Driving from Barcelona to Nice in late March - need a good overnight stop

Are you flying into Barcelona in order to get to Nice? If you will have jet lag, then spend the night in Barcelona or drive no more than an hour or so and then stop. Or fly from Barcelona to Nice on Easyjet. Although everyone is different and you could be the person who is completely unaffected by jet lag, my suggestion is that you not take on an eight-hour drive or even a four-hour drive if you will have jet lag. Been there, done that as a passenger on a 4-hour drive and it was awful.

Thank you both. We get into Barcelona at 6AM local time, so staying there isn't a viable option since check-in wouldn't be allowed until the afternoon.

How about Girona? That is not far from Barcelona. It appears to be a nice town base on what I've read.

Carcassonne is quite a bit out of the way of your route so I would rule that out. Beziers and Pezenas are both right on the way; Pezenas is just a few minutes off the highway. Beziers has a very nice cathedral on the bluffs overlooking the river. The town itself is a bit rough around the edges; not somewhere I would want to stay. Pezenas is a very nice place to stay for a while. It has a beautiful little town center with winding streets, great shops, and many places to eat. It's about 2.5 - 3 hours from Barcelona by car.
Another town you may want to consider that is right on the way is Narbonne. It is a very picturesque place with an amazing cathedral that was only partially completed but still stunning. Any of these three would fit the bill.
Only you know how your body responds to jet lag - some people have no problem getting off the plane and commencing with their activities. Others, like me, can hardly function and need to get some serious sleep before attempting to do anything, especially something like driving. Definitely err on the side of caution - jet lag is not to be underestimated!

Great feedback - thank you!

My fist choice would be to spend at least one night in Barcelona. If the hotel was not full the night before, they may have a room free for morning check-in. You can also alert then by email or online booking note about your planned arrival time.

I'm not familiar with Girona. The fact that it's not right on the coast probably means it will retain its normal "life" in winter, not be so dead as a beach town (but with less to offer than Barcelona). Train ride is short and direct from Barcelona Sants or (later departures) P. Gracia stations.

If you plan to pick up a rental car in Spain and drop it in France or another country, then that adds a significant fee to the price, but may not cost much more than two train tickets to a further destination in France. Perpignan is a pick-up option on the French side of the border, and train ticket not expensive.

If you fly from Barcelona to Nice on a budget carrier, then allow plenty of airport time to claim and recheck you luggage. If you miss that flight connection, the ticket will be lost, since EasyJet and other budget options have no interline agreements with other airlines.

You can take a train all the way to Nice in 10 hours with one connection, but that leaves Sants station about 9:25 a.m., which is too tight to count on, and advance-discount tickets have the same non-refundablity issue as plane tickets. Mid-day departures take longer, with more connections. Similar issues apply with connections to Carcassone, although distance, time, and price are all less. Then, about 16:30, there's a TGV that's direct to Marseille, also stopping at Perpignan, Narbonne, Montpellier, Nimes, Avignon, and Aix-en-Provence. Cheap fares are for sale now through the first week of March, from €50 per person to Marseille.

How about Montpellier as an overnight stop? I realize it's fairly large, as compared to the others...

Laura, thank you for your response. We will be staying three nights in Barcelona on our return and as such would not stay overnight as soon as we arrive. I love to drive and we will have more flexibility with our rental car, so, as much as we enjoy trains, we'll stick with the car rental.

Well it sounds like you are committed to renting a car and not staying on night in Barcelona. With that in mind, I suggest stopping in Girona, Spain. It's about an hour from Barcelona and a lovely city and the less time that one spends driving after a long flight while dealing with jet lag, the better. Are you planning to stay in central Nice with a car and drive around Nice? If so, that will be interesting.

Girona, Spain does sound very, very nice, and photos of it do it justice. It might be worth an overnight stay there, although we get in at 6AM (in Barcelona), so Girona may be too soon a stop. I've looked at some of the coastal towns, as well. Cadaqués looks grand, and it has a wonderful-looking Dali museum. But it's at the end of a long & winding road - not wise after a long flight.

We're staying in the middle of Nice, at the Splendid Hotel a few blocks from the waterfront. I'm looking to get a deal with one of the parking garages. We'll do as much walking as we can. The car will be mostly used to see the nearby countryside as well as going to Cannes, Antibes, Monaco, Menton and a few other places.

I've heard that St. Tropez is not worth the drive and that the Italian towns not far from the border aren't worth the trip, either. We've been to Italy three times, anyway, so going there is not a priority.

After Nice we'll be going to Avignon and the surrounding towns & sights.

Thank you!

Your trip sounds wonderful. We stayed at the Splendid in 2013. The staff is very nice as is the roof top bar. It is not quite as luxurious/upscale as described in the RS Guide, but we enjoyed our stay. We drove to Nice and parked the car for the entirety of our stay and only used it to head back home and to go to Monaco and Vence (and if we had to do it all over again, we would take mass transit to Monaco). The Splendid offers parking or at least it did in 2013. We arrived well after dark and had a hard time with our GPS but figured out that it was taking us to Avenue Victor Hugo but the entrance to the hotel is actually on a side street (the hotel is on a corner). If you really think that you can handle the drive, then go for Pezenas as your stopping point, but please be careful (and stop for coffee). Have a great trip.

JHK...

We know two couples that stayed at the Splendid and really liked it. A rooftop bar sounds great! I don't believe that it offers parking any more, but the Grimaldi garage isn't too far away. I'm picturing street parking to be as plentiful as Manhattan, though. ;)

They both recommend taking a train to Monaco as parking there can be a challenge. We might do that, although in April it should be a lot less crowded there than when our friends went, in the summer.

Thanks for your feedback - yours, and everyone else's, has been terrific!