italybound01

Hi there,

I am planning for a trip to Europe next summer. I am planning to visit Portugal, Spain and France.

These are my stops at the moment:

Lisbon
Seville
Granada
Valencia
Barcelona
St. Remy/Provence

I have some friends that are renting a villa in St Remy and I plan on joining up with them at the end of my trip.

Can anyone suggest the best way to get to St. Remy from Barcelona? Is there a flight option or is taking the train the best option?

Would appreciate any comments on the proposed itinerary as well. Thank you in advance!

Sue

Michael

Check to see if there are cheap flights between Barcelona and Marseilles.

hkto

Marseilles to Barcelona train takes about 6.5 hrs. http://www.voyages-sncf.com/ Spanair http://www.spanair.com flies twice per week.

italybound01

Thank you both for your quick replies!

PalenQ

By train you would train to Avignon, just a few miles from St-Remy - Marseilles is too far away and then backtrack, literally, to Avignon. check to see if Nimes has cheap flights or Lyon, probably as close as Marseilles.

For train info check out these IMo super sources - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

PalenQ

there are still I believe no direct Barcelona to France trains save the Catalan Talgo train which departs Barcelona daily around 9am and one in the afternoon - these terminated at Montpellier where you change to TGV trains to Avignon-TGV station. There are however now direct TGVs from Figueras, north of Barcelona and you can easily connect with these by spanish trains, giving you many more options.

Christina

I'm going from Barcelona to France in a few weeks, so I checked out some of these options. I was surprised at the lack of direct trains to points east in France (like Montpellier or Marseille). I really didn't want to transfer and I finally just decided to fly, it seemed easier (and was about as cheap). I decided to fly Easyjet to Lyon. They have fares starting at only around 20 euro or something, in any case, they are cheap. That was the cheapest option for a flight, as of course, Air France will fly to a lot of places, but they were really expensive. Spanair to MRS is a lot more expensive than the Easyjet, also, but cheaper than Air France.
There aren't any cheap flights to Avignon from BCN.

Don't you need to find out what your friends are willing to do to pick you up? I am assuming that is what you are planning as there is no train station in St Remy, and you don't mention renting a car. If you are renting a car, you would probably want Avignon or Marseille, but Avignon is a lot closer.

There are buses from Avignon to St Remy, but they aren't very frequent or convenient in scheduling. I think a couple a day, you'd have to check, and they take a long time (having taken one, they are locals that go all over and make a lot of intermediate stops).

italybound01

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I plan on renting a car and driving to St Remy from the closest point I can get from Barcelona. I will look through all the options provided by all you wonderful people. Thank you!!

mpprh

This crops up regularly.

Do some research on bus Barcelona to Girona airport (www.ryanair.com), bus Girona to Perpignan (www.frogbus.com), rent a car for the trip to St Remy.

Check options here :

www.easyjet.com
www.eurolines.com

Not cheap, but as an alternative check out :

Barcelona- Marseille SpanAir
Barcelona- Nice SpanAir


Peter

PalenQ

If driving you may want to take the train across the French border and rent a car there - avoiding possibly steep drop-off charges for renting in one country and returning car in another.