very user friendly. First of all there are far too few ticket machines. Heaven forbid there be multiple groups of tourists all trying to use them. Allow tons of time to buy your ticket. You could be waiting a while. The signage is also terrible. It's too hard to sort out the direction/destinations of the train. That info should *consistently* be right at the bottom and top of the stairs for each platform. And don't get me started on the constant strike. ... Or people smoking on platforms where it's not allowed. read more

Worst customer service, chaotic, and not user-friendly for non-French speaking people. The information desk gave differing information on how to get to our train platform and how to redeem our ticket. We didn't know why our train ticket was a small stub while others had a boarding pass-length paper. Also, our stub didn't say where the platform was or when our next train to Monte Carlo was going to be. One info agent said that we can exchange the stub for a long boarding pass by inserting it into a machine. There was no such machine. Another person said to press a button at a machine and a guy will open the entrance gate for me. That was semi-correct. After pressing the button on the stand, we have to show our ticket to the small camera attached to the stand, which someone remotely verifies to open the gate. It would be great if there was a translated sign next to the machine that tells that. As for why we had a ticket stub instead of a boarding pass, what they failed to explain was that our ticket was for an "anytime" (all-day) while the long boarding pass ticket is for a specific time. We bought our ticket from the blue machines inside the station and they didn't differentiate the tickets. The timed tickets are from the white machines. Again, no translations to differentiate this. There's also no one on the train platform available to help guide you to the right place. We had to ask another train passenger for help. The language barrier is extreme and it's near impossible to understand without knowing some French. Give yourselves at least 30 mins to find your way to your train if you don't know French. read more

on return trip back to Villefranche-sur-Mer, one of the track that we suppose to be on was not listed anywhere. no signs anywhere. I believe it was track D. it has direction to track D and suddenly disappears. we and bunch of us who ended up on wrong track finally figured out by going back out to the common area. Like most big train stations in France, signage is lacking. *need to update billet machines. they are so cumbersome and hard to comprehend, even in Enflish page read more

I wonder if I said that this was quite a nice station whether people would hit me? They probably will, with a dad joke like that. Actually, I probably shouldn't really be writing a review on this railway station since it was pretty much off the train and out the door, even if just to get to my hotel so that we still had some light to walk around the town. Still, it was pretty easy to get around, even if getting around simply involved heading straight out the door. read more

Great train station located in the heart of Nice. While the line to buy tickets looks long, know that it moves along very quickly and that everyone that I encountered endured my bad French but most also spoke English. They also are very good at making sure you validate your ticket before heading out to the tracks and getting you, as a tourist ,to the right track and train. As an aside- the architecture is also lovely. Like any other public place- the pick pockets are out and about so watch your wallet as you wait in line. A super functional and easy way to get where you are going. And the trains are clean and spacious! read more

This station is a lot smaller than the Marseille station and there are not as many food options but it is still maintained regularly. The streets in and around the station are washed daily. Trains arrive fairly promptly having departed from and arrived to this station from Marseille and Montpellier. It's the only station in Nice to travel around the country and other major cities in Western Europe. One big thing they need is seating inside the terminal. Smaller cities like Montpellier had a much bigger terminal with a ton of places to sit. read more

Gare de Nice-Ville - Station1 - Train Stations Near Me - Nice, 06

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Gare de Nice Ville is the main train station for Nice. It is currently under renovation. There are many restaurants nearby and on-site restaurants, convenience stores, & snack machines but I could not find the waiting area. I was instructed by Gare de Nice Ville staff to arrive about 1/2 hour before scheduled departure but the train did not board until about 10 minutes before scheduled departure so dozens of people were just standing around. Hopefully the renovated train station will have a waiting area with some seats. read more

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I had a TGV to Paris. The station seems easy to navigate, but I had to stand in line for twenty minutes even though I had prebooked my ticket. They need to print out your pass. The station is not well marked and it is hard to find your car or voiture. Just get there early and pray there are no problems, strikes, incidents, or train robbers. The TGV is clean and quiet, although this time it rocked a little. Don't be fooled when you think you are going in the wrong direction. The best thing about the train is the fact that you can walk around the cars and go to the dining bar car. read more

