French Riviera / Provence in the Fall

This forum works best to answer specific questions about logistics, hotels and restaurants, particular sights, and such, rather than to produce itineraries. You might want to look here at our host's advice on trip planning, and invest in (or borrow from your library his guidebook for that area, which includes suggested itineraries for various timeframes. I did a trip there last October and thought it was a good time to go from a weather and not-crowded standpoint, but I had more than twice the time you'll have.

Nice and Arles would be good bases. You may want a car for Provence, especially for views and hikes. You probably won't want one for the Riviera which has easy train and bus connections. If you don't want to drive in Provence, Avignon may be a better base than Arles. And you may want to fly into one city and out of the other (e.g. Marseille) rather than backtracking, if you still have that choice.

My visit included an independent stay in Nice, an 11-night tour with Road Scholar, and more independent days ending in Lyon. You might want to consider this shorter Road Scholar tour that covers Provence and the Riviera. It was too short for me, but the tour I took was generally very good. (Based on my experience, Rick Steves tours are better, but he doesn't have one that focuses just on that area, and Road Scholar does a good job for a good price.)

Hope that is some help. As I suggested, come back with more specific questions to get better answers from people who know more than me!

I appreciate the feedback. We're getting closer to finalizing details. I'll post a separate topic to get better feedback.