2 Provence Tours - Which to Pick?

I would dig deeper into the Viator website to see which companies are offering these tours. Viator is a 3rd party consolidator for tours thus does not run them themselves. To find the information, open the Additional Information section and scroll down to the bottom where you should find the actual company offering the tour. You can book directly with the tour company instead of giving money to Viator.

When are you traveling? That would determine whether the lavender would still be blooming.

I would be traveling July 8th to July 11th. And I was already planning to book with the companies directly, I just use Viator to know what tours are out there!

The tour provider I wanted the most (which had no bad reviews, all 5 stars) does not have Tour A available, so was looking at another provider which had it available.

I've only been to the last 3 and I loved them all. I also stayed in Arles, Avignon and Aix en Provence. It is such a lovely area.

We just did a "drive-by" of Abbaye Notre-Dame de Senanque and it was way too early for lavender, so I won't rank that.

Roussillon - By far my favorite
Tie between Pont du Gard and Les Baux
Gordes
Saint-Remy
Fontaine de Vaucluse

We had 2 full days in Avignon, and spent one of those days taking a full day tour (Les Baux, Saint Remy, Pont du Gard, and a few other sights) and a half day tour (Gordes and Roussillon) on the other day.

To answer your question, I would take a full-day tour. I really liked Avignon, but IMHO, it doesn't hold a candle to the other places on your list.

I haven't been to many of the places on your list, but I got to St.-Remy easily enough from Avignon by public bus, so that's something you can do on your own if necessary. I think (but am not 100% sure) the Pont du Gard is also accessible by public transportation, but it's probably not as straightforward a trip as St-Remy.

Yeah unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time. Only 3 nights. So my plan was to do the full day tour one day (I’d get back at 6:30 so I’d have time to walk around Avignon a bit since the tour pickup/drop off is there) and next day Arles. Then I have most of the morning/some of afternoon before leaving. Don’t have anything planned yet.

Not sure if my schedule would give me enough time to just do the half day trip and then do the rest of what the full day tour covers on my own.

Leaning towards booking the full day tour. That is, if they have availability.

Hi, we stayed in Avignon several years ago and saw most of what’s on your list by doing a half-day minivan tour, plus going out to Pont du Gard the next day by bus.

The Luberon villages are definitely nice to see. And we were glad we went out to the Pont du Gard, plus their excellent museum there. So, for your short time, I would recommend the full-day tour. I also agree with the previous comment that Avignon itself is a lower priority than your list.

Just my opinion, but I did not find Avignon charming. I stayed 2 nights and basically used it as a transportation hub. I preferred Arles and Aix en Provence, but that's just my opinion. They have a little tourist 'train'' made up of golf carts that starts near the Pope's palace and gives you a good overview of places you want to see in Avignon. I did that and felt I'd really seen all the 'good' stuff.

My immediate reaction is "I can't imagine trying to do all these places in one day!"

I realize everyone has limited time but even Les Baux and Pont du Gard which are two huge outdoor sites in one day seems like a stretch let alone back to back with an hour on bus in between to recover. And St Remy is a charming little town I really like but that charm is pretty hard to find in a loop around the town and a 30 minute walk on the way to Les Baux and I don't see how you'll have more time than that.

Between these two I would choose the first mostly because I can't see the second one being enjoyable. I mean I can plan a lot into a day when I'm in explore mode I don't have to worry about other people, but I wouldn't put this much into a single day.

I guess my advice is try to be realistic in what you'll actually enjoy and remember rather than have a bunch of pictures you barely remember taking. Part of the problem with small town travel - Tuscany, Provence, Dingle, Cotswolds etc - is that the speed of the life there is part of the charm. Trying to "see" a bunch of sites very quickly excludes the slow charm that is much of the appeal.

To quote Rick: "Assume you will return. This 'General MacArthur' approach is a key to touristic happiness. [] Enjoy what you're seeing. Forget what you won't get to on this trip."

My $.02, have a great trip,
=Tod