marseille airport
 

we are spending our first night in provence at the airport hotel. Is there anything to do or see around the airport without going into marseille? will have a car, but by time ready to do anything will be late afternoon.

NO, there really isn't much doing at the Marseille airport or very close by, but it's not far into Marseille (heck, it's only 45 minutes into the heart of the Bouche-du-Rhône area of Provence). Why are you spending the first night at the airport if you're ready to do something late afternoon? You have plenty of time to get to some very nice area for the evening.

I'm not sure why you're planning on spending your first night at an airport hotel... the only nice thing I can think of is that you can sometimes see the flamingos on the marsh side of the Ibis Hotel...
If you want to go into Marseille, you can take the shuttle bus from the airport which goes to the train station (St. Charles) and then a taxi down to the Vieux Port - which is about the only interesting place I would recommend.

You can drive from the airport (which is well outside of the city to the northwest) to St. Remy in about an hour, to Avignon is about an hour and a quarter or into Aix in about hour.

Joanel -

MRS airport is about midway between AI and MRS. Aix is less than 20 miles from the airport - actually closer to AIX than center to MRS. We had no idea where we were going and made the trip in about 25 minutes. Nothing much to see or do at the airport.

we are at the airport for 2 reasons. couldn't get into our hotel till the next night. and weren't sure how much wanted to drive right away after long flights at night. - not spring chickens anymore