Hi all!

I am attempting to plan a 2-3 week honeymoon trip for this coming September and am a bit overwhelmed! Hoping to get some insight from some people on this board who know the area well!

I'm thinking we would fly into Barcelona and spend a few days there, then take a train to Perpignan, rent a car, and then make our way towards Nice stopping at places of interest along the way.

The following is a list of places, (in driving order), that seems like places we would want to go to:

Coillure
Carcassone
Minerve
Sete
Pont du Gard
Avignon
St Remy
Les Baux
Arles
Aix-en-Provence
Cassis
Cannes
Nice
Monaco
Perhaps train up to Paris and then fly home

The problem i'm having are:
- Hows this list look? Anything here not worth visiting? Anything missing?
- Do we do a continuous drive through these towns and stopping for lodging as necessary along the way, or do we pick a few lodging bases, spending a few days at each and making side trips to the destinations around it?
- How easy will it be to get around for a couple of travelers who have limited-no ability to speak French?
- How difficult is the drive?

To give you an idea of what we both enjoy:
- Food
- Atmosphere/Architecture (provincial towns, quaint seaside villages, medieval castles, etc)
- Exploration
- Culture
- Beaches (we'd like to have a few places to just relax on beautiful beaches)

Thanks so much for the help!

-justin

My wife I have vacationed for 34 weeks in the Provence/Cote d'Azur region, and for 2 weeks in the Collioure/Perpignan area. I have a 27 page itinerary for the Cote & Provence that I've sent to over 2,500 people on Fodors. I have another that covers the Perpignan/Collioure area.

E-mail me at [email protected] & I'll send a copy via the reply e-mail.

You did not specify if you wanted to spend any time in Barcelona. If not, why not fly to Perpignan or take a train there from aris. Assuming that you don't want to spend time in Baracelona, I would recommend:

- 5-6 nights in Collioure to recover from jet lag & visit Carcassonne & Minerve as a single day trip. Explore the various things around the Pyrenees. Maybe drive to the Costa Brava in Spain.

- Head out to Provence and base someplace like St Remy or the Luberon & spend 8 nights there visiting all the sites you listed.

- Drive to Cassis & spend 1 night there

- drive to St Tropez & spend 3-4 nights there visiting all the villages and perhaps some beach time.

- drive to Nice, stay there for the remainder of your time (at least 5-6 nights) and take train trips to visit the coastal stuff, and the car to explore the breathtaking Nice Hinterland & the cute villages up there.

- Fly home from Nice.

Details are in my itineraries.

Stu Dudley

Having just spent the month of November not far from Collioure, I totally concur with Stu's suggestions. Flying in to Barcelona works well. A couple days there is a good start. Assuming you will fly home from Nice, you can probably easily pick up a rental car in Perpignan. The drive from Barcelona to Collioure really isn't all that bad, but if you want to fly home from Nice, it is probably better to train it to Perpignan to pick up your car.

Some of the nicest beaches in all of Europe are located between Collioure and Perpignan. Just know if you are there in "high" summer season -- July and August -- tons of Europeans are as well and the traffic is dense. We were at St Cyprien-la-plage and the beach was truly gorgeous...but obviously it was way off season! The friends' whose flat we were using tell us that May and September are the best times. (That said, this part of France is the sunniest of all. We had sunshine on many days when the rest of the country did not!)

You can visit the really fascinating Cathar historic sites - Perypertuse, and Queribus are an easy day trip from Collioure. It is also amazing wine country. We enjoyed Perpignan very much, and enjoyed spending a night in Montpellier, as well. It is a very cool city and could be an interesting stop between Collioure and St Remy (or where ever you decide to base in Provence.) Like others at Fodors, we've based ourselves in St Remy a couple of times and it is a good place from which to explore Provence. I wasn't that thrilled with Nice, myself, preferring Vence to the beach "town."

Go for 3 weeks. It sounds like a fabulous honeymoon!

I might add Nimes but you already have loads to look at so it might be better to cut a few.

You need to make a little effort on the language thing. If nothing else learn the top 40 words or phrases and get into the habit with husband to be before you go. You will find that greating people in their language before you ask for their help or place an order makes life so much easier.

Wow thanks so much for the wealth of information. Lets say we forget about the Cannes/Nice area and forget about Paris (i've actually been to Paris twice already, love it, so would love to go back, but, not necessary).

