Hello everyone--My daughter will be spending a month in Spain, although she will not be visiting Barcelona. I am thinking of meeting her in Barcelona, with my 2 other kids (10 and 19). After spending a few days, I thought we might drive through the S. of France, and fly out of Nice. Any ideas? We will have 10 days total. Thanks so much. Lisa

Hi; Train to Collioure to avoid drop off charges. Spend a few days. Then rent the car and perhaps spend three day near Avignon. Finally continue on to Nice. Richard

Thank you. Can you take a train from Barcelona to Collioure? How far is it? Any suggestions of where to stay?

Given the ages of your kids, I'm guessing this is a summer trip. To me, only a fraction of the coastal road on that route is really marvelous. And depending on when in summer you are going, you could find yourself in a lot of crowds and traffic jams. And then you end up in an extremely pricey and super-developed part of the French Riviera.

More appealing to me would be to take an overnight ferry from Barcelona to Corsica, have fun there, then take another ferry to Marseilles, rent a car, tour a little bit of historic Provence, and head for Nice.

Or take an overnight ferry to Genova, see something of the Italian Riviera around the Portofino Peninsula, then head the French border by train, rent a car in Menton or Monaco, tour around there before heading into Nice.

iris and I were posting at the same time. I'm not a fan of Collioure but I would think even its biggest fans run out of things to do there in the space of a day, especially young people.

Hi; We liked Collioure. Arrived late in the afternoon and picked a hotel with one opening and just paid the price. It's just under three hours with a short fifteen minute connection from Barcelonia. There is much to see driving France this route and also with the other suggestion. Here is a site that you could check for hotels. www.booking.com/hotels-collioure and www.tripadvisor.com/collioure Both sites give reviews. Richard P.S. www.collioure.com

Thank you everyone. Also, my kids have some friends who will be in Monaco...is it worth going there to visit them?

Zeppole--If I take your suggestions, can you elaborate a litte? Sounds like a great trip!

The easier trip to map out would be to take the overnight ferry to Genoa and then take the hour train trip to a town like Santa Margherita Ligure. From there you could not only take a 10-minute boat ride into posh Portofino but also see the now-super-famous le Cinque Terre in a 40 minute train ride.

From there you could head into France by train and make your first stop Monaco. It's not a terribly inspiring train trip, and I find Monaco rather hideous, but if your kids have friends there, I'm sure you all can find a way to make it fun. I'm sure it costs the moon the stay in Monaco in the summer, so you'd want to find a nearby town. My impulse would be to head more into the hills -- the coast can be so pricey and jammed -- but I'm not an expert on that area.

With a car you could explore a lot of the surrounding hilltowns, but train connections are good all along the coast.

If you preferred going to Corsica, you'll be jostling for space on the coast with many vacationers. Again, I'd probably rent a car and head for the hills, but you might want to research other options.

http://www.bugbog.com/european_count...a_beaches.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...d-of-town.html

A ferry back to Marseilles and picking up a rental car would give you a lot more flexibility to tour around Provence, but I think it's not out of the question to see the major historic small cities of that region by train alone.

You could also ferry from Corsica to Genova -- but then I would head to Monaco (by train) from Genova, since you'll be running out of time.

I don't know if it's possible to ferry directly from Corsica to Nice. If so, then you can put Monaco back in the mix with a quick train ride from Nice.

Thank you so much for all of these suggestions.....I really appreciate it!!!

Check out these photos to see what may be of interest : http://the-languedoc-page.com/photos

Peter

"I don't know if it's possible to ferry directly from Corsica to Nice."

There are ferries from Nice to Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi and L'Ile Rousse.

You could also fly Barcelona to Marseilles with Spanair, rent a car in Marseilles and spend 10 days in Provence.