My daughter and her friend will be in Provence for 5 days without a car, taking a train from Paris and finding a centrally located village to explore the region by foot, train, bus, and bike. After, they want to head from Marsailles to the Cinque Terre but flights are expensive and the train long and too many stopovers. They are young and newly experienced travelers so I want to minimize the long, tiring, more stressful travel itineraries. We are looking at a Euroline bus that leaves at 10pm at night and arrives in Pisa the next morning at 5:15am. Can anyone comment on this mode of transport? is it safe for two young women at night? How is the bus stop area in Marsailles? Any alternative suggestions to get to Cinque Terre from the Provence area? Thanks! (after CT, they are heading to Florence for 5 days.)
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Eurolines buses have a long history and decent reputation, but an overnight bus ride is not going to give you a good night's sleep before dropping you in Pisa at 5:15 a.m.
Other options include:
- The slow trains already mentioned
- Breaking the trip with an overnight stop at Nice (or choosing Nice over Marseille)
- There are direct, cheap flights from Marseille to Rome, if they want to go that far south in Italy.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32352 posts
As Laura suggested, if they were to use Nice as a "home base", it would facilitate the ongoing journey to the Cinque Terre. One of the quickest trips from Nice to Monterosso is a departure at 09:49, arriving 15:05 (time 5H:16M, 2 changes in Ventimiglia and Genova P. Principe, reservations required for latter two segments).
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33838 posts
The train from Marseille isn't hard either. All they have to do is take each piece as its own adventure. Changing trains in each of those connections is easy for young fit girls. It is just a matter of off one train, check the screen, go to that platform and hop on in the correct carriage or walk through the train. Much easier, much better views especially between Cannes and the CT. Tell them to sit upstairs when they can and on the right if possible and drink it in. On the bus the only view they will have is the inside of the bus. Unlikely they will see much of the inside of their eyelids.