The plane banks over the water and the coast arrives before the city does. A thin ribbon of pale buildings, the hills behind them still holding the last of the morning haze, the sea going from slate to something closer to glass. In May the light on this stretch of the Côte d’Azur has a particular quality, thick and low, and it lands on the wing a few minutes before it lands on Cannes.
Almost everyone comes through Nice. The airport sits at the edge of the bay, and from there Cannes is close, closer than the traffic in May would have you believe. How you cover those last thirty minutes says a good deal about the festival you are about to have.
This is one strand of a larger story. For the whole of it, see Victoria’s Guide to the Cannes Film Festival.
Arriving by air at Nice
Nice Côte d’Azur is the gateway. It is the second busiest airport in France, and in the days around the opening it fills with a specific crowd: the garment bags, the small dogs, the men on phones speaking three languages in one sentence.
Cannes lies roughly thirty minutes west by road, along the A8 and then down toward the coast. Thirty minutes is the honest figure for an ordinary day. During the festival, when the whole Riviera contracts toward this one town, that number swells without warning. A private car will meet you at the terminal if you have arranged it, and it is the simplest way to move door to door with luggage. Just know that the car cannot outrun the congestion. No one can.
If you are still deciding where you will lay your head each night, that choice shapes everything else. My notes on Where to Stay for the Cannes Film Festival may help you narrow it.
The train from Nice
Here is the secret the drivers do not want you to know. The train is faster, and it is almost free.
From Nice-Ville, the SNCF regional service runs the coast to Cannes in about thirty minutes. Trains leave frequently through the day, and a ticket costs only a few euros. The line hugs the shore for much of the way, so the window gives you the whole approach, the marinas at Antibes, the pines, the flat silver reach of the Mediterranean between the stations.
The Cannes station sits a short walk from the Croisette and the Palais des Festivals. You step off, you climb the stairs, and the town is simply there, no car park, no roundabout, no waiting. To reach the airport itself you change at Nice-Ville and take the tram or a shuttle the last stretch, which is worth the small effort in May. On the days when the roads seize, the train glides past all of it, unbothered, on time.
By helicopter
There is a third way, and it takes a few minutes.
Helicopter transfers run from Nice to Cannes almost continuously during the festival, lifting off from the airport and setting down near the water at the Cannes-Mandelieu side in something like seven or eight minutes. You trade a good deal of money for a great deal of time, and for a view of the coast that no other route offers, the corniche unspooling below, the yachts laid out like white commas on the blue.
It is not a necessity. It is a small extravagance that some people here treat as ordinary. If your schedule is stacked with screenings and you cannot afford to lose an afternoon to a stalled motorway, it earns its price. The seats book out in the last week before the opening, so arrange it early.
Driving, and why I would not
You can drive to Cannes. In May, I would counsel against it.
The town was not built for the volume it absorbs during the festival. Streets near the Palais close for the arrivals, the boulevards clot by late afternoon, and the car parks near the centre fill early and charge accordingly. A vehicle that felt like freedom at the airport becomes a burden by the time you reach the Croisette, a thing to be stored, guarded, retrieved, paid for.
If you must have a car for the wider region, for a day in Grasse or a lunch in the hills above Mougins, keep it parked at your hotel and go into the centre another way. Driving into the heart of Cannes during the festival is a decision you will regret somewhere around the second traffic light.
Getting around once you arrive
Cannes is small. This is the thing people forget.
The festival lives along a compact spine, the Palais at one end, the grand hotels strung east along the Boulevard de la Croisette, the old town of Le Suquet rising to the west. You can walk the length of it in twenty minutes, less if you are not stopping to look at the sea, which you will be. Nearly everything you need during the festival sits within that walk.
Wear shoes you can move in. The Croisette is done on foot, in the sun and then in the evening cool, past the palms and the flower beds and the crowd gathered outside the Palais waiting for someone to arrive. A taxi in May is often slower than your own two feet. For what you are walking toward, the screenings and the passes and the rhythm of the days, see How to Attend the Cannes Film Festival.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far is Nice airport from Cannes?
By road it is about thirty minutes in normal traffic, along the A8 and down toward the coast. During the festival the roads are heavier, and that figure can stretch considerably, sometimes well beyond an hour in the late afternoon. The train from Nice-Ville covers the same distance in roughly thirty minutes and does not sit in traffic, which is why I lean on it during the busy weeks.
Is the train from Nice to Cannes worth it?
For most people, yes. The SNCF regional service runs frequently, takes about thirty minutes, and costs only a few euros. The Cannes station is a short walk from the Croisette and the Palais, so you avoid parking entirely. In May, when the roads are at their worst, the train is often the fastest as well as the cheapest way in.
Should I rent a car for the festival?
Only if you plan to explore the wider region, within Cannes a car is a liability during the festival, with congested streets, closures near the Palais, and scarce, costly parking. If you do rent one for day trips into the hills, keep it at your hotel and reach the centre on foot or by train rather than driving into the heart of town.
Can you walk everywhere in Cannes?
Very nearly. The town is compact, and the festival unfolds along a single walkable stretch from the Palais east along the Croisette and up to the old quarter of Le Suquet. Comfortable shoes and twenty minutes will carry you almost anywhere you need to be, and in May walking is usually quicker than waiting for a taxi.
V.
Read also: Victoria’s Guide to the Cannes Film Festival
