We are down to planning the end of our trip and we need a bit more input from you wonderful folks on the board. (FYI its 18 days - Amalfi Coast, Tuscany, Provence - flying out of Paris)

At this point my wife and I plan to leave Tuscany on June 27th, take a train to Nice, spend a couple of nights in Nice, rent a car to tour the area around Avignon for a couple of nights there, and then catch the TGV to Paris to rendevous with the others in our group (they have chosen to spend all their time in Paris after leaving Tuscany)..

I have been to Nice five times, and so I know my way pretty well around the town, from the Prommenade to the Train Station. I have also visited Eze and Monaco four of those occasions, and so I am also familiar with those places too. But my visits have all been during the winter or early spring. I have to believe that the end of June, beginning of July may be quite different.

Here is what I am looking for in the way of information.

Trip from Tuscany to Nice:
We will have a large van to travel in Tuscany from the start (18th) of the trip to the 28th. As it looks now, our group will visit Pisa, and drop us off to get the train from there to Nice. I have been trying to check on tickets, but have not been successful at lining them up - the train/time that we want (CORAIL 664 - Leaves PISE @13h44 - Arrives GENOVA PIAZZA PRINCIPE @16h16 THEN CORAIL 160 - Leaves GENOVA PIAZZA PRINCIPE @16h55 - Arrives NICE VILLE @19h58) is not available from www.trenitalia.com and according to the SNCF site tickets for that train are, "Not sold on the Internet". Is this because it is over 60 days out? Is it possible that I might be able to purchase tickets in the future on the web for this train. Or do I just have to take my chances and buy the tickets when I am in Italy?

Second question: We are looking for hotels in Provence, two nights in Nice, and two nights in the Avignon area. Based on this site, and a number of travel books, I have narrowed things down to the following (but, if there is something better, we are willing to make that change! BTW, our pricerange is from 75 to 150 euros - though we are willing to go a little more if it is worth it!)

Nice (June 27 to June 29) Places to consider:

At the low end, I have stayed at the Hotel Campanile Nice Centre (58, Boulevard Risso) before - as I recall it was "modern/sparse", clean, well located with a very nice breakfast. Though I think my wife may want something a little nicer. Price is 65 Euro on venere.com

The Comfort Hotel Boréal (9, rue Paul Déroulède) has a good rate from a website here in the States - $98 per night including breakfast) but I haven't seen much on this hotel.

The Mercure Grimaldi (6 rue Grimaldi) shows availability at 95 Euros per night (plus 13,50 pp for breakfast)

Mercure also has Marché aux Fleurs available for 115 Euro plus 13 pp (for breakfast)

And finally, according to Venere.com, Hotel Suisse - Hôtels Ocre et Azur is going for 145 Euro (but I would think that is not a room with a sea view).

FYI, I have stayed previously at Hotel Albert 1er (4, avenue des Phocéens) - and thought it was run down, somewhat unkept, centrally located, with a minimal breakfast.

So those are my hotel choices in Nice - anyone have any background to share on them - or other suggestions?


And finally - Avignon Area:

As we are taking the TGV out of the Avignon TGV station we would like to have a place to stay for two nights no farther than 45 minutes from the station (seemed to be the easiest car drop, with a 45 euro rate for the trip to Paris on 1 July).

I am a lot more open for hotels or B and Bs in this area - I could see staying in Avignon (done it before - not really that impressed) or out in the country side.

In Avignon we are considering Hotel De Blauvac (11, rue de la Bancasse)going for 70 Euro according to venere.com OR La Banasterie (11 rue de la Banasterie ) in the area of the Palace of the Popes.

In Orange to the north, we have looked at Hotel Arene (Place de Langes) which goes for about 100 euro.

And in Uzes there were two hotels that came up - Hôtel du Général d'Entraigues (Place de l'Evêch&eacute and Château d'Arpaillargues.

Again, in Avignon, I have no real ties to in the city - out in the country - whatever is great from a standpoint to nice room, clean, great place to stay in our price range would be great.

Also - as for renting a car for two days (travel from Nice to Avignon) are there any suggestions out there besides autoeurope.com (yes I have worked with them before - they are usually the best price - I have no complaints, just wondering if there are others out there better in this case...)


Thanks to all for reading this rather large volume - if you have suggestions, that would be great!

We always stay at the Windsor in Nice (maybe 25 nights all total). Ask for a room facing the garden. The rooms are quite large.

St Remy is easily within 45 mins of the TGV station, so is the western sectioin of the Luberon (Gordes, Roussillon, Menerbes, etc). I wouldn't stay in Orange - especially if you're not that crazy about Avignon.

Stu Dudley

The train

Last year we took the train from La Spezia to Nice. We purchased our tickets for the June 23rd trip, a week prior in Rome.

90 days is the window for SNCF, so that probably means you can't buy them on SNCF.

Stu Dudley

Thanks for the suggestions Stu!

I know that I have read about the Windsor in previous posts, and it looks like they have a pretty good set of recommendations from Venere and TripAdvisor.

When you have booked the Hotel Windsor, do you do it directly from their website (you mentioned asking, "for a room facing the garden&quot? And is it the Superior Double that they list on their site which has the balcony / view of the Garden (and as you mention, "it's quite large&quot?

Now, back to the Avignon Area:
Any hotels or B&Bs to recommend in St Remy or Gordes, Roussillon, Menerbes, etc.?

I hope I didn't sound like I was being too negative on Avignon. I was just thinking that, after staying at hotels within the walls twice, that it might be nicer to spend late spring out in the countryside - so I have not really made any serious commitments to staying "in the city" so to speak.

I did look to see if it might be possible to catch the train from La Spezia to Nice. BUT I could not get the mid day train that I am hoping for (see the note below).

From what you said about your experience, it sounds like we can just make the purchase of tickets over there when we arrive in Italy. To be honest, I was hoping to get reduced fares (as SNCF does in France) by making my purchase now. For some reason, there were TWO fares that I can purchase for June 27 on the Trenitalia and SNCF websites - but both trips require a layover of over 2 hours in Genoa. I want to purchase the CORAIL 664/160 trains because its only a total journey of 6 hours (13h44 to 19h58). BUT for some reason, on SNCF the journey comes up, but is not available for purchase (it won't even come up for that date on the Trenitalia site).

We always call the Windsor (they speak English - note the name of the hotel).

I have a reservation for this July for: 1 double "privilege" room with private facilities.

They lowered the room rate when I told them we've been staying there since '79. It's 150E/night. They did the same thing last year when we told them we were multi-repeats. They lowered the rate at the time we checked out. We did not ask for a Superior Double this year or last year.

Stu Dudley