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Travelling from Marseille Airport into the city

Travelling from Marseille Airport into the city

Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 12:08 PM
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Travelling from Marseille Airport into the city

Hello everyone!

I am flying into Marseille Province Airport for the first time in July. Once there, I will be meeting up with my boyfriend who has booked a hotel near "la Place Castellane". I was just wondering what would be the best way to get from the airport to this area of the city?

It seems like the most cost effective method would be to take the shuttle from the airport to the St. Charles train station then take a metro to the Place Castellane area. Or is there a better route? And if I were to take the shuttle then metro, do I need to book any tickets in advance or will I be fine buying both once I'm there?

Thank you so much for any input!
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 01:52 PM
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Take taxi if you can afforded or let your boyfriend pay it
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 02:32 PM
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The Marseille airport website is quite thorough and includes a chart of possible taxi fares, unfortunately a few years old.
http://www.marseille-airport.com/acc...s/access/taxis
The Metro system is here: http://www.rtm.fr/en
I'm guessing you may have found it already because you sound as if you can take care of yourself. Self-sufficiency is worth cherishing; gouging isn't.
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Old Jul 4th, 2015, 09:05 AM
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I think your plan sounds good, the metro from the train station to place Castellane is direct.

I took the airport bus to gare St Charles. No, I didn't buy in advance, I just bought a ticket there, I think they have a little trailer or something out by the bus stop where you buy tickets. YOu can buy online and print it, though, so if you are sure you'll take it, why not. I don't think you have to for any reason, though, they don't seem to reserve a time for you or anything. You never need to buy metro tickets in advance (in fact, you usually can't in any city, they don't sell them outside the city).
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Old Jul 4th, 2015, 11:32 AM
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Where is the OP ....gone with the wind ?
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Old Jul 4th, 2015, 11:57 AM
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Sorry I'm stateside now celebrating July 4th with family and haven't had the chance to check! I'm very new to the Fodor's community and am so glad I could get some help Thanks to everyone for the input!

I've spoken to my boyfriend a little bit about meeting me at the airport, but I'm not sure if that will work out. For now, it seems like I will be fine taking the shuttle then the metro to Place Castellane on my own. I was a bit nervous about trying to find my way around a brand new city after 16hrs of travel, so thank you Southam for the vote of confidence and links to transportation sites. And thank you Christina for the insight on ticket purchasing, I'm glad I can wait and buy once I'm in the city.
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Old Jul 4th, 2015, 12:06 PM
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why not take the taxi, it is door to door service ?
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Old Jul 4th, 2015, 12:13 PM
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Yea the taxi would take me straight from the airport to the hotel. It's just that the fare estimate is around 50 euro and the shuttle plus metro route seems like it would only cost around 10 euro. Save a little money on the transportation in hopes that I can use it to have a nice dinner or something while I'm there
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Old Jul 4th, 2015, 01:32 PM
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Place Castellane is pretty far away from the airport, it's on the other side of the city (arr 6). If anything, I'd at least take the bus to the train station, then a taxi from there, to save some money, as long as you aren't in a hurry.

There is actually a train from the airport to gare St Charles, also, and it doesn't cost much (about 5 euro). The problem is you first have to take a bus from the terminal to the Vitrolles train station, then a train from there into the city. SO you don't save any time. And when I was there, you couldn't easily buy a ticket on it without a credit card with a chip (which I, as an American, didn't have), as there were no windows that sold those tickets. I don't know how frequently that train runs anyway, while the airport bus is about every 20 minutes and also takes about 25 minutes to get there. So I think it's easier to take the airport bus.

As I recall, there was a little line to get tickets and when I went, it was very hot, so it wasn't pleasant waiting out there to buy the ticket a bit. But that's not the end of the world, of course, it's just that if you were sure you'd use it, I probably would buy it online just for the convenience. It's been a few years, I think you have to line up and wait for the bus to come, and if you were at the very end of a long line, it could be full up. I suppose that might happen at some real popular time, don't know. I had no trouble. YOu can always check it out and see if the lines getting long to get in it. If it isn't real hot and sunny, it wouldn't matter as it comes frequently.
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Old Jul 4th, 2015, 07:08 PM
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Hey Christina, I was reading on a similar post about the train but I came to a similar conclusion that there wasn't too much time saved and it's been difficult trying to figure out the timetable for the train. I am not in too much of a hurry and I think I save enough money riding the shuttle to the train stop, so I will likely grab a taxi from there. Just to make getting to the hotel with my luggage a little easier too.

Thank you for answering a question I forgot to ask: how easy will it be to buy the ticket at the train station. I think I will at least try to buy it online and hope my credit card won't have any problems with the site. If that doesn't work, I won't worry too much because the shuttle seems pretty frequent.

Did you take a trip to Marseille? Do you have any sites or restaurants that you would highly recommend? I've just been using Fodor's and TripAdvisor to sort out an itinerary for my visit.

Thanks again so much for the great info!
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Old Jul 5th, 2015, 07:34 AM
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All I know was when I was there, I asked the tourist information booth about how to buy a ticket for the train, and they said I couldn't, I needed to use a machine as no one sold them in person. And they didn't recommend it, said the bus was more convenient, anyway.

I'm not sure what you mean about riding the shuttle to the train "stop", there are two -- bus to gare Vitrolles (near airport) or bus to gare St Charles in the city. BUt I think you mean the bus to the main train station in the city, which is what I might do, and see you feel when you get there, if you want to splurge on a taxi or not.

yeah, I was in Marseille several days. I don't really plan restaurants much, I was staying near the port so just sort of ate and some outdoor cafe that looked decent and pleasant enough, I don't even remember names. As for sites, I enjoyed the fine arts museum and the park it is in, and the old quarter near the port, and of course, took the bus up to that church up on the hill (Notre Dame de la Garde) where you have a good view. I also liked the city history/archeological museum which isn't too far from the port.

I also did a day trip to Cassis while staying Marseille, easy by train and then a boat tour there of the calanques. That was a nice day, you might consider that. there are frequent trains to Cassis from gare St Charles that don't cost much
http://www.ot-cassis.com/en/

I think there are better places to figure out what to do than tripadvisor (haven't seen Fodors, they usually do okay with top sites). The city's own tourism website is usually pretty good for that.
http://www.marseille-tourisme.com/en/
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Old Jul 5th, 2015, 11:01 AM
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Ok then it's decided, I will take the shuttle bus from the airport to St. Charles station and then see how I feel about using the metro or taxi for the rest of the way.

I figure I will just go to whatever restaurants I run into that look enjoyable during my travels. Calanques is at the very top of my list, it looks beautiful. Not too difficult to turn into a day trip. Definitely would love to go to Notre Dame and various museums.

Thank you for the link to the tourist site! It's really nice and easy to search things on there. Thank you for the great resource.
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