I plan to spend a couple months traveling Europe in August, September, and part of October in 2019. I have allocated eight days for the following cities. Nice, Nimes, Marseille, Arles , Aix en Provence, and Avignon. I may be able to add a couple days. I wonder if Marseille would be a good base town and then travel to other cities. Should I cut out any of the above cities and focus on fewer. I am also interested in how much time I should spend in each of the above cities. I then plan to travel to Nice as a home base. In addition to Nice, I also plan I would visit Antibes, Cannes. I have allocated four days for this stay. After my stay in Nice I will travel to St. Tropez for three nights. I feel the rest of the trip has a good plan but really struggled planning the above.
Posted by
Portland, Maine
2916 posts
8 days for the 6 listed cities is really not enough (even if you add 2 more). I've been to all of them except Nice, and liked all of them except Avignon, but I wouldn't necessarily suggest dropping it, because many people have a different opinion. I would leave Nice out of the 6 if for no other reason than distance. All of the other ones are pretty close. Plus, you're planning to go to Nice anyway afterwards as a base.
I liked Nimes very much (we spent a week there), but I think you could spend less time there than at some of the others. Its center is pretty compact. I also thought that the areas you'd want to see are Arles is pretty compact. On the other hand, Marseilles is much larger, and IMHO worth spending more time.
Posted by
Washington DC
27111 posts
I don't know what your interests are, but three days seems a long time in St.-Tropez to me. I haven't been there, but I think of it as an expensive beach resort. Note that it has no rail station, so it is not a good base for side-trips.
If you plan to drive (not necessarily recommending that, just acknowledging that some people so choose), go to ViaMichelin.com to check estimated driving times.
If you plan to use trains where available (they're very practical along the Riviera coast except for St.-Tropez), go to the SNCF website for travel times and costs. Note that when a TGV (fast train) is involved, the fare can vary greatly depending on how early you buy your tickets. On the SNCF site, use today's or tomorrow's date to see what you might pay for last-minute tickets. Use a date in the second week of December to see what you might pay by buying very early.
I consider eight days seriously inadequate for seeing Nice (plus Antibes and Cannes), Nimes, Marseille, Arles, Aix en Provence, and Avignon, but it depends on what you want to see and do in each city. For example, I'm a big fan of art museums, and Nice has at least six. And most folks who go to Nice are interested in seeing at least one of the hill towns; you list only coastal spots.
St.-Tropez is between Marseille and Nice.
I assume you are aware that southern France can be unpleasantly hot in August if you're not spending a lot of your time splashing around in the Mediterranean. If the beaches are a big part of your plan, Google for photos so you can calibrate your expectations. (Think very crowded and sometimes rocky.)
Posted by
OP
4 posts
I appreciate the replys to my trip. We do like the beach and that that type of activity but also like to visit the smaller towns to get a better flavor of the culture, so will take this into consideration of planning my trip. We do like to go to some Mueseums but enjoy more traveling around the towns and see ancient ruins. We do plan to travel mainly by train but may need to take a bus. I didn’t know that St. Tropez did not have train travel and that may be a city that is deleted from the trip. Once again thank both of you for your input.
Posted by
4 posts
We visited Antibes for 3 days last month. We planned on making a day trip to Nice one day, and maybe a train ride to Ventimiglia for dinner... Regardless, we loved Antibes and stayed in Antibes the whole 3 days (and neighboring Juan-Les-Pins, which was in walking distance from our apartment). If we had 8 days, we would have likely made it to Nice, but that's probably it. The area is gorgeous, and sucked us into it's slower pace. We spent 2 days on the beach in JLP enjoying great food and wine. Then evenings walking Antibes's old city, again enjoying great food and wine.
We went to Avignon for 3 days on the trip as well, but I wish I would have spent those days on the Riviera.
Posted by
Nice, France & San Francisco
678 posts
Do not use Marseilles as a base to get to those other towns in Provence. It's the largest and most populous area that you've selected. Pick a smaller city like Arles or town like St. Remy or Isle sur la Sorgue, or a city like Avignon or Aix. (Even these can take time to get in and out of, especially right now in Aix with the darn construction). You can spend a day or two in Marseilles and go to Cassis, but relocate to visit the rest.
St. Tropez is most conveniently hit on the way to Nice, with a car. There are lovely beaches and some great wineries reachable by car, and other smaller, less famous places nearby. However, be warned in August this town and area will be heavily touristed, and the roads heading in and out can get quite filled (it is a joy in May, not so much in August).. As a final base, from Nice you can hit all the other places on the Cote d'Azur. It's probably better to end here and then use the superior connection links to proceed to your return. (You can ditch your car and then take trains/buses to hit the other destinations).