No — not to stay in Old Antibes, and for most of a week you are better without one. The old town is three hundred metres from end to end and its lanes are pedestrian: a car parked outside the ramparts is a walk you take twice a day for no reason. The railway station is a twelve-minute walk from our doors, and the coastal line does the rest: Cannes in about fifteen minutes, Nice in about twenty, several trains an hour all day.
Arriving without one
Nice airport is twenty-one kilometres up the coast. The express bus 82 reaches Antibes in about forty minutes with no change; the tram from the terminals connects to a regional train at Nice Saint-Augustin, which comes to about the same door to door. From Paris the TGV runs straight into Antibes station, and the last twelve minutes are on foot — no transfer anywhere in the journey.
The detail of every route, including the nonstop flights from New York, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Montréal, is on Getting to Old Antibes.
Getting to Old Antibes
What the coastal line reaches
From Antibes station, most of the Riviera is one train away, and the line runs several times an hour.
The one that takes an extra step
All of those are direct. Èze village is the exception: the train stops at Èze-sur-Mer, and a bus climbs the last twenty minutes to the village — check its times before you set off, it does not run often. Saint-Paul and Biot village are reached by bus from the coast.
Monaco and Menton are a day out rather than an afternoon. We would rather say so than pretend the whole coast is twenty minutes away.
Day trips from Antibes
A week without one
The market is four minutes on foot, the sea is at the end of the street, and the restaurants are in the lanes between. This is rarer on the Riviera than it sounds: most rentals here are villas in the hills, where every loaf of bread is a drive. A walled town is the one place on this coast where a week without a car is not a compromise.
When you do want one, and where it goes
Hiring a car is the one choice we would question — for the week. For a day, it is the right answer: the hill villages, the Gorges du Verdon, a vineyard.
You do not have to work out where to leave it. Our guests use the Q-Park at Pré des Pêcheurs or the Port Vauban car park, both public and paid, at the entrance to the old town and less than five minutes’ walk from the houses. Inside the ramparts the lanes are narrow, mostly one-way and largely pedestrian, so the car waits there and you walk in — which is what everyone here does, including us.
Questions
Do we need a car in Antibes?
No. The old town is three hundred metres end to end and entirely walkable, and the station is a twelve-minute walk from the houses.
How do we get from Nice airport without a car?
Express bus 82, about forty minutes with no change; or the tram, then a regional train from Nice Saint-Augustin — about the same door to door.
Can we reach Nice, Cannes and Monaco by train?
Yes, all direct: Cannes about fifteen minutes, Nice about twenty, Monaco about an hour.
Where do we park if we do hire a car?
At the Q-Park at Pré des Pêcheurs or the Port Vauban car park — public, paid, at the entrance to the old town, less than five minutes’ walk from the houses.
What still needs a car?
The hill villages and anything inland, such as the Gorges du Verdon. Hire one for that day rather than for the week.
Everything on this page is minutes from our doors.
Seven restored houses inside the old town — live availability, transparent prices, and your hosts two streets away.
More from the guide
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