Nice to Monaco, five ways compared honestly

Nice and Monaco are so close that the right way to travel between them depends far more on where you start than on how long it takes. From central Nice, the train wins hands down. From the airport with a suitcase, everything changes. Here are the five ways of doing it, with what each one costs and the one I’d pick in each case.

The train from Nice to Monaco, my default

It’s the regional service on the Grasse to Ventimiglia line, and according to Visit Monaco it takes 23 minutes, with about 60 trains a day between the two. Coastal traffic, which is the real enemy in summer, doesn’t touch it, and it delivers you into the middle of the Principality. That’s why it’s my first choice whenever I’m leaving from central Nice. The same line comes in from further west, and the full run is in Cannes to Monaco.

A full-price single costs €6.10, according to TER’s page for the route, which already includes the June 2026 increase. If you’ll be making several trips along the Riviera, a ZOU! Malin card at €20 a year brings that down to €4.30, and the discount covers one person travelling with you too. Five or more of you can buy a mini-group ticket at €3.10 each, almost half price for a family. TER quotes 65 return journeys a day, with the first train at 05:50 and the last at 22:20, and an average of 20 minutes.

One detail almost nobody thinks about is where your phone is when you arrive. The journey ends inside Monaco, and Monaco isn’t in the EU’s roaming zone. For a UK phone, Europe already runs on whatever your network decided after Brexit, and some tariffs that include France leave Monaco out. I’d check before boarding whether to buy an add-on, use an eSIM or switch data off, and I explain how in phone and roaming in Monaco.

An underground station with four doors

Monaco-Monte-Carlo station is underground, in La Condamine at Place Sainte-Dévote. It’s open from 05:00 to 02:00, with taxis and a car park, but the ticket desks only open on weekdays, so I’d buy the return in the app. The Monaco government says around 100 trains a day pass through, counting regional services, TGVs to Paris and long-distance trains such as the Riviera Express. Intercity trains from Ventimiglia also stop here after 26 minutes, handy if you want to carry on into Italy, as I explain in San Remo to Monaco by train.

What’s worth checking before you get off is the exit. Visit Monaco lists four, Monte-Carlo, Parvis Sainte-Dévote towards the harbour, La Condamine, and Fontvieille with the Rock, and three of them have lifts. Which street each one opens onto is in Monaco train station and its exits. The right door saves you a climb that you’ll appreciate in August, and the rest of the lifts are in getting around Monaco.

The bus from Nice to Monaco, the slow option I like

The old line 100 is now ZOU! line 600, linking Nice, Monaco and Menton. It leaves from Square Normandie Niemen and stops at Villefranche-sur-Mer, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Èze-sur-Mer and Cap-d’Ail. Inside the Principality it has six stops, from Place d’Armes to Saint-Roman. On weekdays it runs every 15 minutes towards Monaco, and every 20 at weekends.

A single costs €2.20, plus €0.40 per person if you pay on board. You can buy it in the app, on the ZOU! website, at their offices or by tapping a bank card on the validator. Under-4s travel free. The timetable doesn’t give a fixed journey time, but its own times show one, from 45 minutes on an early Saturday to nearly an hour on a weekday afternoon between Square Normandie Niemen and Place des Moulins, with Place d’Armes coming earlier. If you’re not in a hurry, it’s the way to watch the coast go by and hop off halfway. Those villages are in day trips from Monaco.

At night there’s the 601, successor to the Noctambus, leaving Nice at 21:30, 22:45, 00:45, 02:00 and 03:10 and stopping in Monaco at the Sporting Bay Hôtel.

Nice airport to Monaco is a different sum

If you land in Nice and head straight to Monaco, don’t go via the city centre. The 80 express bus leaves from both terminals and puts you down at Place d’Armes in under an hour, for €21.40 bought in the app, online or by card at the validator, or €21.80 paid to the driver. The train works too, crossing from Terminal 1 to Nice Saint-Augustin station by tram or a 7-minute footbridge. And the Monacair and BLADE scheduled helicopter makes the hop in about 7 minutes from €195 a seat, with the luggage small print covered in the helicopter from Nice to Monaco. Arriving from the UK or from further afield is in how to get to Monaco.

Taxi from Nice to Monaco, and the car

Monaco’s taxis charge fixed fares set by ministerial order, and the government raised them on 17 September 2026. The airport by motorway is now €110 per car, the same as the western side of Nice, while the eastern side stays at €100, with tolls and luggage included, and every taxi must display the table and a QR code. In the other direction, from the airport you’ll get a French taxi, at a flat €95 to the Principality according to Visit Monaco. For four people with bags that seems reasonable to me; for a couple, it’s money thrown away.

Driving your own car is, for me, the worst option on this stretch. You add coastal traffic on the way and a car park at the end, free for the first hour and then charged by the quarter hour up to a cap of €24 a day. If you do drive, Salines car park at the entrance to the Principality is the cheapest, and its ticket includes 10 bus journeys. More in where to park in Monaco, with rentals covered in car hire in Monaco.

My pick, one line per situation

From central Nice, the train. From the airport with a suitcase, the 80. With time and a taste for the coast, the 600. Four people with bags in a hurry, a taxi. And if the trip is special and the budget stretches, the helicopter from the airport and nowhere else. The British government records thefts on trains and at the airport, so whichever you choose I’d wear the backpack on my front and keep valuables on me.