A group transfer is decided by the bags, not the passengers. Seven people with one cabin case each fit comfortably in a Van 7 pax. Seven people who have each checked in a 25 kg suitcase after a week in Monaco do not. Count every bag, name every oversized item, and ask your chauffeur company to confirm in writing that the whole load fits in the closed luggage space. At TranspOnyx, our 2026 rates are fixed per vehicle, so adding a second vehicle for luggage is a known cost rather than a surprise on the day.
This guide is written for organisers: the PA booking for a board, the wedding planner, the concierge, the friend who has ended up in charge of a villa party arriving at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE). It covers how to count, which vehicle to choose, what to do with strollers and golf bags, and how to cope when numbers change.
Why luggage is the first question, not the last
Most people choose a transfer by headcount. The vehicle category follows from that, and luggage is mentioned, if at all, in a note at the end of the booking form. That order is the wrong way round, and the Riviera makes it worse than most places.
The region is a destination of long stays and heavy packing. Guests arrive for the Cannes Film Festival with garment bags and equipment cases. MIPIM and MIPCOM delegates carry laptops, brochures and display material in addition to suitcases. Cannes Lions visitors often fly in for a week of meetings and evening events, which means formal wear as well as daywear. Monaco Grand Prix weekend brings hospitality groups with branded merchandise and, frequently, a shopping haul on the way out. Add the cruise passengers who disembark with a full holiday's worth of bags, and a vehicle that looked adequate on paper is often full before the last passenger sits down.
There is also a plain safety point. Bags that are stacked above the seat line, wedged between passengers or left on laps are a nuisance in a Mercedes-Benz van and a real risk in a sudden stop. A properly loaded vehicle has everything in the luggage area, nothing blocking the rear view and nothing resting against a passenger. If you are planning on anything less, you need a bigger vehicle or a second one.
Counting luggage properly
The single most useful habit is to replace the word "luggage" with a list. Ask each traveller, or each family lead, for three numbers: large checked suitcases, cabin-size bags, and anything else. "Anything else" is where transfers go wrong.
A workable list covers hard-shell suitcases, soft holdalls, cabin trolleys, backpacks, garment bags, instrument or equipment cases, golf bags, skis and snowboards, folding strollers, car seats, and mobility aids. A group that writes "twelve bags" has told the driver almost nothing. A group that writes "eight large suitcases, four cabin trolleys, two backpacks and one folding stroller" has told the driver exactly what to plan for.
Two habits are worth building in. First, count at the point of departure rather than the point of booking. People add things: gifts, a late bag bought at the airport, a case that was originally going to travel separately. Second, allow a margin. In our experience, a group that is close to the limit of a vehicle is a group that will be over it by arrival. If your count sits at the edge of a category, move up a category or add a vehicle. A relaxed fit is always better than a clever one, particularly when your chauffeur has to close the tailgate on a driveway in Cap Ferrat with guests waiting.
Hard-shell cases deserve a special mention. They do not compress, they do not nest, and a stack of them uses more space than the same number of soft bags. If your group travels mainly with rigid suitcases, assume the lower end of what a vehicle can take.
Matching the group to the vehicle
Our fleet is exclusively Mercedes-Benz, in four categories. The names matter, because they define what we can promise.
| Vehicle | Passengers | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Sedan | Up to 3 | Small parties travelling with cabin bags and a few checked cases |
| Business Sedan | Up to 3 | The same capacity with a premium finish, for executives and guests who expect it |
| Van 7 pax | Up to 7 | Families, small corporate groups, villa parties with moderate luggage |
| Van 8 pax | Up to 8 | Larger groups, or seven to eight people with a considered luggage count |
The important point is that passenger capacity and luggage capacity are not the same figure. A Van 8 pax can carry eight people, but it does not follow that it carries eight people and eight large suitcases. When a van is full of passengers, the luggage area is a fixed space. This is why we ask for the bag count at booking, and why our advice is to plan for the van as a vehicle that carries its full passenger complement with a moderate load, or a smaller group with a heavy one.
We have written separately about seating and luggage layouts in the Mercedes V-Class for transfers of four to eight seats, and it is worth reading before you decide between a van and two sedans.
When two vehicles beat one
Two vehicles are the better answer in three situations. The first is when the group is within one or two passengers of van capacity and the bags are mostly large. The second is when the group is arriving on different flights, which is common for wedding parties and conference delegations; a vehicle that waits for a late flight holds up everyone. The third is when part of the group is going to a different address, for example half to a hotel in Cannes and half to a villa in Mougins.
Splitting need not be awkward. Our drivers coordinate by phone, the two vehicles leave the airport together or separately as suits the group, and each passenger is greeted at arrivals. Because our rates are per vehicle and fixed at booking, an organiser can see the cost of the second vehicle before committing, instead of discovering it at the kerb.
What the 2026 fixed rates look like for groups
Our rates are per vehicle, not per person, and they are confirmed at booking. There is no surge pricing. For a group, that is the real saving: eight people in one Van 8 pax pay the price of one vehicle, not eight tickets.
