I am contemplating a trip to Provence and the Riviera and am in the VERY EARLY stages of planning. Any suggestions of planning sites or resources? Any must do's and don't do's? I am assuming I will need to rent a car to do Provence right. I have never done that in Europe so would welcome comments on that aspect too. This will be a "solo" trip.
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New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Start by getting Rick Steves Provence And The French Riviera. Not only will it help with the planning before you go, it will also be invaluable once you're there, as it has logistics for getting from place to place better than any other book on the region that I've seen. Note that his general France book has much less information on this region. For Provence, a car is needed for the rural areas. Train and bus do work for places like Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Avignon, Orange, and (my favorite) Nimes. For the Riviera, a car is not needed, as there's frequent and cheap train and bus service. However, having a car does allow for scenic drives, and easier visits to some towns with infrequent bus service. Again, this is all detailed in Rick's book. Nice (for the Riviera) and Marseille (for Provence) have airports with lots of connections, so you'll probably want to fly into one and out of the other. To find these flights, use http://www.kayak.com, and choose "multi city" rather than "one way" or "round trip." Booked all on one ticket, a trip from Chicago to Nice and back from Marseille to Chicago (for example) may not be any more expensive than a round trip from Chicago to Paris. But even if it is, you save lots of time and money by not backtracking, and by flying to where you want to be (assuming you don't have time or interest for Paris on this trip). On the other hand, if you do also want to see Paris, the train from Paris to Avignon is less than 3 hours, so that also works.