The main station for downtown Nice, located about five or so blocks from the beach, eight or so blocks from old town, and has several restaurants located around it. Many of the attractions you might want to see will be a short walk. We found the station to be fairly busy and heavily used. It is not a large station so be ready for some congestion during high travel hours. We found the ticket counters very helpful and the train ticket machines only took credit cards with the micro-chip in it so we used the counter. If you plan to go to the airport, there is a bus which departs from this location every 30 minutes or so beginning at 8:00 in the morning and it takes 15 minutes to get there. Cost is 6 Euro! read more

What a horrible train station, considering it is the busiest in the French Riviera! There are about 5 or 6 ticket machines outside and the instructions are terrible. On a week day, there were loooong lines and each person took nothing less than 10 min to figure things out and buy the tickets. We waited for almost 40 min to buy the tickets. There are a few ticket machines (in a different color) nearby but absolutely no instructions on what those are for. The pain doesn't end after buying tickets. There's more. Next thing is to figure out the platform. The screen is practically dead with no instructions whatsoever. Nobody is there to help. The passengers were frantically asking other fellow passengers for help and they had no clue either. If you are carrying huge bags with you, good luck dragging them along from one platform to another, because there's no elevator or escalator. The trains are crowded and they aren't very clean either. Though the train journey itself to a waterfront town is shorter than a bus journey, considering the time waiting in line to buy a ticket, running around the station trying to find the right platform and waiting for the train forever, it might be just easier to take the bus. read more

Took the train here from Villefranche. Train was incredibly crowded. I was pinned against the door. As we began to arrive at this station, a young child squeezed in between me and the door. Later, someone who might have been the kid's mother squeezed in between me and the door. When I got off the train at this station, the kid and the mother didn't, which made me wonder why they had to squeeze in between me and the door. I then realized that my fanny pack was unzipped. Nothing was missing, but I sure thought it was closed when I got on the train. Moral: if anyone in Europe is doing anything for no discernable reason and ends up bumping up against you, it's probably a set up for a pickpocket which appears to be a sport in France and Italy. We then went to the nearby tourist information desk to figure out how to get around Nice and they were no help to the English speaking dummy like me. We ended up going to the Burger King across the street to buy a drink and get some Euro coins for the tram. read more

Worst customer service ever. Long ass lines and rude people. 10/10 don't recommend. They couldn't even help us so it was a waist of time all together read more

I have never experienced ruder service in my life, and the person in the information booth should never have been placed in a public facing service position. The dialogue was more or less the following: Me: Good day! Do you speak English? Her: BONJOUR! Me (thinking that was a bit loud): Would you ... Her: BONJOUR!! Me: ... Ehh... Me (thinking the reply was negative and trying my best to speak something resembling French): c'est possible de chercher .. Her (cutting me off again): BONJOUR!! Me (finally getting it!): Bonjour, madame! (Now, I hoped, I could finally try to ask her something). Unfortunately she kept on being arrogant and quite unwilling to help us with our inquiry on whether we could buy tickets on the train or if we had to do it at the station. She also had no interest in giving us tips on where to go to swim. We had no choice but leaving without any information at all, wasting ten minutes waiting in line to get shouted at. The next tourists in line seemed even more frightened than us, at least. And I heard her shouting at them as well while I went in the other direction ... This experience was very new to us, having traveled in various countries on four continents, without any similar experience. If there had just been a language barrier, that would have been OK, and we could probably worked something out using my extremely poor French and some sign language. But she did understand (some) English, and was simply refusing to serve unless we followed her rules of dialogue, which obviously included that all tourists needed to start a conversation with "Bonjour". For someone being payed to serve the customers - national or international - this behavior is simply unacceptable! She might have had a bad day, but that does not mean she is entitled to yell at the customers when they are not native to the culture. Shortly after we left another non-French customer was given the same treatment. That her colleague did not react at all was just as bad. I think this shows the need for some cultural guidelines or training to be given to the service staff. The world is not French. But a smile and helpful service is always welcome in all cultures. Public rail in France already has a lousy reputation when it comes to service (google "bad service sncf") and this just further strengthens the impression of a sector where job security is so good that you can do your worst and still keep your job. read more

