Weighing time in Provence

I don't think it depends as much on experience as on personal preference. Some people like to spend a relatively long time in one place, others like more variety. Last year I spent about a week split between Burgundy and Alsace villages. I could easily have spent a week in each, but I'm glad I got to see something of both and other places before and after. On the other hand, I spend 4 full days in Sorrento and never got to the Amalfi towns at all, just Sorrento, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Naples.

Last year, hubby and I stayed 4 nights in Provence (Salon-en-Provence at a lovely airbnb) and one previous trip spent two nights near Avignon. I thought - oh, with a car, 4 nights will be sufficient (hubby even tried to talk me down to 3 nights)...we don't need to go back to Avignon - been there, done that, so we have lots of time for other places. Oh my - well, there were still about 3-4 places we missed. We visited Aix, Nimes, Arles, Les Baux, revisited Pont du Gard and drove to Manosque to visit the l'Occitane factory and saw a few little villages. I would have loved to see St Remy, L'Isle sur la Sorgue and more of the Luberon area. One year, I'm determined to go back for a week at least. It would be really easy to fill a week or two just in Provence.

But right now, there are still so many places on my bucket list...4 nights could certainly give you a good overview. I used to be hard pressed to stay somewhere for more than about 3-4 nights (Rome has been the only place in Europe to get 5 night stays - and even that wasn't enough)...we are learning to slow down in our travels - last year we did 6 nights in NYC and just finished 6 nights in Toronto in May.

But seeing that you are thinking of starting a family, most likely I would try and do the hectic trips now. Imagine waiting until the kids are a little older (I've never had children but imagine I'd want them to be at least 5 yrs old before travelling with them) and renting a gite in Provence for a week or two and taking the kid(s) and relaxing...that sounds like a great family vacay to me.

Thank you for your thoughts! Yes, we will just have to weigh it all out. Sounds like a full trip to Provence and a separate full trip to the Naples/Amalfi area would be the best, but that would exclude the variety of some of the other places on our list (Swiss Alps, Prague, etc)....sigh. I definitely hope we will have the time and money to allow us to travel abroad with kids, but I'd say that's definitely iffy (even going right now is a splurge for us), so we're somewhat needing to treat this as potentially our last two trips for the next several years, which makes it hard not to go for variety (as we've already been to France and Italy before). Thanks so much for your input!

we spent 5 nights staying in St Remy ( as a base), as part of a larger touring holiday ( we had a car) and found we had lots to see and like most places, sure you only 'touched the surface'. but we saw enough that we really enjoyed it and don't have a 'burning desire' to go back soon- given all the other places we would like to see. any less time than that we would probably think differently. if we had the opportunity to go back we definitely would.
I think your 'plan' of a bit of provence, northern italy and amalfi, sounds OK'. (a bit 'busy' for 2 weeks IMO - but then we go for a longer time.) I am sure you could make it fit. these three areas are some of our favorite spots BTW.

Hope this helps.

I would not do the entire trip in Provence. As you are young and without kids you can be mobile and flexible. Take advantage of that now. Provence is an excellent place to be for a week with kids. So perhaps a quick stop there to see if you like it and would want to commit more time to it in the future.

Thanks for your thoughts glennlorrainer and Matt, I appreciate your input!

Variety is the spice of life. That's my philosophy and travel style. I don't just tick things off a list, but also don't feel it necessary to embed in an area to experience and appreciate it. Save the slower travel for when you're empty nesters. Which is what I am, but still seem to go faster and farther than some. The world is a big beautiful place and I want to see as much of it as I can. Happy travels!