The published 2026 ranges for the main airport routes from NCE are as follows.
| Route from Nice Côte d'Azur Airport | 2026 fixed rate, per journey |
|---|---|
| Antibes and Juan-les-Pins | €68 to €110 |
| Cannes | €90 to €150 |
| Monaco and Monte-Carlo | €90 to €140 |
| Menton and Beausoleil | €108 to €158 |
| Isola 2000, Auron and Valberg | €240 to €350 |
| Saint-Tropez and Ramatuelle | €260 to €400 |
The range reflects the vehicle category and the specifics of the booking. The full list, with the vehicle options, sits on our airport transfer rates page. A direct route between Nice and Cannes by chauffeur, away from the airport, is listed from €75 to €110 on our Nice to Cannes chauffeur page.
Child seats are available on request. If your group includes infants or toddlers, tell us at booking so that the seat is fitted before the vehicle arrives and you can allow for the space it takes. Parents should also read our guide to the 15 month seat rule for airport transfers.
Journey length changes the luggage question
A short hop is forgiving. A long one is not. From NCE, Antibes and Cannes are a short run along the coast, Monaco and Menton are a longer drive east along the corniche and motorway, and Saint-Tropez or the Alpine ski stations are a different proposition altogether, measured in hours rather than minutes. Traffic in July and August, and around the big events, can lengthen all of them considerably. Your chauffeur will give you a realistic estimate for the day you travel.
Why does that matter for luggage? Because the longer the journey, the less tolerance passengers have for being squeezed. Eight adults in a van for forty minutes with a bag on their knees will cope. The same eight on a road to Isola 2000 with ski bags in the aisle will not. For the mountain routes and for Saint-Tropez, we recommend planning the luggage as carefully as the passengers, and in the ski season, adding a vehicle sooner rather than later.
Oversized and awkward items
This is where group bookings most often come adrift, and it is worth being plain about it. Ordinary suitcases are easy to plan. The rest need a conversation.
Golf bags are long, rigid and heavy, and a group of four golfers with four bags will use a large share of the luggage area of a van before a single suitcase is loaded. We offer a Golf Transfer service across the Côte d'Azur, and the sensible approach is to give us the number of players and bags at the outset so that we can match a van to the party.
Folding strollers are straightforward but they are not small. Rigid travel systems and large prams are another matter, and they can take the space of two suitcases. Wheelchairs and mobility aids are an area where you should ask in advance and be specific: manual or electric, folding or not, and whether the passenger will transfer to a seat. Say so at booking, so that the right vehicle and enough room are arranged and nobody is rushed on the pavement.
Ski and snowboard equipment, musical instruments, display cases and photographic kit follow the same logic. State the dimensions if you can. A chauffeur who knows that a case is 1.5 metres long will plan differently from one who learns it at the boot.
Our guide to baggage assistance explains what a driver does at pickup, and it is a useful read for anyone with elderly relatives or a heavy load in the party.
Confirm the arrangement, not just the category
The most common mistake is to treat a vehicle category as a guarantee. "Van 8 pax" tells you the seating. It does not tell you that eleven bags will fit behind the last row. Before you pay a deposit with any provider, ask for the loading plan: how many bags, which sizes, and where each will go. Ask for confirmation that all of it fits in the closed luggage space, and keep that confirmation with your booking.
There are a few questions that any organiser should put, and they are the ones a good chauffeur company expects. How many passengers and how many bags is the proposed vehicle quoted for? Is anything oversized or unusual accounted for? What happens if the count rises before the day? Can a second vehicle be added at short notice, and at what fixed rate? Who is the contact on the day, and on which number?
The same discipline applies to the way a journey is planned around the rest of a trip. Our friends in the hospitality world make a similar point about convenience in business travel: the details settled in advance are what make a day run smoothly.
It is also worth knowing that French law treats passenger transport and baggage together. The Conseil d'État, in a 2014 decision on taxis, recalls that a taxi is a vehicle with no more than eight passenger seats, excluding the driver, used for the private transport of people and their luggage. Our chauffeurs are licensed VTC professionals, a related but distinct regime, and the principle is the same for a traveller: the journey includes your bags, so the bags belong in the plan.
Coordinating luggage by type of arrival
Different arrivals call for different handling, and an organiser who treats them alike will be caught out.
Airport arrivals at Nice
Flight monitoring is included on every airport transfer, and we include 60 minutes of free waiting time on all airport pickups. For a group, that hour matters, because baggage reclaim for a full flight can be slow and large parties tend to gather in stages. If the group has a lot of luggage, tell the driver which flight and which terminal, and our team will follow it.
A group on separate flights should be treated as separate pickups, each with its own vehicle or its own timing, rather than a single long wait.
Hotels and villas
Hotel departures are the easiest to manage, because a concierge can pre-stage luggage in the lobby. Villas are harder: narrow lanes, gated driveways and steep access roads are common in the hills above Cannes, Antibes and Èze, and a long van may not reach the door. Give us the exact address and any access issues. For any address other than an airport, we include 20 minutes of free waiting time.
