Problems with reservations for May in Provence

I'm not sure if there is some particular reason that those 2 weeks are already booked up but Provence is a popular place and May is a popular shoulder-season travel month for the South of France and Italy. Also, RS books have a large readership and only a limited number of rooms in his suggested accomodations. You might have to think outside the blue & yellow book (so to speak). Try some hotel booking websites like booking.com and put in the towns you want to stay in and you should get lots of ideas, be sure to cross-check reviews on Trip Advisor or by googling the hotel name + reviews. And maybe post here the towns you're interested in and your prefered budget and you'll likely gets some good recommendations. Good luck with your planning, sounds like a great trip.

Fairly normal. If you have not heard back, they are probably full. Remember these are small operations with limited staff and cannot respond to hundreds of emails just making inquires.

I use TripAdvisor and did for our last trip in France. My caveat is that they must show traveller photos, not just promo photos. We ended a tour in Avignon and then spent several nights at Jardin de Bacchus in Tavel. We loved it, but I am not sure what your designated route will be.

Another factor may be the sheer number of French holidays in May -- many French people are also tooling around enjoying their country in May . . .

May 19th and 20th are Pentacost Sunday and Pentacost Monday in many countries. This is a 4 day weekend, so it is no wonder you are having problems with finding rooms from 17-20 May. Do check with other hotel finding websites. I like www.hrs.com.

We had some problems finding a place to stay last year at about that time. As with you some places wrote back and others we never heard from so probably not that unusual. You might try http://www.lagardy.com/. We have stayed there at that time of the year and he may have space. We have returned there on 3 occasions because we enjoyed it so much.

Ricky's recommended places book up early. You will have to expand your search using Tripadvisor or other resources.

If you really have that much time (good for you!) you should really consider renting an apartment with your friends for some or all of the time. But act quickly. There is a lot online, but if you are having trouble you could consider an agency. There is one in Seattle that we used years ago, France Homestyle. They were great and the experience sharing an attached house with friends in St. Remy remains very memorable. In any case there should still be plenty of beds. But Rick's picks tend to be small, and it's possible that one or two nights of prior reservations would impinge on what is available if your request was for two weeks in the same place. By the way there is a local festival around Pentecost, Transhumance, when the farmers bring their sheep and cows through the small towns to the alps. Some towns have outdoor meals if you buy a ticket. It's very colorful and a lot of fun. Have a really great trip!

You might want to consider renting a house for a week at a time. If so, check out Gites de France. We've used them for 25 years. A quick check of their Vaucluse site shows lots of places available at that time: http://www.gites-de-france-vaucluse.com/

As someone else mentioned, there's a lot of holidays in May. May 8th and 9th are holidays, and a lot of employers are also giving off the 10th. Add in that it's the last week of Spring break for 1/3 of the country's school kids, and you can expect a lot of families on vacation that week. The 20th is a holiday as well. For something different, try Abritel.fr - French equivalent of HomeAway. You could also try booking.com or venere.com, although hotels that can be booked online tend to fill up first vs ones that you have to contact the owners directly.

Matt, RS places are small, some have like 10 -20 rooms, they book up fast . May is a busy holiday month.
And finally, sometimes emails are answered when "the " english speaking staff member is on duty,,so not always right away. go to tripadvisor.com and start looking at the reviews there, contact some of the reviewers if you wish( I have done this several times and always gotten great specific answers from other people). Problem with relying on Ricks Picks, is in a small town he may choose onlly 2-4 places to recommend, but hello.. thousands and thousands of people read his books, so you do have to go a bit beyond RS picks OR book alot further in advance its already the end of January! I book stuff for July and August by end of january.

As someone else said, you might want to consider apartments and maybe do daytrips in the area. If you compare prices, you might find that sharing a house or apartment would be more cost effective than staying in hotels. Based on our experiences over the years, it certainly is more relaxing. Last June we stayed in Aix-en-Provence in a small apartment owned by an American, Holly Poirier. She owns 2 others, another small one in Aix and a 2 bedroom house in the Luberon. We chose Aix because we wanted to be in a bigger town and we wanted to not only visit Provence but also head east toward St. Tropez, all on daytrips. Your choice might be different. I found lots of apartment possibilities in various locations in Provence through both VRBO and Homeaway. That's how I found Holly, but she has her own website at http://www.provencesejour.com/. We almost chose to stay in the small town of Uzes. I found rentals there through VRBO and Homeway also, but Poppies seemed to offer the best options. They are at http://www.2poppies.com/index.php. The places without pools seem to be in town.

Hi Matt You might consider VRBO or airbnb Ive used both in Europe, Canada and states with great stays in all. Best of luck
Stephanie

Thanks all for the comments! I have managed to book a place for every night of our stay in Provence. Some of the places I originally wrote to finally wrote backsome after over a weeks delay. I also booked several places through booking.com. I am now looking for a place to stay in Paris between 5/20 and 5/26. Wrote to Parisbestlodge@paris.fr, as they seemed to have a number of well-located apartments at quite reasonable rates, but they have not written back either. . . . They have until Monday, when I will give up on them. Any other suggestions for Paris? Thanks again! Matt Edwards

For paris, try vacationinparis.com. Just send them an enquiry with your dates and they will send back a list of available apartments. I hardly ever stay at Rick Steves places because I don't plan far enough ahead. They usually book up early. There are plenty of other places to stay. I choose most of my places based on looking at tripadvisor reviews and googlemaps to check the location.

I too would recommend VacationsinParis. You can browse their listings on the webiste and see if there are any that particularly appeal to you and ask specificaly about those, or send a general inquiry for your dates as Laura suggests. Or if you see one you like and want to know right away, just call them. They are in New Jersey and have an 800 number.

We are going to Provence within your time frame too. I decided that St Remy was central to the places we wanted to see and booked a place for a week. It has excellent reviews and I got my questions answered from them very quickly. It has cooking and laundry facilities, a pool, separate sleeping for us (3 adults), parking. Look it up...Residence Les Sources. We have not stayed there before, so I am hoping that the write ups and reviews are true. I found that if there was room, they replied very quickly, usually within 24 hrs. Good luck. Maybe we will see you during our travels.

Lin-- We are starting in Nice on May 6th, and following Rick Steves itinerary exactly. Not staying in St. Remy, though. Matt Edwards