Miami to Marseille

Where do you want to go during this 2-1/2 week period--just to southern France, or do you plan to go on to other areas or countries? Unless you're planning to stay in that part of France, it will be more efficient to fly into Marseille and out of an airport where you plan to end your trip. That may or may not be affordable; if not, you can look at other options. But first, please tell us the geography you want to cover.

Buying separate tickets is not recommended unless the savings are really significant. If you have separate tickets and get delayed on the first leg of the trip, the second ticket is worthless. Neither airline has any obligation to help you out, and you will almost certainly be buying replacement tickets at the $$$ walk-up fare. If the second leg is part of a round-trip flight, missing the second leg will cause cancellation of the return flight on that same ticket as well. To do this prudently, you need to build in a huge time-buffer for the transfer.

I looked at round-trips on Google Flights and found two not-bad options:

TAP/Air Portugalia via Lisbon for $795. 13 hr. 10 mi.
AirMaroc via Casablanca for $728. 14 hr. 25 min.

I know nothing whatsoever about Air Portugalia. I was totally happy with a transatlantic flight I took on AirMaroc many, many years ago and would happily fly with it again.

There's a faster routing on Lufthansa but it costs $1305 and involves a 70-minute transfer at Frankfurt, which I think could be stressful. There are additional possibilities, as you can see. I would try to avoid the ones with really tight connections, though some airports are easier to connect in than others. The conventional wisdom on this board is that London-Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulle require more time than many other options.

Thank you for your prompt and detailed response. I don’t have any specific plans yet as to what we’ll be doing, but we will rent a car once we are in Marseille and move around that way or via train.

My main concern is getting there as cheaply as possible. That’s why was looking into different airports nearby. There are no direct flights into Marseille so I either have to connect or take a train

You might consider going out of ft lauderdale to Paris and then taking the train. Norwegian air flies direct to Paris from ft lauderdale.

Norwegian air is a discount airline. I flew to Copenhagen with them. Plane leaving was late. Plane coming home was on time.

About half of my flights to and from Europe have involved a transfer somewhere along the way. So far I've had no problem; I look carefully at transfer times and airports to try to avoid the riskiest situations. It's going to difficult to make an ideal purchase if you don't know where you're heading after Marseille. The obvious choice are to see that corner of France, head up to Paris, make for Barcelona, or trot over to northern Italy. There are so many great destinations in Provence and along the Riviera that I would stay down there for the duration, which would mean you could return from Marseille or Nice, depending on how you structure the trip. It would be easier to fly back from Paris (and possibly cheaper), so the one thing you do not want to do is rush to buy a round-trip ticket to Marseille and later decide you want to go to Paris. That would give you a mostly wasted day at the end of the trip in addition to possibly having somewhat overpaid for your flight.

Since you mentioned possible car rental: It will cost a lot of extra money (probably many hundreds of euros) if you rent a car in France and drop it off in another country. The trains are great, so you might not need a car at all--though if you want to spend time in Provence, a car will be extremely useful for getting to the smallest towns. For moving between big cities, the trains (TGV) will be much faster than driving, and if you can pin down your itinerary and buy the tickets really early, they can be quite inexpensive.

Thank you @BethFL, I'll look into flights from FLL.

Thank you @acraven. I mention renting a car as I will be with my son and his fiancee (4 of us) visiting our French friends and we cannot rely on them for all our needs. I will not be dropping the car in another country as I know that involves extra money. We have already visited the Provence area and all the south of France, Paris, and Barcelona-as you mention.

I will definitely buy the tickets ASAP which is the reason I'm inquiring now.

Thank you all again