Airport advice- from NYC to French Alps, then onto Provence
 

We are planning a trip that begins in the Alps, and continues south to Provence. Our flight options from NYC are many. It seems to make sense to fly into GENEVA, rather than Paris. Perhaps leave from PARIS to come home? Does a different international airport make sense from Provence? Barcelona is further away; Milan means training east to fly west. Any other ideas?

Hi Native NY,

First of all, how do you plan on travelling once you get to Geneva (if you do select that location)?
It would also be helpful to know when you plan on flying...

I was thinking Lyon would be a good city but it seems there are no direct lights from NYC to Lyon...but....have you considered flying into CDG and catching the TGV at the airport to Lyon (a little over 2 hours travel time) and if renting a car, pick it up there.
You could also take the train to Geneva but I think it would be easier to rent in Lyon and enjoy driving to Geneva.
Depending on the route chosen it's two hours or less.
If you didn't have a particular need to go to Geneva, then you might want to go direct to Provence. You didn't specify a particular area or city, so I chose Avignon. Here's info on rail service to that city (with more info on other areas on the same site):
http://www.marvellous-provence.com/t...ignon-by-train

If you wanted something different before Provence you could spend a night in Lyon (or two...it's a wonderful city) and then take the train on.

But say you don't want to cross France by train..or you want to do it to get back to Paris...then consider a flight to Nice. Delta has direct flights to Nice and you could probably book the return from Paris with them also (they share with Air France and KLM).
Nice isn't that far from whatever location you've chosen in Provence and is certainly closer than Geneva.

Think about those options, let us know when and where and you'll get more responses and suggestions.
Good luck, good health, good travel!

Where are you going in the French Alps and when? Makes a difference in the airport. From Geneva there are regular busses to ski resorts in France. Then take a train from there to Provence, or rent a car. And why not fly home from Nice, unless you are visiting Paris too?

And I don't know where you are staying in Provence, but train from Nice to Milan is not so easy. It doesn't make sense to fly from Milan if you are in Provence.

Geneva is a good place to start your trip. There are direct buses from Geneva airport to Chamonix Mont Blanc.

From there to Provence, there are basically 3 itineraries:

train Chamonix - Annecy - Chambery - Grenoble - Valence - Avignon;
train Chamonix - Annecy - Chambery - Grenoble - Route Napoleon - Veynes - Aix-en-Provence;
bus Chamonix - Courmayeur - Aosta, train Aosta - Turin - Cuneo - Limone - Nice - Cannes.

Easyjet has cheap low cost flights between Geneva and Nice.

Wow, such quick responses! We are meeting people in Aix le Baines, & plan to train. We are traveling down to Avignon. I don't think it makes sense ti travel east ti Nice, to fly to the USA. Nice is a few hrs by train, as is Paris, w/ so many flight options. N'est pas?

I'm not sure I understand your thinking about all these "flight options" back to New York.

I do agree that flying into Geneva will be more convenient for parts of the alps and the airport is a lot easier to negotiate than is Paris-CDG.

The return from Nice is non-stop on Delta as someone has said but other than Paris you won't get anything without going through Paris.

From Avignon, Paris is at the fastest 2hrs and 40 minutes; Nice would be perhaps a 3-hour trip.

Just look at where you can get a flight home from France, there are only two major airports down there -- Marseille and Nice. It's easy to check those out. If it's true you can get a nonstop from Nice, I'd do that but I will pay a premium to fly nonstop. YOu can't get nonstops to almost any city in the US from anywhere but Paris in France, but if you can, that's your option. I can't imagine why you'd go back to Paris from Provence for no reason, just to take a flight.

I don't think Delta has nonstops to/from Nice all year, so it depends when you go. They only do in summer not sure what month that starts/stops.

Marseille Provence airport is another option for southern France. It has easy train connections to Avignon, Aix and Marseille itself. The TGV station in Aix gives you a quick rail route to Lyon and Geneva.
Many of the flights south require changing planes in Paris. I prefer to make the connections on the outbound flight, then return to North America on a non-stop from Paris, since those flights tend to depart at a more relaxed mid-day hour.

I know that Delta has non-stops from Nice to the US at certain times of year - and that would make the most sense if it's available when you're traveling. Much easier than flying from somewhere else and changing at CDG (a nightmare) or returning to Paris a day early to be sure of making a flight the next day.

If you want to go back in 1 day, you must travel via Paris CDG, for example:
Marseille dp 6.44 - Avignon TGV dp 7.16 - Paris CDG airport ar 10.32, dp 13.55 - JFK ar 16.20.
From Provence, it's impossible to catch the New York bound flights at Geneva or Barcelona the same day.

For me that would be a non-decision. Into Geneva and home from Nice.

Sojourntraveller- someone else said just this today. Into Geneva and home from Nice. I shall check the flight options.

Southam gave some good advice.

If you are going to Avignon and see a bit of Provence, then it is super easy to fly out of Marseilles. The airport is about half way between Aix and Marseilles. It is a small airport, so easy to navigate. Flights from there do make a brief stop in Paris, basically get off, get back on, no change of plane. I know flights from Marseilles through Paris land at JFK, don't know where else.

Southam didn't advise flying out of Marseille, but from Paris. It is an easy airport, I agree, I've flown into it.

I'm not sure what the above post is referring to about how there is no plane change in Paris for flights from MRS to JFK. First, if that were true, you wouldn't have to get off the plane. But Air France doesn't fly wide-body jets between Marseille and CDG, they have smaller planes and then you change to a big one for the transatlantic trip. If there is any airline that flies a wide-body jet and doesn't chyange planes in CDG, I'd be interested in who it was (I thought Air France was the only major airline even flying that route, from MRS to CDG).

Of course there are other airlines where you could fly from MRS to JFK with one stop to change planes, such as through London, Dublin, Amsterdam or Brussels. They would all require plane changes to the US, though.

The point to me is that you can fly non-stop from NYC to Geneva and non-stop back from Nice.

Why make stops if you don't have to. As I wrote, it is a non-decision. I see no point to continuing to go on about flights that change in Paris etc. when there is no need to do so.

XL airways owns 4 (300+) airbuses and leases another jumbo jet of some kind (757 I think). They offered that route (JFK to Marseille) last year Spring through Fall. As I remember, they operated that flight only twice a week. I flew it last September.

XL was also doing the route this year, but it seems to have ended for the summer. It seems the issue is: they fly that route, Marseilles to NY only Spring through Fall, and I don't know if they will have the same in 2015. They were also flying from Miami, but now, just Paris to NY and to the DR.

We did not get off the plane when we stopped at CDG on the way, but did get off on return. I was surprised to be getting off since we hadn't on the way. No, we did not change planes.

I had not heard of XLairways until I saw it on Travelzoo.

Good while it lasted, our flight was $605 RT.
Hope they do offer it again.
Will add though, we did it because it went exactly where I wanted to go and was cheap, but seating on XL was very tight.

If you were already in Marseilles or Aix, and it was going to be only a quick stop, no layover or plane change, then there would be no need to travel to Nice. If you can't get those flights (and it looks like they are not available in winter), then maybe Nice is best, but you have to take the train or rent a car to get there - individual has to figure cost and time to see what is best for them.

It appears that the Delta non-stops from Nice to NYC are seasonal - at least this year - and I don't see that you have told us when you are traveling. Assuming it's when Delta is flying this route it's a no brainer.

Non-stop flights from Nice are seasonal, and we intend to go in September or October. Thank you for all the input. I've planned many a wonderful trip with the excellent feedback I receive on these forums.