The City of Cannes, France had been on my radar as a place to visit. The city has evaded my travel schedule, despite MrsWT73 having visited several times throughout her work travels to and from Marseilles, France. While I’ve never been famous enough to be invited to the Cannes International Film festival, it’s always been of interest. Our day trip to Cannes allowed us the opportunity to get a feel for the city, and whether it was worthwhile for a return visit.

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This post is one chapter on a trip to the South of France and Cinque Terre, Italy. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For information on how this trip was booked, please see our introduction. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Day Trip from Nice to Cannes – France, by Train

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During our time in the Côte d’Azur, MrsWT73 was able to take me on a trip to Cannes. I had never had the opportunity to visit Cannes, which is more famously known as the home to the International Film Festival.

The glitz and glamour of Cannes, France wasn’t strong enough to attract us away from the charm of Nice, France when choosing a place to stay. Ultimately, I was happy to have chosen Nice over Cannes when coming to a place to stay.

Getting to Cannes:

On our third day in Nice, we left our hotel where we were staying at Le Méridien Nice and headed off to the Nice Ville Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF) train station. It was again about a ten minute walk from our hotel inland.

Much like our day visit to Nice,wWe had purchased our Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF) tickets on line through the iPhone SNCF app. It was especially easy to pay through Apple Pay and receive tickets directly into your Apple Wallet. Even with international credit cards, it was much more functional than neighbourhing Italy’s TrenItalia app that had limited support for Canadian credit card payments.

There were trains to and from Cannas train station almost every thirty minutes. We didn’t have any challenges in purchasing a train ticket on the day of travel.

Riding the Train to Cannes:

On arrival to Nice Ville train station, we had a bit of a queue to actually get on to the platform. At around noon, many people were travelling which seemed to cause a bit of confusion with the entry gates which required a bar code in order to gain access to the platforms.

We had booked ourselves onto the faster and more comfortable Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) high speed train service between Nice and Cannes. This was a preferred option to the local train route, which involved many stops.

Train a Grande Vitesse – France
TGV InOui 6176 (Nice Ville – Cannes)
Oct 4, 2023
12:02 PM – 12:29 PM 

Coach 13, Seat 44

It was a short walk towards our assigned car, with plenty of time to get towards the assigned seating space.

We didn’t spring for first class for this short thirty minute route. Instead, we set up in assigned seats in the second class cabin.

The TGV Train offered wifi, along with access to the TGV Portal inOUI to stream some movies, as a form of entertainment.

I ended up just enjoying the sea side views outside of the window. The train line skirted some of the coast line, allowing you to follow some of your progress along the way.

We eventually arrived in to Cannes train station for a brief stop. As a secondary or transitory stop, there wasn’t too many people getting on or off the train in Cannes.

The TGV Train was pretty comfortable and an elegant way to travel between two cities. As one of the great high speed trains in the world, it’s always worth a ride.

Exploring Cannes:

After getting off the train at Cannes train station, we set off towards the town. The Cannes train station is located a short walk from the sea shore. We set off on a short walk through about four blocks of Cannes city centre which was littered with urban cafés and other commercial stores.

In less than ten minutes, we were at the Cannes waterfront. It was nice to have finally seen the Cannes waterfront, after hearing all of the stories over the years.

The beach itself was well maintained and raked clean. While the beach itself was much sandier than it’s Nice counterpart, the ocean didn’t have a spectacular island view that you might find at some other more tropical locations.

Walking the Cannes Waterfront Promenade:

In order to orientate ourselves, we took a walk down the Cannes waterfront promenade. The walkway is anchored by several major hotels such as the JW Marriott Cannes and the Hotel Martinez Cannes by Hyatt.

The price point of these hotels is quite a bit steeper than in neighbouring Nice or nearby Antibes and I am not completely convinced the area has a much better personality than Nice. Perhaps it does for the exclusivity and smaller format city. However, I preferred the atmosphere of Nice much better.

The waterfront featured a number of beach cafés that were eager to sell expensive lounge chairs and offer over priced cocktail drinks. While we didn’t settle into a restaurant, we meandered through the promenade.

While the views were great, as I mentioned earlier, the waterfront views were nice but not super aspirational. Staring at endless sea is great in the Maldives, but it wasn’t super exciting in France.

We ended up navigating to the beach and dropping down to spend the day on the water. We joined many other beach goers who were out enjoying the day.

After a dip in the ocean, we wandered back through town towards the train station.

Cannes appeared to have a lot of interesting dining options. With home to several restaurants with Michelin stars, the city seemed to have a lot of establishments that were well worth exploring.

The city of Cannes was an interesting visit for the day. While it was a nicer, more smaller format city to visit (as compared to Nice) the charm of Cannes didn’t really win me over. As a result, I was happy to have visited for the day, instead of basing myself there for the week.

We returned to our hotel at Le Méridien Nice before heading off to our next adventure.

My Thoughts on Visiting Cannes, France:

The city of Cannes, France represented my first visit to the exotic city most known for the film festival. We took the convenient SNCF train from Nice, which marked the easiest way to get to town.

While I enjoyed the walk along the promenade, and a dip in the ocean, the town was pretty uneventful and quiet. The main advantage was the smaller format, allowing for a quieter experience than you might find elsewhere.

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If you’ve visited the city of Cannes, do your prefer it over neighbouring Nice?

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