Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)

Two terminals on a strip of reclaimed sea

There are two terminals, a short way apart along the shoreline and not connected airside. Terminal 1 is the older and smaller of the pair, Terminal 2 the larger, and which one you use is decided by the airline rather than by where you are flying — the split does not follow Schengen, long-haul or low-cost lines in any way you could guess from a ticket.

That matters more here than at a bigger airport, because the two are separate buildings with separate security and separate check-in halls. A free shuttle bus runs between them, and so does the tram, which carries passengers terminal to terminal at no charge. Connecting between airlines, count on leaving the building and starting again: the two behave like small airports sharing a runway.

Into Nice: the tram, and a taxi that knows its price

Tram Line 2 is the artery. It starts at the terminals, runs east behind the city and finishes at the port, calling along the main shopping street and within easy reach of the old town and the Promenade des Anglais. It is an ordinary urban tram on an ordinary ticket, frequent and above ground for most of its length, and it has replaced the airport bus that older guides still recommend.

Taxis from the rank work on posted fixed prices into Nice and out to the main Riviera destinations, agreed rather than metered, which removes both the haggling and the anxiety. Ask for the posted rate before the boot closes. Ride-hailing operates here too from its own marked pick-up area, and the short run into town makes either a genuine choice rather than a last resort.

The Riviera's airport, not just the city's

More travellers land here for somewhere else than for Nice itself, and the airport is arranged accordingly. A main-line railway station stands within walking distance of Terminal 1 and a free tram hop from Terminal 2, and the coastal line through it is the spine of the whole Côte d'Azur: Antibes, Cannes and Saint-Raphaël in one direction, Monaco, Menton and the Italian border in the other, on regional trains that run all day.

Where the rails do not reach, coaches do — express buses work the coast from the terminals and climb to the ski resorts of the southern Alps in winter, which is unusual for an airport this size. Monaco has its own answer again: a scheduled helicopter shuttle between the airport and the principality's heliport, the fastest and least discreet transfer on the coast.

Season, arrivals and the border

Nice runs on a season in a way the Paris airports do not. Summer, the film and conference calendar and the winter charters pile traffic into narrow windows, so the same terminal that feels sleepy out of season will have every security lane open at the peak. Plan your margin around that calendar rather than around the airport's modest size, and expect the business-aviation apron to be busiest exactly when the terminals are.

The great majority of flights here begin somewhere else in the Schengen area, and their passengers never meet a frontier officer. The few arriving from beyond it clear immigration first, automated lanes for holders of an approved chipped passport and staffed desks for the rest. What your own nationality must sort out before flying is a matter of France and its entry rules, which turn on the passport rather than on the airport. Baggage reclaim is quick by the standards of a large hub.

Onward: cars, the corniches and an early flight

Car hire is concentrated in its own building with the return lanes alongside, and a car here earns its keep for one reason: the hill villages and the corniche roads behind the coast, which no train touches. The motorway east and west from the airport gate is fast and tolled, the corniches slow and spectacular. For a departure before the tram starts, a hotel by the airport beats an early taxi — and the rest of the country is a train ride from the station next door.

Practical: connectivity, money and small mercies

An eSIM activated on landing saves the hunt for a counter at the worst possible moment, and the terminal wireless is enough to set one up at the last minute. Draw cash from a machine carrying a bank's name rather than a standalone brand, turn down any offer to convert the sum on the spot, and let paying for things in France cover the rest. Visitors claiming a shopping refund need the forms validated while the goods are still with them.