Events and conference venues
At the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, during MIPIM, MIPCOM, Cannes Lions or the Film Festival, kerb space is limited and controlled, and drop-off points can change by day. Plan luggage drop at the hotel, not the venue, whenever you can. Organisers handling delegations should send us the delegate list, arrival times and the bag count in a single document. For Monaco Grand Prix weekend, the same rule holds, with extra margin for road closures.
Cruise ports and yachts
Cruise passengers arrive with large, heavy cases, and the port gate often limits where a vehicle can wait. Our Yacht and Cruise Transfer service is designed for this, and the key is a precise timetable and a precise bag count. For yachts, ask the captain or the agent whether crew will take luggage on board from the quay, and whether the berth is reachable by road.
Moving luggage separately
Sometimes the right answer is to take the luggage out of the passenger vehicle altogether. This is a standard approach for very large groups, school and sports parties, and long rail journeys. In France, for instance, SNCF Voyageurs runs a group luggage delivery service for between 11 and 200 items per journey, which is a useful model for the rail leg of a larger trip.
For the road leg on the Riviera, our approach is simpler. If the group is large, put the bags in one vehicle and the people in another. A Van 8 pax carrying only luggage and a second vehicle carrying passengers is often cheaper and calmer than a convoy of crowded vans, and it lets the passenger vehicle leave NCE promptly.
When the numbers change
They will. A guest drops out, a partner is added, someone buys a second suitcase at the duty-free. The sensible organiser builds this into the booking from the start.
First, tell us as early as possible. A change of one passenger is rarely a problem. A change of three passengers and six bags might mean a second vehicle, and the earlier we know, the more likely it is that a suitable vehicle and driver are free. We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so you can reach us at any hour.
Second, confirm the revised count in writing, by email or on WhatsApp at +33 7 67 78 10 26. Third, remember that our rates are fixed per vehicle and confirmed at booking, so a change in vehicle is a change in price that you will see at once, and not a surcharge applied on the day.
Our guide to chauffeur etiquette and 2026 rates sets out how changes, waiting time and cancellations are usually handled, and it is a good reference for anyone booking on behalf of others.
Our point of view
Luggage is the part of a transfer that nobody wants to talk about until it goes wrong. We would rather talk about it first.
When a group books with us, we ask for the number of passengers and a list of the bags before we propose a vehicle. That is not bureaucracy. It is how we make sure that a Van 7 pax or a Van 8 pax is the right size for the day, and that the driver who meets you at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport has a plan for every case.
Our drivers are licensed VTC professionals, bilingual in English and French at a minimum, and our vehicles are Mercedes-Benz throughout, with Wi-Fi, air conditioning, chilled water and phone chargers on board. Flight monitoring is included on every airport transfer, with 60 minutes of free waiting time at the airport. Those things matter more when a group is large, because large groups take longer to assemble.
We believe that fixed, per-vehicle pricing is the fairest way to carry a group. You see the cost before the trip, and you decide whether one van or two vehicles suits you best. Nobody on the day is asked to pay for a decision that should have been made at the booking.
Dany
Booking a group transfer with TranspOnyx
If you are planning a transfer for a group, send us the passenger count, the flight details, the destination and your list of bags. We will propose the right vehicle among the Standard Sedan, Business Sedan, Van 7 pax and Van 8 pax, with a fixed rate confirmed at booking.
You can see our 2026 fixed rates on the airport transfer page, or call us on +33 6 10 30 71 84. Our reservations team is available around the clock, and further detail on our services is at transponyx.com.
For groups that want more than a transfer, our Onyx Tours brand runs private guided excursions, with half-day tours of five hours from €350 to €500 and full-day tours of nine hours from €630 to €900. The Onyx Tours page lists them all, and the same luggage advice applies: tell us what you are bringing and we will choose the vehicle accordingly.
A simple checklist, in prose
The point of all this is to arrive at the booking with facts. Know the number of passengers. Know how many large bags, cabin bags and unusual items there are. List the arrival times and flight numbers. Decide whether the group will travel together or in two vehicles. Confirm in writing that everything fits. Keep a contact number for the day.
Done properly, this takes ten minutes. It saves the awkward scene on the pavement at Nice, with eight tired guests, a driver who has been asked to do the impossible and a pile of bags that was never going to fit.
FAQ
How many suitcases fit in a Van 8 pax?
It depends on the size of the bags and the number of passengers. A van carrying eight people has a fixed luggage area, so it takes a moderate load, not eight large suitcases plus extras. Give us your bag list at booking and we will confirm whether one vehicle is enough or whether a second is wiser.
Can I add a second vehicle if my group grows?
Yes, subject to availability, so tell us as early as you can. We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and our rates are fixed per vehicle, so the cost of a second vehicle is confirmed before you commit.
Do you carry golf bags, strollers and wheelchairs?
We do, and we ask you to tell us in advance so that the right vehicle is allocated. Golf bags and rigid prams take considerable room. Give us the type and number of items, and for wheelchairs, say whether they fold and whether the passenger will move to a seat.
How long will you wait for a group at Nice airport?
We include 60 minutes of free waiting time on all airport pickups, and flight monitoring is part of every airport transfer. For any other address, we include 20 minutes. If a large group is likely to be slow at baggage reclaim, tell the driver so that the plan allows for it.