Bus 230 Nice-Sophia Antipolis

Quick links

Bus info in real time

Send SMS LR06 [bus-stop-id] to 31000 to get info about upcoming buses for that bus stop. Find the bus stop ID at a "BusConnect06" sticker on your stop. For example, for Gustave V, it's LR06 43. For Les Brucs, it's LR06 2035. Details
If you use Telegram messaging app, check 230 bot, which uses the same data, but provides an easy interface, and requires no knowledge of bus stop IDs

Route

Since 2017, there are two routes: "Nice Promenade" (regular route) and "Nice Nord" (just 5 buses from Nice in the morning and 5 buses from Sophia in the evening). Within a given route, all buses follow the same path and pass through all the stops (this was not the case until 2017).

Important remarks:

When the bus is coming, you should wave your hand to make the driver stop.
You are only allowed to enter in Nice and leave in Sophia, or vice versa. It is not allowed to travel within Nice, or within Sophia, using line 230. Use local buses for that purpose. (The driver will be very annoyed if you try to circumvent this rule and may even not stop.)
When in Sophia, always check if the correct bus is coming, or you may accidentally end up in Nice Nord :)
If you end up in Nice Nord by accident or deliberately, you can either:
1. Leave at the first stop in Nice Nord, and take a Velo Bleu (city bike)
2. Leave at the first stop in Nice Nord, and take tram line no. 1 to go to the city center (If you're taking Nice Nord deliberately and you're buying a single ticket, ask for correspondance to get a free tram ride)
3. Continue until the end, and you'll end up at Gambetta

Route map

Custom map of all the stops (Google)

Note that Google Maps by itself (outside of the custom map linked above) does not have all the stops mapped, particularly in Sophia. The coverage is better on OpenStreetMaps.

Circulation & timetables

Timetable since October 2017 (PDF)

The 230 bus works all year round from Monday to Friday, except bank holidays.

Peak hours (6h40-9h00 from Nice, 17h-19h from Sophia): a bus every 10 minutes
Mid-peak: a bus every 15 minutes
Off-peak: a bus every 30 minutes

During summer (part of August) and winter (end of December), there are fewer buses (horaires allégés):

Peak hours: a bus every 15 minutes
Mid-peak: a bus every 30 minutes
Off-peak: a bus every 1 hour

Nice Promenade

First/last bus from Nice: 6h40 / 20h30
First/last bus from Sophia: 6h25 / 20h10

Nice Nord

First/last bus from Nice: 6h40 / 8h15
First/last bus from Sophia: 16h50 / 19h15

If you need to do Sophia-Nice route outside of those times/dates, you can get from Sophia to Antibes by Envibus (most of the lines, e.g. line 1 or 100), leave at Pole d'Echanges Antibes (next to gare SNCF) and take a train to Nice (recommended) or bus 200 (long, slow trips, often crowded, but cheap)to Nice.

Travel time and traffic

Unfortunately the amount of traffic between Nice and Antibes is massive. This leads often to traffic jams and/or accidents. The regular trip time between Nice/Cathedrale Vieille Ville and Gare Routiere Valbonne Sophia Antipolis is ~1h10min in normal days and peak hours, and it can easily reach ~1h30min or more in case of traffic on A8.

In case of an accident, heavy rain, major concert/sporting event etc., expect huge trip delays, and subsequent buses in the opposite direction not coming on time
On Wednesdays the traffic is sometimes less bad than in the other days (but don't count on it too much), whereas it's typically the worst just after long weekends or holidays
Check live traffic on Google Maps to see what's going on

Tickets

Single ticket: 1.50€
10-trip ticket: 10€
Monthly ticket: 30€ (20€ if you're <26 y.o.)
Yearly ticket: 365€

Detailed info on tickets

You can buy single tickets and 10-trip tickets in the bus from the driver, but you should have the exact amount ready upfront. Don't expect to pay with a 20€ note for a single ticket.
When you buy a single ticket, you can ask the driver "avec correspondance". Then they will give you a free ticket which you can use to make a connection and finish your journey in a tram or a different bus.
10-trip tickets and monthly tickets (read below) are only valid in the 230 bus. You can not use them in the other buses or trams, and you can not use them to make the connections.
Monthly tickets: since 2018, you can create a personal card and buy the tickets via internet.
1. First create an account. Pro-tip: Don't reuse your password from other websites, because they store it in plaintext ;) (as you can learn by doing password reset). You need to provide your address, email, phone and a photo.
2. Once logged in, order a new card: click `Commander une carte` in the menu on the right. The card is free.
3. You should receive your card by post within ~3-4 days
4. Once you received your card, log in and buy a subscription
5. After you've paid for the subscription, badge your card in the bus to sync the data. (Note: It might take up to 48 hours after your purchase to propagate the data, so you should always renew your contract slightly in advance.)
6. The electronic monthly ticket is valid for 30 days from the time of the first validation (i.e. not bound to the calendar month, you can buy it any time)
7. If you lose your card, just log in to the portal to block it and request a new one in one click
Alternatively, you can obtain Carte Azur that is valid for all buses and trams of Nice/Sophia/Antibes/Monaco and the region. It costs 45€ per month, or 365€ per year.

You can (and should!) send an email in French to contactazur@keolis.com to ask to get subscribed to a newsletter from the operator of the line. They send emails in case of changes of timetable, perturbations due to special events, strikes etc.

You can follow the FB page / FB group to stay informed about traffic, perturbations, lost/found items etc.

The FB page is lead by one of the users. Note that the users' posts there are not displayed to the other users immediately on the wall, only once the admin shares the post. Go to `Community` tab to see all the most recent posts.

The FB group is community-driven. New posts are automatically shown on top of the wall to everybody.

Feel invited to post in both places any info that might be useful to the other users.

Lost & found items

If you lost something: Contact Keolis depot at Trois Moulins: 04 89 68 85 63
If you found something: please let others know at the FB group and FB page mentioned before

Why this page was created

Getting info about the 230 line is not easy (particularly when you're new in the region and you don't speak French).

There are just too many entities involved, with a split responsibility, their names are always changing, their websites are not easy to navigate nor very "googleable", and the content is disappearing, or they do communication only by email.

FYI The entities involved are: Keolis/STCAR - operating the buses, Lignes d'Azur - tickets, Department des Alpes Maritimes (departement06, previously Conseil General/CG06) - timetables, Region Sud (previously Region PACA)...

The idea is to gather all the info that can be useful to both regular and new passengers and put it in one place

Contribute to this page

This page is intented to be a community-driven page. It is hosted on GitHub. If you have a GitHub account, you can edit the page here straight from your desktop browser. Your edits will undergo a review and then will be published.