When traveling on a cruise, you are usually left with only a day to visit a port of call. When we traveled on Royal Caribbean’s Mediterranean cruise, one of our first ports of call was Cannes, France. We did not want to book a shore excursion, so we decided to make our own plans for the day. If you have only one day to visit Cannes and the surrounding areas, here is the way to do it! With only 1 day to see and do everything, we spent the entire day venturing around Cannes, Monte Carlo, and Nice. You can’t see everything, but you can definitely see a lot of the highlights in a short period of time.
If you are visiting by cruise ship, you will get off the ship and follow the walking path around the harbor and all of the boats. The walk is about 15 minutes to the train station (Called the Gare Train station). The walk is pretty enjoyable unless you come in the middle of July like we did (Get ready to sweat..) Follow the harbor around to the right. Once you pass the Festival Hall, the train station is about 5 blocks up the street. The trains usually run every 20 minutes when they are on time. You can easily find someone who speaks English if you don’t speak French and they can help you purchase a round trip ticket to Monte Carlo and back. The ride is about 1 hour and along the beautiful views of the Mediterranean, so sit on the right side of the train when heading towards Monte Carlo.
When you get to Monte Carlo, it is really easy to walk around. You will have to walk up the hills (with beautiful views) to get to the Monte Carlo casino. The dress code inside the casino does say to be dressed nicely, but I did see all types of outfits when we were there. Luckily the casino has air conditioning and Wifi, so if you are visiting in the summer like I did, it was a nice little break from the heat. We missed the changing of the guards at the popular church, but if you plan your timing right, you can make sure to see this as well. You really only need an hour here to see the major sites, and then you can get back on the train to head back to Cannes.
Before getting back to Cannes, make a stop in Nice! It is an easy (kind of long- about 20 minutes) walk down to the waterfront for a glass of wine or lunch. We ate at a fun spot right on the water and would highly recommend it at the Blue Beach Restaurant. We had lunch and enjoyed a bottle of rose on such a hot summer day. The food was good and definitely tasted fresh. While we were beachfront, there are plenty of other restaurants on the main streets with cafes, etc.
From there, our day had to come to an end since we only had 1 day to enjoy in Cannes. We decided to take a cab back to the Nice train station since it was an uphill walk and seriously so HOT. From there, we took the train (they run regularly) back to Cannes to get back to our ship within our boarding window. But not without picking up a macaron first!
Remember, cruise ships are VERY strict on sailing times from ports of call, so make sure to plan enough time to return to the ship!
Love and Travel Dust,
Molly
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