Nice Airport into Nice: the tram is probably right
This is the shortest journey we sell, and the one where we most often tell people not to buy it. Tram line 2 runs from both terminals into the city for a few euros and takes about half an hour. For a large share of arrivals that is simply the right answer, and pretending otherwise would cost us more credibility than the fare is worth.
The tram: cheap, frequent, and it goes where you are going
Line 2 serves both terminals and runs along the west of the city to the port, with the city centre in between. It is modern, it is frequent, and the fare is a few euros rather than tens of them.
It is the right choice for a solo traveller or a couple with hand luggage or one case each, arriving during the day, staying anywhere near the line. That is a lot of people, and they should take the tram.
The taxi: fine, and the meter is the variable
Taxis queue outside both terminals. On an empty road they are quick and reasonable. In traffic, or on a Friday evening, the meter keeps running while you sit, and the price you pay is not the price you expected when you got in.
There is no scandal in that — it is what a meter is — but it is the structural difference between a taxi and a transfer, and on a short run it is the main one.
When a private transfer is actually the better answer
Four specific cases, and we would rather name them than imply the answer is always yes.
A late arrival with children. At half past eleven at night with two children, three cases and a stroller, the tram is technically possible and practically miserable. A driver already waiting inside with your name on a sign is worth the difference.
More luggage than hands. Golf bags, ski bags, a cello, a week of villa shopping. There is a point at which public transport stops being transport and starts being an obstacle course.
An address the tram does not serve. Vieux Nice is pedestrian, the hill roads above the city are not walkable with cases, and Cap de Nice is nobody's idea of a tram ride.
A morning departure that must not fail. For a 06:20 flight, a car booked at a fixed price and confirmed the night before removes the one variable you cannot control.
What you are actually buying on a seven-kilometre run
Not speed — the tram is competitive and sometimes faster. What you are buying is that someone is already inside the terminal holding your name, that the number was agreed before you flew, and that a delayed flight does not change either of those things.
On a Tuesday morning with hand luggage, that is not worth much. At midnight in February with a family, it is worth a great deal. Both sentences are true, and an operator who only tells you the second one is selling rather than advising.