Train into the mountains

We are spending a few days in Nice in February. It will be myself, my wife and 2 sons aged 4 and 2. Our boys love trains and one thing we wold like to do is take a train into the mountains.

From what I can see this can be done either by the Train des Merveilles or the Train des Pignes. Does anyone know which of these would be the best to go on?

We would want to go into the mountains have a walk around a nice little town for a while, maybe lunch and then return to Nice.

Thanks

|||

I travelled on the train from Nice Ville station to Tende, the Train des Merveilles, a couple of years ago in March when it was still pretty chilly. The first few miles out of Nice are rather dreary but it ten becomes very attractive. Tende is a pleasant small town, try and avoid going there on a Monday when some restaurants and the National Park Centre are closed. Check the timetables on www.voyages-sncf.com

The Train des Pignes is quite a spectacular route. Going all the way to Digne my be a bit much for what you have in mind. Entrevaux, about half way would be a possibility but I don%26#39;t know how it would be in February.

If the weather in the mountains is bad, take a train trip along the coast.

|||

I like both train journeys -merveilles and pignes but in winter [starts jan 17th this year] you can take the train des neiges [its a variety of the train des mervielles which runs in winter] which goes to st dalmas de tende and then there is a shuttle bus up to the snow at casterino. casterino is a x-country,snowshoeing placve rather than downhill skliing=very small but a few restaurants and quite pretty .

There you can hire sledges and snow shoes and see the huskies and drink hot chocolate etc.

You need to book in advance -by tea time on thursday for the following Saturdays or Sundays

It costs 13 euros for the adults 6.50 for 4-12s and under 4s are free

www.ter-sncf.com/paca/bonsplans/index.asp…

|||

-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-

This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.

Removed on: 4:18 pm, September 08, 2009