Provence tour from Marseilles

It depends on your interests. Marseilles has one of the best Modern Art Museums. But my favorite would be the boat trip to Chateau d'If, The Count of Monte Cristo prison. Restaurants on the Old Harbour usually have Bouillabaisse, Fish Stew. Check with your cruise people, they probably know who picks up for land tours. Provence is hard to cover in one day.

Thank you, Kathleen, for your reply!

Actually, we are interested in seeing Provence on our day in Marseilles, and are asking for recommendations of tour companies which could take us to Provence. I'm sure that the places you mentioned are lovely, but with only one day in Marseilles, we feel that we must prioritize our time with what we are most interested in...Provence.

Any reputable one-day, small -group tours out of Marseilles to Provence??

Thanks in advance, fellow travelers!
Frances

The safest way to do this is to take an excursion offered by the cruise company
No worries about missing the boat

Does your cruise stop at any other locations in or near Provence?

Marseille is in Provence. Provence is a large region in southern France. It would be best for you to look for the towns and cities near Marseille that might interest you. Aix-en-Provence is a nice town very close to Marseille. Also Les Baux, Arles, Nimes and the Pont Du Gard. Try googling "day trips from Marseille" for ideas, or check out the RS guidebook for Provence or France. Just be sure you don't get back too late for your ship. Does your ship have any outings in their schedule?

You might enjoy spending the day in Marseille. It is a great city, one of the oldest in France, founded as Massilia by the ancient Greeks, home of bouillabaisse (sorry, Nice!). It has the Chateau d'If (featured literary prison of the Count of Monte Cristo), Notre Dame de la Garde, Cathedrale La Major, the Museum of Mediterranean Archeology, the Fine Arts Museum, the Vieux Port, boat trips to see the calanques........and lots more to do and see.

Whatever you decide, there are day tours available in and around Marseille. You might check at TripAdvisor for tours. I, alas, have no personal recommendations.

Fyi, for a true Provencal experience, you can't go wrong with Marseille. Maybe you will come across a senior citizen who speaks Provencal (French with a heavy Italian influence, or Italian with a heavy French influence, depending on your nationality.) Hubby's grandnother was a Marseille native who could speak Provencal. I still can use some of her phrases, and it is close to l'Occitan (Lenga d'Oc). It's more rare to hear it today, but worth preserving.

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions!
My sister and I have booked our cruise ship's shore excursion out of Marseilles, but the negative is that it is only a half-day and only goes to Aix. We would prefer an all day tour in which we would see more of Provence, especially since we will likely never be back to this part of the world. I think I'll take Judy's suggestion and check out TripAdvisor.

My thanks to all!
Frances

You have two places on Cruise Critic where you can search. First find your “roll call” the ship and your sailing and see what people are organizing for non-ship tours. Second, check the cruise critic section on port information. You should be able to get the names of guides others have used in the port of Marseille.

I’ve been to Aix and Marseille many times. If a half day in Aix is your option, it’s a good place to go. I was in Marseille last weekend. Some things have improved, others deteriorated. I used to spend a lot of time there when we lived in Cassis. It’s an old, historic, big, very dirty, crumbling, chaotic city, not the idyllic Provence of literature, films, and trip reports here on this forum. I wouldn’t spend my one day there and count it as a day in Provence.

FYI Arles is an hour by train once you reach a train station. The port isn’t near the train. Nîmes is 1.5 hour and Pont du Gard is even more because you need a rare bus and neither is in Provence. They are in Occitanie.

hey hey Frances
are you registered with cruisecritic.com? find your ship and roll call forums with others on the ship. they post about sharing outside tours (usually per car not per person). we have posted for sharing tours and if interested they answer fast. we only want 4-8 people on the tour, get info from company (telling them what you want to see and letting them give recommendations), be very adament about returning to ship before debarking, paying euros or credit card before or after tour.
couple sites to check out:
italytours.eu
look what they offer and if interested.
ventoux-decouvertes.com
we had reserved him a few years back, had to cancel when we had a death in the family before our trip.
provence is a large area, email alain for more info about what you plan or want to see or let him tell you what his recommendations are. make sure he does pickup at marseille. also the times of tours to get you back to ship before sailing away
getyourguide.com/marseille
it is a 3rd party seller, i've used the 4 times in different cities and never having any issues. people either like them or not.
therealfrance.com
click shore excursions, click marseille
so many tours out there, look at your budget in euros, exactly what you want, email companies. hope you find what you are looking for and have a great time.
aloha

Check out Viator.com. It has a number of various tours from Private to Group tours from Marseille and they can pick you up in the Cruise port and take you to various points in Provence. Last year I was on a cruise ship and we ordered Uber in Marseille port and went to Aix-en_Provence which is a delightful city and a memorable one day excursion so you may want to consider this as an alternative if you are on budget.

Success! We have found what I think will be the perfect tour for us out of Marseille. It is a Viator shore excursion. We are to be picked up at the port in a vehicle with a maximum of 8. We go to Aix with plenty of independent time, then to Cassis with ample time for lunch if we want. There is also an option for a one hour small boat tour of the nearby "calanques", which I knew nothing about, but seem amazing.

I actually learned about this tour from another passenger in my ship's Roll Call on Cruise Critic...a wonderful resource.

Thanks to all of you for your invaluable advice. I loved hearing about your own experiences in this region, too!

Frances