JWH

Wife wants to do Provence and I want to do Spain. We know we should do one or the other but is there a way to do both on a 10 day trip? Looking for best way to get between places, itinerary ideas, etc. Thanks!

travelbunny

..yikes I am a slow paced traveler. I think,however, if you had an open jaw and started in Barcelona (and limited yourself to Barcelona and neighboring areas) and the drove from Barcelona and had a flight from Nice this would be possible. Also check whether it would be considerably cheaper to take the train to Perpignan and then rent a car.

JWH

My number one ojbective in Spain is Bilboa and hers (in Provenc)is Lavender fields (we will be going in late June/early July). This will be tricky.

kevin_widrow

Ryanair does Madrid to Marseille direct - cheap and quick. Might help... assuming they are stil around next year !

-Kevin

zeppole

Where are you coming from?

There are direct flights to Madrid from the US. Also direct flights to Nice.

There are flights out of both London and Paris to Bilbao, and from Bilbao it is easy and cheap to fly to Madrid on most Spanish carriers.

So that's your first 5 days.

From Madrid, if that Ryan Air flight to Marseilles is still around, that's one possibility. I would look to see if there are flights from Madrid to Nice or Monaco. I know there are flights to Genova, where you could catch a train back into France (two hours) and pick up a car, but that would be my last resort.)

So there the next five days of your trip, flying out of France.

PS: If your "number one objective" is Bilbao, skip Madrid. Get yourself to Bilbao the cheapest way possible, then fly out Bilbao to the best destination in France -- which may include Paris CDG, where you can catch a TGV south. If you did this plan, I would add a least a day to the Basque coast to visit San Sebastian-Donostia.

cova

or,instead of flying, and if you donīt want to drive ... there is a night train from Hendaye to Nice. It leaves around 19:00 in the evening arriving there at around 8:30 am

We have driven a few times on our way to Italy, leaving Bilbao around 10:00 in the morning and arriving to Arles between 17:00 and 18:00. The motorway is not really awful, until you reach the Languedocienne near Narbonne (lots of traffic coming from Cataluña), but I think it could be done.

Bye, Cova