Blenka

My husband and I together with our two sons will drive from Monte Carlo to Northern Spain in July 2013. We would like to spend about 5- 6 days in Provence region. We have never been there before and would like to get a glimpse. We have a hard time deciding whether we should pick a base hotel, or to stay at different hotels. We are tempted to experience few different inns

cigalechanta

I'd stay three days in St Remy and visit all the perche villages and Roman ruins in the area. A good guide book will guide you and the other three days maybe somewnere around Aix as it's going in the direction of Monte Carlo.

grandmere

With due respect to Cigale and her expertise on Provence and travel in general, I am of the other school of thought, hating to spend time packing up and moving on. I'd base in one place and do day trips. I think it really has to do with one's individual travel style.

StuDudley

I always recommend for people with 6 or more days available & who don't mind changing hotels, to spend 3 days in St Remy and 3 days in the Luberon - near Gordes. This way you get a mix of a smallish city where there are lots of shops, cafes, restaurants, and other Americans. Then out in the "countryside" where you can experience less of the stuff that exists in St Remy. Personally, after 18 weeks vacationing in Provence since about '83 - we prefer the latter.

Stu Dudley

Blenka

Thank you so much for your responses! What about Aix-en-Provence? Does it make sense to stay there as well for a day or so?

Blenka

Stu thank you vey much for your 27 page Cote d'Azur & Provence itinerary - it is priceless!

StCirq

I totally agree: 3 days in the Bouches-du-Rhône/Alpilles, and three in the Lubéron. But keep changing venues? No. You can make great curcuits from each of these bases.

StuDudley

Aix is not centrally located enough. However, it is our favorite large city in Provence and an overnight there is very worthwhile.

Stu Dudley

Blenka

Thank you for your responses! I am having a hard time booking a hotel in St Remy - most hotels with good reviews are sold out! Is staying in Avignon not a good idea? Does anyone have any suggestions for a good hotel in Luberon?

Underhill

re you planning to spend any time in the beautiful eastern section of Provence? Nice is worth a stopover, as is Villefranche-sur-Mer, St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, St-Paul-de-Vence, and more.

Blenka

Underhill, I will spend 2 days in Nice, and 4 days in St. Tropez prior to going to St Remy - Luberon areas...

italynovice

How about the Bed and Breakfast "Mas des Tourterelles"? It's highly rated and a 5 minute stroll to the town center.

Underhill

Four days in St-Tropez are rather a lot. Think about cutting back to 2 days and using the time to see more of western Provence.

Alan_CT

This web site has good capsule descriptions of many villages and many ads for rentals: http://www.beyond.fr/index.html.

My preference would be staying in no more than two places; a lot of the experience comes when driving from village to village anyway.

I'm not sure what the drop fee will be if you rented a car in Monte Carlo, but if it was in France, you may want to drop it and take the train into Spain. The high-speed connection will be fully operational; read about it here:
http://likelivingthere.blogspot.com/...-in-april.html