Help with Provence and French Riviera
 

Hi All,
I will be traveling with a friend at the end of June and we're working out the details of our itinerary. Any help is appreciated. Some background-So far, the details are as follows: We're landing in Nice on a Tuesday morning. Between Tuesday and Sunday, we will be staying in the south exploring the area-main places I would like to visit are Eze, Cap D'antibes, and my friend would like to see Monaco. Over the weekend we will either stay in Cannes or Nice (haven't yet decided) we will then head to Provence on Sunday and fly out of Lyon on Thursday. Here are my questions:

1. what town/village is a nice option to stay in (before cannes/nice) from tues night-thursday night.
2. Cannes vs. Nice as base for the weekend?
3. Must see places besides those named above?
4. In Provence-any recommendations for a base? I was thinking St. Remy or Aix en Provence
5. Any opinions on must sees in Provence?
6. May spend the last couple of days in Lyon/Rhone Valley, any recommendations of areas to stay in outside of Lyon but with access to the city?
7. Finally (sorry!) opinions on car rentals, and if there are any parts of this trip where i absolutely should or should not have a car?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Daniella

Daniella: Nice can(and should)be your base for the length of your stay tuesday to sunday.really good and cheap public transportation system allows you to go without trouble to Cannes, Antibes, Mónaco, Cap Ferrat(don't miss Villa Ephrussi),Saint Paul de Vence , Eze and other points of interest.
As a plus Nice is really Nice and has lots of restaurants.
Enjoy your trip!

If you want to be more in Provence, I DO recommend St. Remy. It looks like the perfect little French town with a town square in the middle from all the great French movies you've seen. Has some nice restaurants and is an easy driving distance from the Pont du Gard, Arles, Roussillion (most gorgeous place in Provence IMO), etc. Sous les Figuiers is a wonderful small hotel there with very nice owners. But Nice is a good idea too esp. since most of what you want to see seems to be close to Nice.

thanks to you both for the helpful tips! jelopez33 I can stay in Nice from Tuesday to Sunday, I was just wondering if it was worth it to stay in one of those smaller charming places mostly for the experience...but if it's much easier to base out of Nice, I can do that.

Where specifically in the South will you be staying? Do you have a hotel already? I personally would recommend for you and your friend to stay at the Palais de la Mediterranee!It's a great location for you (only 19 minutes by car to Eze,39 minutes by car to Cap D'antibes, and 30 minutes by car/bus to Monaco.) The hotel itself is beautiful, and most rooms have great views of the city/ocean. Their service is also great, I stayed there last year and it was phenomenal all around. On bookings.com you can actually get a deal right now of $662 from June 25th- June 29th, but if you stay an extra day and checkout on Monday you can actually get a reduced price of $14. That would definitely be my suggestion in terms of where to stay, but obviously that revolves around how much money you are willing to spend.

In terms of things you should see while your are in Provence, Definitely checkout the popes palace! If you're really into architecture, you'll be taking pictures like crazy. They also have events there a lot, but I'm not sure about during the week. They usually occur on weekends (Saturday/Sunday). Also, be sure to check out the beach while you are there! There's no point of going all the way to Nice and not checking out the beach. It's absolutely stunning! Just make sure to bring sandals, since they are rock, not sand beaches. Another recommendation of mine would be for you guys to check out old town. It's a beautiful and short walk (about 20 min from Palais de la Mediterranee, and there are a bunch of shops where you can buy souvenirs, as well as really good French food. While we're on the shopping topic- Ave Jean Medecin is also great to checkout. In Lyon, I recommend staying at Mercure Lyon La Part Dieu. It's about $126 a night, but worth it if you want to be near/in the city.

Last but not least, regarding your rental car question, France in general has a great bus and rail system. I got everywhere by bus. Let me know if you have any further questions!

travelguru, thanks for your helpful post. We haven't booked hotels, but i had looked at the palais etc that you mentioned,a and it's on my shortlist :)as we'd like to splurge in one place. Any recs for areas to stay in Provence? I'm leaning toward St. Remy. Also, have you ever rented a car? or just find the buses very efficient? I was wondering about parking etc. Thanks!

We stayed three nights in Nice at the Hotel le Grimaldi. We liked Nice, and that hotel, a lot.

If I count things correctly - you have nine nights. Tues through Wed nights. That's about the bare minimum for the Cote d'Azur & Provence, IMO. I would forget about visiting anything around Lyon.

I would do this:

- Tues to Sat. Land in Nice & spend 4 nights in Nice - we like the Hotel Windsor, but unless you are planning this trip for next year, many/most accommodations in Provence & the Cote d'Azur will already have been booked up.

- Sat to Wed Drive to Provence and spend 4 nights somewhere in the Luberon or St Remy. I like the Luberon after Nice to get the "out in the country" feel, and on Sunday you will be closer to the l'Isle sur la Sorgue farmer's/antique/craft market - and also closer to the lavender fields in the Luberon and around Sault. No Lavender fields close to St Remy (within 1 hr).

- Wed late afternoon. Take the 5:00PM TGV from the Avignon "centre" station (not TGV station) to the Lyon St Exupery (airport) station (arrives at 6:36PM) and stay Wed night around the airport. You could, of course, take one of the many afternoon TGVs from the Avignon TGV station into central (Part Dieu) Lyon station & see a bit of Lyon - but not 2 days worth at the expense of time in Provence or the Cote d'Azur.

- Thurs. Fly home

I would not base in Aix - too far away from the main attractions in Provence.

My wife & I have spent 34 weeks vacationing along the Cote d'Azur and in Provence. I developed a 27 page itinerary for visiting these areas. I've sent it to over 3,000 people on Fodors. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach one to the reply e-mail.

Book hotels ASAP if you are traveling in 6 weeks from today. You'll have difficulty. We booked our accommodations in Nice & Provence about 5 months ago - for our 2014 June vacation.

Stu Dudley

How would you guys feel if I could somehow automate this process? So all this logistical stuff would be figured out in the back end?

Not sure what you mean, travelguru. Automate what? And what good would it be as opposed to advice from folks who actually travel to these places often?

I like Stu's idea. Forget Lyon. Divide the time between the Côte d'Azur and inland Provence pretty much equally. I can totally live without Cannes or Monaco, but others are drawn. I love the Bouches-du-Rhône area and would spend time there in St-Rémy, which is admittedly a tourist mecca or Uzès, which is more laid back. Or the Lubéron, which doesn't personally resonate as much with me but which is very popular. And the whole wine region around the Dentelles is really interesting.

Automate the research process. I'd need your guys help though. I'd leverage the information I and everyone else knows about these destinations to create an itinerary for travelers based on their interests. It would take me a day to put a site up, and then we i'd be able to start indexing everyone's personal input. I'm thinking of maybe even incorporating some kind of live chat feature as well, so all of us could interact and ask questions in real time. Let me know if that's something you guys would want to see happen. I'd totally be down for doing it.

Stududley, I will email you, thanks. I did forget to put in that I want to do the lavender fields thank you for the related tips. You mentioned driving, and then taking the train to avignon, did you drive and return your car there? is that an option? Also, Stcirq, i am not so enamored by Monaco, it's my friend who would like to visit. Did either of you stay anywhere on the coast besides for nice that you liked? thanks!

Travelguru: Amazing idea. Why don't you post this is an independent thread cross-posting on several forums? I think people would love this. It's amazing. Maybe if it was really good, you could make a smartphone app. Start a new thread so more people will respond.