We are planning a trip to France in May for 10 days. We plan to fly into Paris and then go to Champagne, Burgundy, Lyon, Rhone and Nice (fly home from here). We just arn't sure the best way to get from city to city, whether its to just rent a car the whole time or use euro train. Please help!!! First time travelers and first time on this website!. Thank you.
Any recommendation on HOTELS in any of those cities will be great appreciated as well.

Don't even THINK about renting a car in Paris. Get the train from there to your first destination. After that, it's really down to how easy it will be to get between your next destinations. For the final leg to Nice, get back on the the train.

Roger

I would rent a car since you it seems are mainly going thru rural areas like Champagne and Burgundy and Rhone Valley - do not seem to be going just to big cities like many in which case the train is better IMO.

Your itinerary is a sweet sweet driving route - especially if you are interested in wines and visiting wine houses, etc.

the beauty of Champagne, Burgundy, Rhone is what lies between cities and thus the car is best. But for a lot of info on trains check out these sites: www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com. There is a France Railpass that if you take trains on several different days may come into play - check above sites for info on that. And check www.voyages-sncf.com for train schedules and sample fares, including online discounts if you want to lock yourself into a non-changeable non-refundable train weeks in advance. You may want to take a train out of Paris and say pick up your rental car in a more quiet town, like Reims, in Champagne and set off from there - try to include Vezelay in your route to Burgundy - a World Heritage Site - once one of Christianity's most thriving pilgrimmage places in the Middle Ages.

Hi ele,

I strongly urge you to rethink this plan.

Six major venues in 10 days is not a good itinerary for a first timer.

You would be much better served with several days in 2 (at most 3) venues,

However, you do have a nice driving trip.

What Ira said. Too many places, not enough time. Cut it down to 3 destinations max. Maybe Paris, then train to Avignon, rent a car for a couple days, drive to Nice and drop the car.

I'd cut down on the venues, too. Visit Paris for a couple of days, then take the train to Lyon and do the same. Rent a car there and wander around Burgundy wine country, then either hop on the train to Avignon or drive there and spend a couple of days in the Bouches-du-Rhône area and end up in Nice. Even that is a lot for short trip like that.

Can anyone recommend any good hotels in any of those areas? Or any good websites for car rentals?

What is your definition of a "good hotel?" What's your budget? Do you like modern or old and charming? There are a gazillion hotels in all those places - you'll have to narrow it down for us to be able to give you any useful advice.

I almost always rent from AutoEurope.

Ditto to StCirq
Paris for a few days, TGV to Lyon for a couple of days, rent car for the rest.

Lyon is the culinary capital of France, and has some nice tourist stuff to easily fill a couple of days.

Within Paris and Lyon the public transportation systems are all you need.

Yes, we do have a budget and would rather not spend to much money on the hotels, (save the money for the food and wine)Just something decent, not very expensive. I do love old and charming hotels as long as we can afford them.

<<Just something decent, not very expensive.>>

This could mean 50 different things to 50 different people. What is your budget, specifically?

Going by car you can avail yourself of the gaggle of budget motel-type hotels clustered around autoroute exits at many key cities - like those of Accor Hotels (www.accorhotels.com) with rock-bottom Formul 1 Hotels to ETAP, Novotel, etc. The cheaper ones are the cheapest possible hotels in France and are modern, etc. though with Formule 1 you do have share WCs with other rooms I believe. anyway easily can get 50 euro or less rooms all along autoroutes IME outside of paris and even around the Paris periphery as well with metro stations nearby so you do not have to drive into Paris.

I agree with almost all said so far...except I don't think you have to go the Motel 6 route in France (Accor Hotels and the like - indeed, they own Motel 6!). If there are 3 or more people, then I think you can save money by renting a car - however, with so short a time, you might be better off with TGV train to Lyon and so on as recommended by others. I think you still have enough time to do some research and find quaint, inexpensive family run hotels instead of the Motel 6's. You might even enjoy a Chambre D'haute - or the French version of a B&B. I like the Logis De France Hotels and you can find inexpensive ones. (PalenQ gives great advice, but on this score I disagree - even with so short a time in France. But some people find this a fine way to travel so forgive me if I sound elitist on this point) .

If it were me, I would reduce it to 3 or 4 stays and I'd take the train to each (i.e Paris, Lyon and then Avignon or Nice).
France is larger than you might think and I fear you will have too much windshield time to drive and appreciate all this. But the countryside is beautiful and of course the wineries and small towns...you'll simply have to come back again..and again...and again...

Agree on a couple of things:

You are trying to cover way too much ground and will miss seeing many major sights - as well as spend a lot of time just getting from one place to another.

In 10 days - and do you really have 10 days - if you are counting the day you arrive and leave you only have 8 days on the ground - I would do Paris (5 days) and one other area (city/major town and some countryside). For a first visit to Paris fewer than 5 days is really skimping things.

As for hotels - you must tell us how many of you there are, exactly what your budget is ($ or euros) and what you expect (elevator, private bath, restaurant etc). for Paris we consider anything under 300 euros a bargain - but we (2 of us) want a comfy room with space to relax (rather than the bed filling the whole room) room service and a good concierge.

I appreciate all this help so much!!.

It is just my husband and me going. Our budget is about $3000 for those days. (airfaire is seperate budget.) so about $300 a day for both of us (if its a little more or a little less then its ok, but we are going to try to stick to this budget)

Please let me know the hotels, resturants, wineries for that budget that we have.

Again thank you so much for the great help!

If the $300 (220 euros) per day includes car rental, food, sights, hotels and incidentals you actually are looking for budget properties. How much you will have to spend depends on how much traveling you do between cities (will eat up a lot of money in car rental and gas at $8 per gallon). Also, assume that you will be doing picnics and a lot of simple meals in cafes (an upscale dinner can easily cost your entire day's budget) and free sights (the Eiffel Tower and Louvre alone will cost 54 euros for the two of you).