DeZiel

I'm planning a trip in mid June. We will be starting in Venice (probably) and working our way to Spain. I want to spend 4 days in the Tuscany wine country and 4 days at the beach before we get to Spain. I'm looking for a great beach town destination with great food, wine, shopping and a relaxed, smaller city atmosphere. Any recommendations or ideas are welcome. I would like to hear all ideas regarding the beaches in that general area .... our plans are not confirmed yet. Thanks!

kybourbon

How are you getting to Spain?

DeZiel

We haven't decided yet - ferry or fly.

Byrd

How about the French Riviera?

DeZiel

Thanks for the great idea. Do you recommend any particular area of the French Riviera, cities or hotels? (mid-range price) Again, we are looking for a "not so busy" location with shopping, restaurants, wine etc. and a great beach to spend the day at.

StCirq

Not the French Riviera, but somewhere around Sète might work - it's one of the few areas with sandy (as opposed to rocky) beaches and generally not as busy a location as the popular tourist spots. And it's on the way to Spain.

Byrd

We have stayed in Nice and Villefranche-Sur-Mer, which is just a short distance from Nice.

Villefranche is quite small, but well locatec to visi tMonte Carlo and the Corniche towns like Dze.

Byrd

Byrd

"Dze", of course, should be "EZE."

Sorry for the typo!

DeZiel

I love both of these ideas. I did a quick google search on Sete - not being familar with it. The town contains absolutely no essential monuments or vital museums - sounds perfect. They described the beaches as 8 miles separating the logoon from the sea - I'm assuming that would be the best location?? Also, I see three hotels popped up on the site - so I will look into them further. However, any info. on this location would be very welcome. Thanks to both of you!

StCirq

We used to take our kids from the Dordogne to Sète almost every year. We never stayed at a hotel on the quai; we stayed in the commercial part of town about a five-minute walk to the beach at the Hôtel du Sables d'Or. Maybe it's been renovated, but it was a fairly basic, even shabby, place when we were there, so I can't really give it high marks except for proximity to the beach. The Grand Hôtel on the main quai is probably the best-known hotel in town, but that's a ways from the beach.

BTW, if they are still there, eat at the seafood shacks along the beach. Terrific food and inexpensive!

Disclaimer: it's been quite a few years since I spent time in Sète, so do your research carefully. Forum poster kerouac recently posted a photo essay about it - search for it and you'll get lots of pics and more recent info.

DeZiel

I did see lots of info. on seafood shacks/cafes etc. along the beach. I plan on spending more time & research on this area before making a decision, however so far so good. One more question - do you know if oysters are available in June?

zeppole

Coming from Tuscany, you might want to look for your best transportation options first. There are very few flights from France's southern coast cities (Nice or Marseilles) from Italy. If you are going to be in Tuscan wine country south of Siena or in the Maremma, flying out of Rome wouldn't be all that hard. If you are going to Chianti, it gets to be more of a haul to fly out of Rome. You *might* be able to fly from Pisa or Bologna to Marseilles. I'm not sure.

From Chianti (or even other Tuscan wine areas) you might want to look at where ferries from Piombino and Livorno go. I don't know if there are towns in Corsica or Sardegna that would both appeal to you and have easy access to Barcelona, but you might want to look.

Finally, since you tagged your query "Italy," you might give some serious consideration to the wild beaches of the Maremma, which are not far from the vineyards that produce Morellino di Scansano wine. There are marvelous towns along the Tuscan coast or slightly inland. Do some google searches for the Maremma.

From there you would have a fairly easy drive to Rome to fly to Barcelona.

zeppole

PS: You can also consider towns along the Italian Riviera, and then drive to Genova and take the evening overnight ferry to Barcelona when you are done. Problem is, it is hard to find good wine on the Riviera. Chiavari would be my pick, but it is hard to find lodgings there. Neighboring Rapallo has a lot more hotel options. (But drink the wine from Chiavari (Bisson). I don't know anything about wine from Corsica, but there is some very good wine in Sardegna.

StCirq

Oysters reproduce during the summer months, so in May, June, July, and August they are kind of wan and skinny. Also the French oyster industry has been through hell in the past two years, with masses of seed oysters being killed off by the oyster herpesvirus. June would not be an ideal time to eat oysters.