One day in Arles or Nimes?

We stayed 3 nights in Nimes and took the bus to Pont du Garde and back.
I would not spend 6 nights in Aix. Maybe 3 in Nimes and 3 in Aix and take daytrips.

Arles because it’s more compact and has a bit more to see. Both lovely but very different.

I have done both. Both are great. A visit to the Roman museum and/or their arena together with PDG would be a good day in either city. Arles is smaller and perhaps a little easier to walk around in. But I liked the Roman museum in Nimes better. Also a tip for PDG we stumbled on is to go late in the day. The light was beautiful, there were hardly any other people even though we were there in August. We maybe missed the on site museum which doesn't keep as long hours as the site itself. But we had a great time climbing up above the structure and looking down.

For art, especially the Espace Van Gogh and the Musée Réattu museums, as well as sites where Van Gogh set up his easel for creating famous paintings, go with Arles. Although there’s Roman stuff, too - the ancient Roman floor mosaics in the Arles museum are particularly spectacular, along with the ancient Roman ship.

Nimes has more outdoor Roman sights, to compliment your Pont du Gard visit … the amphitheater, smaller (more manageable) and in better shape than the Coliseum in Rome, nice outdoor mosaics, the Maison Carrée temple (whose excellent condition makes the Acropolis in Athens look like a slum), and the remarkable castellum, the water collection/outlet feature where all the water that flowed in the Pont du Gard aqueduct ended up, before being channeled throughout the town. … the end of the Pont’s line.

Thank you for these suggestions! The rest of our trip will highlight quite a bit of art so I’d love to have more of a history focus for this day, which I know could be found in either place. Nimes might be a better fit but is it doable to walk around, grab lunch, and see the major sites in a half day?

We will have a car so can be flexible with timing . I like the idea of doing Pont du Gard later and starting the day in one of the cities. Curious to hear others’ thoughts on whether the order will make a difference in our experience.

Very doable. Just walking around is pretty fast. There’s not all that much if you don’t go into the Roman Museum. The arena is a 30-minute visit, Maison Carré even faster. If you do go to the Museum, they have a good restaurant on the top floor. Yes, visit in the morning.
IMHO Arles has more Roman sites to visit: arena, theatres, museum, Alyscamp.
If you are going to Pont du Gard, you should try to visit Uzès, too. It’s the most interesting of the small towns in the area.

Hi,

I've been to both and agree it's a Hobson's choice. But if forced to choose for just a half a day I'd go with Arles - it's a bit more approachable and seemed smaller to me. But in all honesty, you can't go wrong with either one.

We stayed elsewhere and did daytrips to your sites.
From PDG we went to Nimes to see where the water arrived. We had spent SO much time at PDG (and driving) that it was late in the day and Nimes looked like a relative dive. We walked the streets to get to a temple ... but that was depressing for people who love the country or serenity.

We spent most of a day in Arles and loved it.