We have a rental car and plan to do this drive. Can anyone offer any advice on this trip? Is there a better way to make this trip say via a chauffeur? The train ride appears long and we want to do this in one day. Any information is much appreciated.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
The drive is easy to do yourself. But if you drop a French rental car in Italy, there will be a large drop-off fee. Where will you return it? A chauffer is expensive and not worth even contemplating for most people.
Yes, trains take 10 hours and several connections. Departing from Arles at either 7:49 or 12:59, it can be done with only 3 connections. Or if you drive to Nice, trains from there take 5.5 hours with as few as one connection on the 14:08 departure. You can catch this whether you stay overnight in Nice or just drive there and drop the car at Nice Ville station on the same day.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks Laura, we did plan to drop our car in Italy and are aware of the drop fee but hoped the drive would be worth it and we do have a parking spot in Cinque Terre for our car while we are there. Thank you for the tip on the train from Nice that might be an option as we did plan only one day for this trip.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33826 posts
There are two "Fontvielle" - actually spelled with an extra "i", Fontvieille - communities from which you could be driving to Riomaggiore. Do you mean the one well inland in France, or the one in Monaco (not actually in France)? It would make a biggish difference to the answer.
By the way, from the Italian border most of the way around to Genova I liken the drive on the Autostrada to diving in a venetian blind. There are dozens of tunnels so the trip (in the day) is light - dark - light - dark for miles and miles. It does mean that if you want to see that part of the Italian Riviera you need to be off the Autostrada, which is not an easy route. The coastline has a number of inlets so the local roads do a lot of winding around to cross them at a narrower part, and there are still plenty of tunnels.
The train from Nice and Monaco is actually quite scenic, especially of you sit on the south side of the train.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
We will be in Fontvieille France just south of Avignon France will be our starting point. We plan to drive along the coast to Nice and that is where we are contemplating if we should drop the car and take the train or just continue on with our car to Cinque Terre. I have read positive and negative comments about this drive and all info is appreciated and we really want to complete this journey in one day with final destination of Riomaggiore.