Amccarrick

I've read a lot of the forums and have not found the answer to this so here goes!

My husband and I are planning a trip to Italy and then to the South of France. He wants to go scuba diving and I go to the beach while he does that, and we also want to see historic sites . We like quiet areas where you can walk to everything local. We have 2 weeks and plan on having a week in Italy and a week in the South of France.

For Italy, he will want to probably do diving in the Amalfii Coast area, and then we also want to see Rome and Venice and anything interesting and historic we can fit in between. But I'm not really sure how to do that (in which order), and where to fly to from the US. We think we would then get a train from Venice to wherever is our base in France. I will probably try to find B&Bs in each of these places if possible. Any suggestions on this?

I am pretty sure we will book a rent by owner for South of France and stay in one place and travel out from there each day. So my question for France is, which place do we stay that is not too touristy, but near the beaches and diving. Do we stay in Nice, Cannes, Antibes, etc.? it looks like the best diving is in the Cannes/Antibes area. We are open to renting a car, but are happy to get buses and trains also.

And my biggest concern, is what time of year is not too busy, but warm enough to lie on the beach and go diving?

Thanks so much for any input to narrow down my research a little

rhkkmk

i am doing both places next may and have done them before..

car rentals are very expensive in italy, so train is probably better.

for a one week IT stay i might consider just venice and rome---save the ocean for france

i like sept/oct/may/june for those areas, but other times work well too...

fly into rome and out of nice..

imo, i would not stay in any of those french places, except nice, but would rather stay in some of the small towns in between them, or some of the hill towns..

i also would want a car in france for sure.

best western in europe is a good chain of individually owned small hotels... for instance i am staying in vence, france at the hotel floreal at a reasonable price.

some of the small towns over by st tropez are quite nice

rhkkmk

we will be staying for a week at collobriers in land 30 minutes+ from the coast.

Amccarrick

Thanks for the response! Why do so many people say to stay away from Nice? We like to stay in walking distance of the beaches, and places to eat so that is why I had chose those places. I see lots of wonderful reviews about Old Town.....

This vacation is partly for diving so I don't really want to skip the coast in Italy and would be totally happy with just one day in Venice.

As for hotels, we only stay in them for short stays and really prefer to stay away from American brands if we are in another country. Now that we have used http://www.vrbo.com/, if we are staying for a week anywhere, we will always rent by owner. It is usually cheaper than even the cheapest hotels, and the places are in often in residential areas so you feel like you are local.

jamikins

THe beaches arent that great around Nice, as in they are rocky not sandy. Smooth pebbles. Just an FYI...

StCirq

You said you like quiet areas where you can walk to everything local. Nice is a big city, not a quiet area.

With regard to scuba diving, France has some of the most stringent regulations of any European country. You will probably have to be checked out and OK'd by a French doctor, and you will be limited to diving in certain areas with certain companies. You need to register and check in with one of the following to proceed:


Comité Départemental de Plongée (Alpes-Maritimes)
Tel: 04 93 61 26 07
Fax: 04 93 67 76 74
Comité Régional Côte d'Azur des Sports Sous-Marins (Var)
Tel: 04 94 71 63 43

ekc

With one week in Italy, you don't have time to see the Amalfi Coast, Rome and Venice IMO. If Venice is a must, you could do A/C and Venice, or Rome and Venice, but not all 3. And Venice needs more than 1 day.

Each time you change cities you lose AT LEAST half of a day in packing up, checking out of the hotel, getting to the train station, train to next location, getting to the hotel, checking into the hotel and unpacking.

immimi

Renting a car in Italy is no more expensive than getting one
in France esp. if you pre-rent from N.America.

I think carrying scuba gear plus luggage on trains would be
a drag in more ways than one. lol.

Amccarrick

I've looked up diving in France and thanks for the tip on that! We will probably spend less time in France if that is the case and spend more in Italy so he can dive there.

I think I am going to look around Cannes for a base if it is too busy in Nice, plus the beaches look sandy there

You are totally right about lugging that diving gear around. We had not even considered a car in Italy, but maybe we will.

Thanks all for the help!

nytraveler

You are trying to d otoo many places/things in too little time.

In just one week in italy you really can't do AC, Rome and Venice - you would spend a lot of time in travel and really have only 1 or 1.5 days in each place - not nearly enough time to really see or do anything - so you're going to have to choose.

As for the Riviera - I love Nice and we prefer to stay there and see other sights areas (smaller towns along the coast, charming villages in the mountains and some of the unique small museums) - but Nice is the second larges city in France - and bustling - not quiet.

As for beaches - few of the beaches in either area are anything to write home about. Some of the more expensive resort hotels on the water have nice - private - beaches - because they create them. Much of the coast is rocks or pebbles versus sand (nothing like the Carib or beaches in the US) and in season they are typically packed with rented chairs or blankets. Not sure where scuba diving makes any sense - perhaps from Capri - but you wold need to investigate and make arrangements in advance.

HappyTrvlr

Car rental prices are higher in Italy than France. Anribes is a nice small city/big town.

Amccarrick

Yeah I've read everyone's comments, and I think, seeing as Italy is more important to us, we may just do 2 weeks there so we can do everything. I've looked at many diving places in Italy and it is definitely something we can do with advance plans. We can do France next time!

A_Brit_In_Ischia

Did your researches find Baia, down in the south - at the opposite side of the Bay of Naples from Sorrento and Amalfi...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/132567370


http://underwaterarchaeologicalparkbaia.blogspot.it/

For more details, and a firsthand account or two (not from me!), follow the path that leads backwards from...

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTop..._Campania.html

Peter

Amccarrick

I did not Peter but I plan on doing so, thank you for these links