Now a slight wrinkle. Looking up tickets, it's cheapest to fly into london and then take an easyjet flight over to Marseille for 26 euros (so cheap!). Conviently, the fiance also had london as one of her first choices of places she wanted to go, so i've attempted to fit that into the schedule:

How would this look for an itenerary:

Day 1-3: London (Lodge in London)
Day 4: Fly to Marseille arrive 11am. Drive to St Remy, stopping by Cassis and Aix-en-Provence on the way.
Day 5-8: Day trips to Avignon, Pont du Gard, Baux, Nimes, etc (Lodge in St Remy)
Day 9: Drive Narbonne, on the way visit Arles, Sete. (Lodge in Narbonne)
Day 10: Day trip to Minerve, Carcasonne and drive to Coillure.
Day 11-12: Explore around Collioure (Lodge in Collioure)
Day 13: Train from Pipagnan to Barcelona.
Day 13-17: Barcelona (Lodge in Barcelona)

Day 4 and day 10 might be a bit tiring in terms of driving and fitting some sights in along the way, but i think we could manage those being the only 2 tough days. The only thing i dont like here is having to spend one night lodging in Narbonne, but I guess that is not too bad.

Thanks!
-justin

I was thinking, would it be better to just skip Narbonne and drive all the way to Collioure on Day 9. Then make 1 daytrip from Collioure to Carcassone/Minerve? It would cut down on an extra lodging switch, but, that daytrip seems like a very long one to make!

When we have travelled to Provence, we just chose a few towns as bases and visited surrounding towns and villages from there. It's nice to not have to unpack for a few days! You won't necessarily get to everything you want to, but you will enjoy your trip more.

St-Remy is definitely ideal as one of those bases for some of the things on your list.

We always found Avignon challenging to drive into/out of, but I would certainly include time for visit one day.

To us, Aix-en-Provence wasn't as unique as some of the smaller towns.

One of the more memorable towns we visited was Roussilon with its amazing landscapes. Consider stopping there one morning or afternoon.

cheers,
CC

>>
Day 1-3: London (Lodge in London)>>

Not sure where you live, but if you are flying from the US, I think day 1 will be somewhat "lost" with arriving stuff and jet lag. I would add and extra day or two. Only 2 full days in London isn't enough, IMO.

>>Day 4: Fly to Marseille arrive 11am. Drive to St Remy, stopping by Cassis and Aix-en-Provence on the way<<

If you arrive at 11, you won't be ably to do both of these things. Perhaps it is short-changing Aix to do it only as an "short afternoon" event on the way to St Remy. I think I would overnight in Cassis. Take the calenques trip that first day, and then next morning head out to Aix. Don't visit Aix on a Sunday, or Monday morning when all the shops are closed. Aix is my wife's favorite shopping town in Provence.

Day 5-8: Day trips to Avignon, Pont du Gard, Baux, Nimes, etc (Lodge in St Remy)
Day 9: Drive Narbonne, on the way visit Arles, Sete. (Lodge in Narbonne)
Day 10: Day trip to Minerve, Carcasonne and drive to Coillure.
Day 11-12: Explore around Collioure (Lodge in Collioure)
Day 13: Train from Pipagnan to Barcelona.
Day 13-17: Barcelona (Lodge in Barcelona)<<

Five nights in Barcelona and only 3 in London?? (and one of those London days is arrival/jet lag day). If I were to do 5 & 3, I would do 5 in London & 3 in Barcelona.

Perpignan

I'll e-mail you my Provence and Languedoc itineraries. The Colloiure/Perpignon section is at the end of the trael section - before the restaurant write-ups.

Stu Dudley

Thanks for the feedback, how's this look?

Day 1-4: London (Lodge in London)
Day 5: Fly to Marseille arrive 11am, drive to Cassis, spend rest of day there. (Lodge in Cassis)
Day 6: Drive to St Remy, visiting Aix-en-Provence and ??? on the way.
Day 7-10: Day trips to Avignon, Pont du Gard, Baux, Nimes, Arles, etc (Lodge in St Remy)
Day 11: Drive to Carcassonne, on the way visit Sete, Minerve.(Lodge in Carcassonne)
Day 12: Explore Carcassonne, Drive to Collioure.
Day 12-14: Explore around Collioure and the coast. (Lodge in Collioure)
Day 14: Train from Perpignan to Barcelona.
Day 15-17: Barcelona (Lodge in Barcelona)
Day 18: Fly home

I would imagine on a honeymoon you may not want to leap out of bed at 6 AM and hit the road.

Why not just wake up in Cassis, enjoy the morning and stop in Aix on your way to St. Remy. Use it as an opportunity to have a somewhat lazy morning vs an opportunity to see somewhere that you can only identify with question marks?

The itinerary is much improved!

Fair point. The ??? was just incase there was anyplace someone felt like we shouldn't miss around there. Also, our total available days are exteremely flexible, so if there is anywhere you feel like should be given an extra day or 2, let me know!