Nice Airport to Cannes: train, bus or private transfer?
Cannes is about 27 km west of Nice Airport — half an hour on a good day. For most of the year this is one of the easier transfers on the coast. For about six weeks of it, spread across March, May, June and October, it is one of the hardest. Both facts belong in the same guide.
The train: quick, cheap, and it lands you in the right place
Cannes has a main-line station in the centre of town, a short walk from the Croisette end of things. The coastal train from Nice is frequent and quick, and unlike the Monaco run it puts you somewhere useful.
The catch is the same as everywhere on this coast: getting from the airport to a train involves the tram and a change, with your luggage, and the frequency of the last leg drops away late in the evening.
Choose the train if: you travel light, you are staying near the centre, and you are arriving in the middle of the day.
The bus: good value, poor with luggage
A direct coach runs between the airport and Cannes. It is inexpensive and it is fine. It is also a coach: fixed timetable, a stop rather than an address, and a scrum for the luggage hold when a flight full of people has the same idea.
Choose the bus if: price is deciding it, and you are not carrying much.
The private transfer: thirty-five minutes to the door
Per vehicle rather than per person, met inside arrivals, dropped at the hotel entrance. On a normal week the argument for it is the ordinary one: two or more people, or luggage, or an awkward hour.
On a festival week the argument changes completely, and it is worth being precise about why.
What actually happens during the Festival, MIPIM and Cannes Lions
In those weeks the Croisette is filtered and partly closed, the Palais end is sealed for the red carpet, and every hotel from Théoule to Antibes is full. Cars are scarce because the whole coast is short of them — the Film Festival overlaps the Monaco Grand Prix most years, which is the single worst fortnight of the year to need a vehicle on this coast.
The practical consequences: book weeks rather than days ahead; expect the drop-off to be the nearest open access point rather than the hotel door; and give the operator your hotel name and your accreditation, because both change which route the car can take. Anyone quoting you a normal price for a normal journey in that week has not understood the question.
This is also the week the train earns a second look. It is unaffected by road closures, and the walk from Cannes station is often shorter than the walk from wherever a car is allowed to stop.