Nantes Transportation

you are in my neck of the woods now, and even thus I use the car or train for business, the main Brittany public transport site is review in my tips here as
www.breizhgo.com
however, check the ones in Nantes as it is outside the region administratively even if historically it is in BRittany ::)

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walk
We only walked and managed to see everything as all the main sites are in walking distance if your hotel is at the city center.

Bicycles
We saw many spots for renting a bicycle (pic 2), we didn’t rend any but it seems a good way to tour around easily and eco friendly :)

Tram and buses
There’s no subway/metro in Nantes but there are 3 nice and useful tram lines that can take you a bit further. You can buy your tickets from the machines next to the stops but dont forget to validate them before boarding! On the tram stops you can also see maps of the routes to navigate yourself. There are a lot of local buses too but it’s hard to know the routes, you better ask a local while there.
By the way if you come in the city by train you can easily walk from there to the city centre as the main sites (and many hotels) are in walking distance from the train station (cathedral is 10’ away)

Touristic buses
As in other cities there is a hop on hop off bus(pic 4) and a small touristic train (pic 3).
There are also rental companies, we saw some of them near the train station.

taxi
We noticed some taxis (pic 5) but we didnt have to use any of them.

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By plane
Nantes has an international airport in case you find direct flight from Europe but for us it was very expensive to fly through Paris. The airport is located near the city centre, we saw many planes flying above us while we were walking in the city. The bus from the train station to the airport costs 7euros for the 30’ ride(20’ from Commerce). Alternative you can take tram 3 to Neustrie and then bus 37 to the airport.

By car
Some friends came by car that they rent at Paris, normaly you need 3,5-4 hours for the ride but due to traffic they di dit in 6 hours! You can also rent a car in Nantes, there are rental companies near the airport and near the train station too.

By train
We used the train. TGV has some great, clean and fast trains from Paris and other cities. Paris>Nantes will take only 2 hours (!), 3 if you start from CDG airport. You can book your ticket online for better prices. We payed 22euros one way 3 months in advance but later the price went up and a few days before our departure i twas up to 60 euros!

To travel around Nantes the two public means of transport are buses and tramways.

There is no subway.

With one ticket, 1.3 euro, you can travel during one hour in buses or tramways.

But Nantes is a quite small city and you can basically visit the whole city center walking.

Thanks to Mc Leary, we know have Ryanair flying from/to Nantes. 4 locations available: Shannon, Nottingham, London and Frankfurt. These are the three only low cost places that fly to/from Nantes.

Otherwise, you have many other companies flying from the Nantes Atlantique airport, among which Air France and British Airways.

Nantes Airport is located quite near from the city center, only 30 minutes by bus. You can take a shuttle bus from the railway station or la Place du Commerce. It is run by Tan, our local bus company.

High speed train TGV is surely the fastest way to get to Nantes (that is except if you drive 250 miles an hour).

From Paris, the travel takes 2h10 and prices change very widely according to your age, the time and day you are travelling and how long ago you make the reservation.

Prices for a non-French resident are usually between 50 and 100 euros for a one way travel.

You can purchase a ticket at any tram stop. It's a great way to get around town. I highly recommend purchasing a ticket even though they don't check the tickets every time. Occasionally some people in blue jackets will hop on & check everyone's tickets. It's sort of a random search type thing. It's worth buying them since they're not very expensive.

You can get here by car,bus or motorcycle. You can also can reach this place by first going by boat or train and then drive to it.
On the picture: a scooter driving towards the City Hall of Nantes.
By car, bus, motorcycle, scooter, bike, on foot or by the touristic little train.