Chaotic and in serious need of it's pending renovation. Trains are almost always late. The facility is old, which i dont mind, but is dirty as well. There are pick pockets and bums lingering not only outside, but also inside the facility. Why? Because the security personnel just looks the other way and appears to be miserable at his job. Additionally, no escalators leading to platforms B C nor D?? Are you kidding me? Try lugging 2 large pieces of luggage up and down the stairs to get to your platform. I expect facilities like this in Bushwick Brooklyn, not Nice France. read more

Chaotic and undergoing renovation. I remember that my experience a decade ago was also marred by hassle and chaos. The ticket machines have no English options. This wasn't too bad for me, as I can get around with basic French, but I saw several visitors struggling to make purchases only to fail in their selections and have to start over again. As a result, the lines for the ticket machines were irritatingly long. The lines for in-person purchase were also very long. Get here with some extra time if you don't already have your tickets! The cruelty of what I've outlined above is that, as another reviewer has pointed out, no one is checking the tickets. I've noticed that this is the case for many train stations in Southern France and Italy. Gare de Nice Ville, you make being honest a real chore! read more

Had to take a train back to Paris and was one of the most stressful situations in my life! No information available for those with limited french, very poor detail on tickets complimented by the even poorer signage of the station, spent over one hour in the station frantically looking for the correct platform nearly missing my train back to Paris... and even when on the train took 30 minutes to confirm I was on the right train! No support for non nationals what so ever, not even an information desk you'd find in even the poorest regions of the world! Tried asking staff if they could help and aside from the eye rolls and smug attitude provided no assistance what so ever! It took the kindness of a Norwegian woman who spoke little English to notice my stressed appearance to offer services help. Unless you speak French or enjoy stressful experiences I'd recommend trying alternative transport, the stress is medically damaging read more

I was in Nice for a few days and used the station a bit. It was pretty easy to navigate and to ask for help in English. The trains were usually packed because it is surrounded by Cannes and Monaco, but the great thing is if you have a Eur Rail pass or local, you do not need a ticket, they did not even check me! The ticketers kept saying since it is local, you do not need a ticket, but they will print out train times for you so you can plan your day(s) ahead. Very helpful and loved this station! read more

It is a beautiful building, the way the French built them in the past. I would say first that, if you are in a wheelchair or have troubles with stairs, you're in for a ride as most access to the tracks are without elevators or escalators, and if they do have them, they're out of order. The station itself is confusing as most French train station, and if it makes you feel better, even the French are confused. Asking for help can be either a great success or a major failure depending who you ask. The people working behind the counters all speak English and are very helpful, but when it comes to the people operating the trains, they make no efforts. When you buy your ticket, make sure you understand the difference with the TGV, which is the hyper speed train, and the TER that goes very slow. The TGV only goes very fast if you take it on a cross country trip, so don't start bitching about the fact that it wasn't that fast... The station is located near the center of town, but can be a hike for certain areas of the city, so you can easily transfer a few blocks away to the tramway that serves the rest of town, including locations very close to the beach. In terms of hotels and restaurants, I would avoid the area as it is super expensive for a very boring quality. Lastly, be aware of pickpockets in Nice, they are very efficient. read more

The Station itself is actually fine and the trains from our experience were on time, however the staff in the customer service area are absolutely terrible! We had the misfortune of being dealt with by the most obnoxious, ignorant, rude person (as to call him a man is an insult to real men) you may ever have the displeasure to meet. We had purchased our tickets to travel from Nice Ville to Antibes, on our return journey we were advised by a member of staff which platform to catch the train from, we checked the information screen which stated the next train would be stopping at Nice so we boarded, only to find by the ticket man on board that it was the express train and that our tickets were not valid, so we had to pay again (another 30 euros). The ticket man said not to worry and that we could claim the money back for the tickets we hadn't actually used upon our return to Gare de Nice Ville (yeah right!!!). On explaining our situation in the customer service area, we were met by the most unhelpful, couldn't care less, arrogant manager you could come across. Rude doesn't come close. Needless to say it was "not possible" to obtain a refund, no explanation given and we left with a feeling of not to bother with the station anymore and find an alternative method of transport therefore putting our customer elsewhere!! If you travel by train try and avoid having to deal with the customer service department, the service is disgraceful. read more