Hello,

We are spending 6 nights in Provence with a rental car, before we head to Nice to wrap up our trip for 3 nights (early Sept). We will not be using a rental car in Nice.

My question is this: Is it more convenient to drive from Provence (Nimes area) to Nice, then drop our car off OR to drop the car off in Provence (Avignon) and then take the train to Nice?

Merci!
AH

There is a lot to see between Avignon and Nice, and a car would be useful, particularly when visiting sights away from the coast.

We stayed at a B&B in the foothills close to Grasse and west of Nice. Since the airport is west of Nice, unless one wishes to see the city, staying in a small town and keeping the car until returning it at the airport might make sense.

The last part of this trip report might be useful:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...omment-7931599

Yes as Michael says if you are going to saunter along and see things a car is great - especially for inland route via the Grand Canyon de Verdun and then the Route Napoleon - but if you want to go straight thru as fast as possible take the high-speed TGV train from Avignon TGV station - get a discounted fare at www.voyages-sncf.com or www.capitainetrain.com - same trains same fares - latter is said to be infinitely easier for Americans toactually get to book - then it could be cheaper than a day's car rental and car and very steep autoroute tolls.

For great info on French trains and what to expect check www.seat61.com - good info on discounted tickets; for general info - www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Driving straight thru is no fun IME of doing this a few times - stahls or backups around Toulon are rife IME and it may take longer than you think. Spend most of the day in Nice sightseeing not on the road all day - but if wanting to leisurely drive back roads yes then as Michale says drive.

If you have time to dawdle a bit, by all means drive.

Think about it in terms of cost (both money and time):

Nimes to Nice driving should take 3 and a bit hours and cost around 60 euros.

Avignon to Nice on the train will take 3 hours direct and cost 80+ euros for two persons depending on when you book. Add another hour to drive from Nimes to Avignon and a bit more for gas and tolls and you can see that driving directly will win out on both time and money fronts.

Aside from that, as indicated you have added flexibility with the car and don't have to worry about catching a train at a specific time.

Of course, if you aren't car folks, 3 hours on the autoroute might not be your thing - I'm not a big fan personally, but I will say that a good chunk of that ride (from Aix to Nice) is actually quite scenic (for a highway).

If it was me, I'd drive.

- Kevin

don't forget to add the extra day cost of a car rental to the calculations and the train is more relaxing than driving on heavily trafficked autoroutes IME.

return the car in Nimes perhaps - take the shuttle to Avignon-TGV and save maybe two days of car rental.

I'd take the train which I think is much more relaxing than driving, unless you do plan to stop somewehre enroute, etc. If it's simply a matter of getting there, I wouldn't.

Mainly because driving into such a big city as Nice and then dropping off the car at some station in the city isn't something I find relaxing. Avignon is easy as you can drop it off right at the TGV station, I presume, and it's on the outskirts of the city, of course, on a highway, so no city traffic problem. So it depends where you plan to drop this car in Nice, from my point of view. But if that doesn't matter to you at all, then I guess I would drive as you've probably paid for the car anyway. If not, and you are paying another day for it, I wouldn't drive.

yeh if you've lokced into a contract then drive if not save the day of car rental hop the train.

Ok - I am now leaning towards the train as well. We love scenic rides, but I have a feeling I will feel rushed and possibly stressed navigating traffic/dropping the car, etc

However, the cost appears a good deal cheaper to drive - extra charge for dropping the car in Arles or Nimes (adds 60E to car rental) plus 75E each for train tickets vs just the extra gas cost.

Decisions decisions - thanks all for your input! It has really helped.

I had to get from St. Remy to Nice, and we drove mainly so that we could drive some of the corniches on the way down into Nice (we stayed on the autoroute as if going past Nice, and got off at La Turbie). That didn't work as well as I would have liked as we didn't see Eze along the way, as planned (couldn't find anyplace to park) and dropping the car at the gare in Nice was a nightmare (finding a gas station to top off and avoid that charge was tough, then having to drive all the way up to the top of the garage at the gare was a pain in the ass). If you do opt to drive, find someplace else to drop off (maybe the airport).

What rental company is charging you extra for dropping the car in Arles or Nîmes? That seems strange.

Not if they picked the car up in Nice.

Hi Underhill - both Hertz and Enterprise charge a location and drop off fee if I return the car to Arles or Nimes. We pick the car up in Avignon, but somehow avoid this charge if dropping the car off in Nice.

Those are 2 rental car companies I use and trust in the US, so those are all I checked - if anyone has better recs for France please share. Thanks!

Europcar is a standard in Europe, generally used by Autoeurope (a broker) when picking a car up at a RR station. There is a fee for such a pick-up, but it is, in my experience, less than the one-way drop-off fee. Use Autoeurope for your rental. It is based in the States and has clear contracts with no fee for changing or dropping the rental agreement as long at it is more than 48 hours before the beginning of the rental. If your credit card will carry the CDW, choose the <b>basic</b> rate and make sure that you decline the CDW when you pick up the car.

http://www.autoeurope.com/index2.cfm...C6J5O27hNjLg.1

My dropoff fee from Autoeurope (with Hertz) picking up in Nice and dropping off in Lyon is 60 euros. My experience has been that there is usually a drop off fee -- although as mentioned above, Nice seems to be an exception as they apparently always need cars ending up in Nice -- many people fly in there and then drive off to somewhere else.

But I'm not complaining as the week's rental is only $137 US and includes their sending us a GPS a week before we depart and we return it after we come home. (Booked about 8 months ahead!) And this is in high season (last week of August to first week of September).

I do not recall a drop-off fee when I picked up a car in Nice, but agency was Europcar, and it was a few years ago; since then the practice may have changed.