Eze or St Paul de vence ?

[Hlitner]

Glad to see this thread resurrected since we have unfinished business here. But first, I do have some suggestions for Larry. Given your 7 hour limitation I can offer two places that you should research (many posts on this board). Think about Nice and Eze. Both of these places are within range for your time (you might be able to do both) and totally different places. Nice is a large city with a very nice old town area that is full of cafes and restaurants with excellent food. Nice also has wide avenues, the Promanade along the sea, and even a decent museum. This all contrasts with the village of Eze which is a small walled village on a hilltop overlooking the sea. Eze has quite a few arty shops and a few decent cafes and restaurants (at least one of which is world class with world class prices). It would be possible to go from ship to Nice (via the #100 bus or train) and later take the bus (#82 or #112) to Eze. From Eze you can later take the 112 back to Monte Carlo...keeping in mind that the #112 has a limited schedule. Given this latter situation you might have to splurge and take a taxi from Eze back to Monte Carlo (probably about 35 Euros) unless your ship is in port until about 6pm. In that case you could take the 4:30 #112 bus to Monte Carlo.

 

Hank

[sheffer]

Dear Hlitner, Where did you see a 4:30 PM return from Eze to Monte Carlo? I have 3:30 PM for the #112 bus return from Ligne.

[Hlitner]

Dear Hlitner, Where did you see a 4:30 PM return from Eze to Monte Carlo? I have 3:30 PM for the #112 bus return from Ligne.

 

I just went a re-checked the Ligne timetable for the 112 from Eze Village to Monte Carlo and it shows buses at 2:35, 4:30, and 6:35pm. You can check it out at:

http://www.lignedazur.com/horaires_ligne/?rub_code=6&lign_id=1093

 

Hank

[LarryF]

Glad to see this thread resurrected since we have unfinished business here. But first, I do have some suggestions for Larry. Given your 7 hour limitation I can offer two places that you should research (many posts on this board). Think about Nice and Eze. Both of these places are within range for your time (you might be able to do both) and totally different places. Nice is a large city with a very nice old town area that is full of cafes and restaurants with excellent food. Nice also has wide avenues, the Promanade along the sea, and even a decent museum. This all contrasts with the village of Eze which is a small walled village on a hilltop overlooking the sea. Eze has quite a few arty shops and a few decent cafes and restaurants (at least one of which is world class with world class prices). It would be possible to go from ship to Nice (via the #100 bus or train) and later take the bus (#82 or #112) to Eze. From Eze you can later take the 112 back to Monte Carlo...keeping in mind that the #112 has a limited schedule. Given this latter situation you might have to splurge and take a taxi from Eze back to Monte Carlo (probably about 35 Euros) unless your ship is in port until about 6pm. In that case you could take the 4:30 #112 bus to Monte Carlo.

 

Hank

 

Thanks so much for the information Frank. We arrive in Monte Carlo at 11am and depart at 7pm. We have to tender into the port and we'll need to be back on the ship by 6:30pm. If we just wanted to go to EZE, which bus would we catch from Monte Carlo and what are the scheduled times?

 

Thanks,

 

Larry

[Hlitner]

Geez Larry, I am starting to feel like the bus dispatcher...but the truth is that we personally do not often use buses since we prefer to rent cars But perhaps you need to think in terms of when to head back to the port and work backwards. If you go to Eze in the afternoon you would be fine in taking the #112 Bus that departs from Eze Village at 4:30. This bus will get you into Monte Carlo by 5pm and than you still have 1 1/2 hours to stroll through Monte Carlo and get to the tender pier (or dock if you ship gets to dock). If you only want to spend your day at Eze (we would get bored in Eze after 1 1/2 hours) there #112) leaving from Monte Carlo at about 11:25 and 1:20. If you tender you would probably catch teh 1:20, get to Eze by about 1:45 and than you can that 4:30 return bus. Your emergency back-up plan (you should always be thinking this way) in case the return bus didn't show-up (very unlikely) would be to take a taxi from Eze back to Monte Carlo (probably about 40 Euros). This plan would give you more then 2 1/2 hours in Eze which does leave enough time to grab lunch or a snack at one of the cafes.

 

When you get ashore at Monte Carlo you should ask the tourist office folks for directions on where to catch that 1:20 bus (be prepared to walk through part of town).

 

Hank

[vlf]

We would like to rent a car in Monte Carlo (will be there on May 24-25) to drive to St. Paul de Vence. I see here that Hank recommends that option. Did a quick search on internet and found prices in the couple hundreds dollars range (some into $500 for a mid-size automatic). Am I looking in the wrong places?

Hank, could you please suggest something? (I know that you are NOT a bus dispatcher :), but what about car hire?)

[Hlitner]

We would like to rent a car in Monte Carlo (will be there on May 24-25) to drive to St. Paul de Vence. I see here that Hank recommends that option. Did a quick search on internet and found prices in the couple hundreds dollars range (some into $500 for a mid-size automatic). Am I looking in the wrong places?

Hank, could you please suggest something? (I know that you are NOT a bus dispatcher :), but what about car hire?)

 

Welcome to the world of rental cars in Europe. I just went to the regular Hertz site and put in your dates (one day rental) and a small car is about $120. Hertz does show a Peugeot automatic for $177 for May 24. Finding a valid discount code should reduce this rate by at least 10%. This is without using any discount codes, which are usually available from various places such as airline frequent flyer clubs. So, why are you getting $500. Well, the key to renting in Europe is rent a small car and always rent a manual transmission. Automatics add a lot of money in many places and are not even available in some places (particularly in Italy). If you insist on renting mid or large size cars with auto transmissions you will pay the big bucks. To put things in perspective last year we did a 18 day rental from Hertz for a total cost of $630 which included zero deductable insurance.

 

Hank

[Hlitner]

Since I was thinking about rental cars there is another way to rent cars, which is to do it through a major consolidator or discounter. When renting for 3 or more days we always recommend either Autoeurope.com or Kemwel.com (sister companies) who have an office in Maine and generally arrange cars through Hertz or Europcar for big savings. But they do not handle a single day rental such as for port days. But, there is a Greek-based consolidator at Economycarrentals.com that also uses mostly majors such Europcar. One nice thing about economy car rentals (they can do bookings all over the world) is that their discounted price also includes zero deductable insurance.

 

Hank