Avignon/Provence - need help with planning

Katherine,
That would depend on what you want to do & see while in Avignon.
If you decide to take the day tour (Saturday) then that only leaves you a few hours on Friday afternoon & Sunday morning to visit Avignon.
We were there for 3 nights (2.5 days), & we enjoyed visiting Arles one afternoon, as it's an easy train ride from Avignon.

Enjoy!

Honestly trying to fit in just those three on a day tour risks being too much and overly rushed. Plus, as pointed out, that leaves you little time for Avignon itself. If it was me, I skip Châteauneuf (unless you are seriously into Rhône wines) and Orange (unless you are seriously into Roman ruins) and just go for a day or half-day to Arles.

First off, you can do so easily via public transport and there is really a lot to see there (including some excellent Roman ruins). You might even be able to stop in St. Remy on your way down or back to experience a bit of "rural" Provence while you are at it !!

Enjoy.

• Kevin

You could take a local train to Arles for the Friday afternoon/evening.
If Orange really appeals, and the Roman theatre is stunning, then perhaps a quick trip Saturday morning. Like Arles, it's very close by train. That really only leaves Saturday afternoon in Avignon, so it may be a choice of choosing one over the other.

That Saturday sounds like it would be spent mainly in a bus going between all those sites. If that's how you want to spend your time, go ahead with it, but myself I would choose a slower pace and visit fewer places.

To echo the general trend here . . Orange has one main sight, the Roman theater. It's impressive, but not so much so as to use up part of your limited time. Arles has a smorgasbord of the sights for which people travel to France - - Roman and medieval, a Saturday market, plenty of cafes and restaurants where you can sit outside, sip a drink, and watch the scene. I would bag the tour idea, go there independently, and spend my Saturday. I highly recommend a visit to the Museon Arlaten, which showcases details of daily life in Provence over several centuries, such as costume and home furnishings.

In my opinion, Avignon pales in interest compared with Arles. You have enough time on Friday afternoon, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning for anything you might want to do there..

I've just come back from a week in Avignon. I decided not to rent a car but ended up regretting it. Whilst in theory Avignon is well connected by train and bus, the reality is that they are often few and far between and planning a journey around the returns can leave you with too much or too little time. At weekends it was even worse.

My advice is to rent a car and have the luxury of deciding when you come and go.

For what it's worth, I preferred Nimes to Arles. The theatre at Orange is great but, as someone mentioned, there is little else there.

Just for some ideas & amount of time we spent at locations:

We were in Avignon in September in 2013 for 3 days. We took the 30-minute train to Nimes one afternoon and really enjoyed that town. I specifically wanted to see the Maison Carrée, but we also enjoyed exploring the park and seeing the temple of Diane and also walking through their Roman amphitheatre.

Another day, we took the bus to the Pont du Gard. If you want to rent a canoe and paddle underneath the Roman bridge, I would recommend renting a car to make those connections.

During our last day we took a 1/2 day minivan tour of the Luberon villages & lavendar fields.

We were in Avignon for the morning & evenings and felt like we had sufficient time in that city. We stayed at the Hotel de l'Horloge in the center of the old portion of town - perfect location & still walking distance from the train station, and the hotel was very nice.

Detailed train information for Provence - maps and timetables.
http://www.ter.sncf.com/paca/aide/travel-by-train-in-paca

It would be helpful to get some feedback from the OP at this point.