Wife and I have ten days between Rome and Bayonne, FR in late July early August (July 27 to August 7) and could not find Rick Steves Tour that was in this area or time slot.
How should we travel between Rome and Bayonne, car or train?
What are two cities between Rome and Bayonne where we could split up our ten days?
Advice or alternatives welcomed!
Do you have a preference to focus on Italy or France? If you really just want two good bases along this route, then flying a portion makes sense to me, such as from Rome to Nice, Marseille, or Toulouse. There are also flights from Pisa to Lyon or Bordeaux (or to Paris from most Italian airports).
If you look at the fastest train connections for the whole route (25 hours), you'll find them mostly routed via Paris on faster, more expensive trains. Train routes along the coast and then via Toulouse take slightly longer. For driving times, www.viamichelin.com is useful. If you want to drive part of the way, then pick up the car in France to avoid paying a hefty second-country drop fee.
I checked the map. and it would be over 1100 miles of driving
you've got Florence and Provence on your route,, there's a ton of stuff you can do,
On the other hand the train . and perhaps the train to Florence and on to Provence, then a rental car from there . I think that's what i would do.
Bayonne is great, it put me off as i associated it with Bayonne , NJ,,, but its a fine city.
i just want to add , that if you had the car in Provence you could do all your short hops in that area, and then go on to Bayonne by car.
Good suggestions Laura and Fewolf, thanks for your help!
It's a longer haul vs same distance in US. Assuming 250 miles per day via car means four days mostly driving.
Proposed: Flying to Nice takes care of 440 miles and one day. Then focus on Nice-Provence-Marseille area for seven days with car and/or local tours/transportation. Final two days by train with single over night stop getting to Bayonne.
Any further thoughts?
It's a long distance by train. I'd be more happy with 3 stops, perhaps Genoa, Marseille, Toulouse. You have the following direct trains for example.
FB 9774
Dep 13:57 ROMA TERMINI (Italy)
Arr 18:16 GENOVA P.ZA PRINCIPE (Italy)
EC 159
Dep 16:58 GENOVA P.ZA PRINCIPE (Italy)
Arr 22:42 MARSEILLE ST CHARLES (France)
IC 4760
Dep 13:18 MARSEILLE ST CHARLES (France)
Arr 17:07 TOULOUSE MATABIAU (France)
IC 14345
Dep 12:31 TOULOUSE MATABIAU (France)
Arr 15:56 BAYONNE (France)
Hi Blackwelllarry, last September I did Logroño, Spain to Florence, about 1400kms. I grew up going from San Diego to San Francisco several times a year. So for me it was like old times. For my kids it was hard, but thank God for ipads and headphones.
We did it in two days. The first day was the long haul, from Logroño to Ventimiglia. So basically we crossed France in about 12hrs. The big problem was the toll booths. But the drive was okay.
In Italy it was bad. The highway from Ventimiglia to past Genoa was a scary, expensive and slow.
So unless you want to spend some of your time in Italy, I would suggest taking the train to France and getting a car there. Provence would be a good choice, but to go a bit off the main path I would suggest Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées, and Carcassonne, and some smaller places like Mirepoix or Foix. There are many Rural BnB type places which allow for day trips.
Hi djp_syd and dindstrom, Thanks much for respectively, info on trains and comments regarding driving through Italy. Will skip driving in Italy and take flight to Axe area from Rome (day 1). Train schedules very reasonable from Axe area (day 2 through 8) to Beyonne (day 10), will do by train with stop in Toulouse area (day 9).
