abt021

Hi everyone!

A friend and I will be in the Provence area between the dates of Tuesday July 9 (arriving in the evening from Nice) and Saturday July 13 (leaving from the avignon tav station at 4 pm).

We do not want to rent a car, because neither of us can drive Manual and we are both under 25, and so would have to pay a young driver's fee of ~35 euro per day. These things together make renting a car beyond our financial means.

Because of this, we decided to make our base in Provence Avignon, because of it's connections to the major cities in provence, and the availability of tours to get to the smaller villages. However, looking for a hotel, we realized that unfortunately (or fortunately, if it were not such a headache) we will be in Avignon during the theatre festival, and so everything is booked! And what isn't booked, is way beyond our budget (we'd like to spend approx 100 euro a night, but will go a little above that if necessary), or far removed from the centre of town and the train/bus stations, which defeats the purpose of staying in Avignon.

Can you suggest a different base for us? Our interests lie in visiting the small villages, markets, vineyards and lavendar fields, but would like to spend at least a half day at les beaux and the pont du gard (figured we'd get a tour). As we don't have a car, we want something that is well connected via public transit and will make it easy for us to get out and see what we can of Provence. Or is it still worth it to stay in Avignon if we are on the outskirts?

One of our priorities is to attend the market in st remy on wednesday morning (which is why we're arriving on Tuesday night).

Thank you for any help you have to offer! And if you need anymore information, please let me know!

skatterfly

On one trip without a rental car and using exclusively train and bus, we stayed in Arles and enjoyed it a lot. We took a bus to Les Baux. We used the train to get to and from Avignon (and used Avignon for getting the TGV back to Paris). We were relaxing with friends so didn't get out to other villages, but I recall the train connections all seeming easy.

Arles had a wonderful open air market.

Check out SNCF for timetables for train connections between the villages you want to visit.

Have fun!

Gretchen

Good luck. Someone on an Aol board who reallydidnt drive posted a LONG time ago. I'm sure it can be done.

abt021

Thank you so much for your advice skatterfly! I'm looking at Arles and it seems perfect for us - and only 20 min from avignon by train!

I think we will stay in Arles from July 9 - 12, and then stay in avignon friday night (out by the tgv station) so that we can explore the city before leaving for Paris on saturday evening.

travlsolo2

You might check into staying in Nimes. Train connections seem to be good to Avignon and other towns. Bus to Pont du Gard is easy from Nimes.

Christina

I think this is just empirical -- look at the map and see which cities have good rail connections. And then which ones are large enough to have a lot of tourists and thus also have decent bus service and companies that will cater to tourists with some van excursions.

Pretty much Aix and Avignon.

skatterfly

I should also add that we chose Arles specifically to *see* Arles, not to technically use it as a home base. I'm sure that, from the standpoint of train connections, there are other villages that are better suited for getting around on train/bus. I didn't want to imply that I thought Arles was the best spot for getting around Provence by train. If you have specific villages you want to see, you should start there. If your top priority is specifically St Remy I'd make sure I'd stay someplace with easy access to there. Provence is a big region... you won't see it all (or even a fraction) by train in 4 days. But you'll have a chance to get the flavor of a village or two. Good luck planning.

PhilippeProvence

Stremy is accessible by bus from Arles (only 25k away)but only 4 connections a day...
http://www.saintremy-de-provence.com...arles-2013.pdf
If you havent booked in Arles, hurry up, the Photo festival is on those dates and is big....
I'm sure Arles will be the best base for you as a non driver...
And remember you could always bike...
In St Remy we have an electric bike rental shop and they propose itinerary for the days (up to 70k), a nice way to discover provence.
For ideas on what to discover near st remy, you can check this blog
http://saintremydeprovencetourism.blogspot.fr/
Hope this will help

trotters

We can recommend the Hotel du Musee in Arles. We spent 4 nights there in Oct. 2011 and visited Nimes, St. Remy, Pont du Gard, Les Baux, Avignon without a car. Like Skatterfly, we enjoyed Arles a lot. Bus to Nimes was 1 euro. At the end of our stay we took the TGV from Avignon to Paris. Good luck.

abt021

Thank you all so much for your responses! I feel very confident with Arles as our base - it may not be as convenient as Avignon, but I think it will suit us perfectly, and looks very charming