Provence in May: reservations or not?

If you know when you will be there - as opposed to hoping to travel on the fly - reservations are a good idea for peace of mind. I've had decent luck finding places without reservations in May, but I would research and reserve ahead if I knew I was going to be in a certain location on certain dates. Arles is very different than Isle sur-la-Sorgue - bigger and more urban. With a car, I'd want to be in a smaller town.

I once home-based in Arles with a car and would not do it again, with a car. Arles is wonderful, but the problems with home basing there with a car are the difficulty of driving in the narrow streets of the historic center and obtaining secure overnight parking. Arles can best be reached by train and then explored (the historic center) on foot. Re places to home base, here's some advice from Rick: "See the cities (including Arles) by train, then rent a car for the countryside." To see the hill towns of the Luberon, Rick recommends: "Drivers should base in or near Roussillon." Of course that's not the only choice, Rick describes other possibilities in his book Provence & The French Riviera.

I would at least reserve first and last nights for Provence. In May you should be ok in general except maybe on weekends. It is advisable to find lodging before 3pm espec if budget is a concern.

Last September we spent one night near Isle-sur-la-Sorgue at a B&B called Les Carmes www.lescarmes.com. It was a wonderful experience and I definately would like to go back to and use it as a base for further exploring Provence. The owners are British and there is a restaurant on the premises. the restaurant was closed the day we were there so we didn't get to try it. It was an easy place to stay with a car. They have a gated property and parking.

We enjoyed Isle-sur-la-Sorgue but did not get to Arles. We tend to enjoy the countryside and small towns more than cities.

I would be comfortable traveling without reservations in mid-May, calling morning-of. On the other hand, as others have said, if you know your dates for sure (or when you do), why not reserve in advance?

Also, I am someone who for the most part does not care about getting a particular room or a particular hotel. But if it would ruin your trip to not get a room at Chez Quelque'un, or if you want to find a bed in a very small town, you absolutely should nail that down in advance.

Kent, now you tell us not to home base, with a car, in Arles...and I just reserved a room this morning for May 22-25!

OK, I think that I just got the last room at the Hotel de la Muette, and I reserved parking also. I'll rely on my GPS to get me in and out. Nothing could be worse than trying to drive in and out of the inner city of Lecce, Italy, and our marriage survived that one, before "GPS".

I found out that there are two holidays in May, and it is important to make sure you are not; 1. driving the same way the French will be when they flee their homes for the mountains or coast. 2. without reservations during those times.

On the 21st they start leaving for a 4 day holiday, and return on the 24th. On the 29th they leave for a 3 day holiday.

So I have been having problems finding rooms during those times; especially at the end of the month in Normandy. (65 aniversary of D Day!)

I got my reservations in Arles,now I will keep trying to find something for a couple of days(29,30) in Normandy.

Carrie, I hope you are not travleing during those times.

Steve: Driving to/from your hotel in the historic center of Arles is do-able, if I can do it, albeit with whining as my wife will confirm, then you can do it, hopefully sans whining. So no need to change your plans. We had a car at a hotel just a couple of blocks from yours in Arles, and I am more familiar than I'd like to be with driving in that section of the historic section of Arles between the Arena and the river.Important: Online car reservation form, specify the smallest car (the critical dimension is actually car width) that will hold your luggage.And try to get one that has sideview mirrors that flip in toward the car windows at the touch of a button (inside the car)--if you're wondering why a car would need that feature, you're about to find out.And take the hubcaps off on day 1. And strenuously resist any offers at the car rental pickup location to "upgrade you for free" to a larger size car. Even if they claim they don't any smaller cars, if you reserved a smaller car, insist on getting the smaller car you reserved. A challenge was finding the hotel the first time, I had GPS so finding the addresses and streets wasn't a problem--but unfortunately I didn't have the kind of GPS that seizes the steering wheel from you and automatically makes the 90 degree turns from one 8-foot wide "street" into another 8-foot street--easy to scrape the right rear side of the car on building corners or bollards. I have some photos I took as a reminder to not drive in the historic center of Arles next time.If you send me a PM, I can give you lots more tips I learned the hard way.