Preliminary Côte d’Azur Plan
 

My friend and I are planning to travel either around May or the beginning of July in 2015, based on our summer schedules/commitments that we won't find out about for quite a while. We plan to fly into Paris for about 2-4 days depending on how tight our schedule is and fly out of Nice. We are planning on going to Saint Tropez, Cannes, Eze, Cap-Saint-Jean-Ferrat, Monte Carlo. We also want to go to Calvi taking a ferry from Nice. We don't really know how to structure this trip, though. Should we rent a car and drive? What are other places you recommend? We don't know how much time we have yet, but standard expectation is 2 weeks. How much time would you recommend spending in each place?

I would highly recommend emailing Stu per this thread to get his file

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ed-edition.cfm

Train and bus transport in the area is very good so I would only hire a car if there were particular places you wanted to visit which could not easily be reached by public transport.

If you only have a few days for Corsica, I'm not sure it would be worth it. We travelled from Nice to Corsica in September and found that ferries to Calvi were very infrequent. You can alternatively travel to L'Ile Rousse but ferries were not more frequent there either. You need to check the timetables and work around them. Ferries were much more frequent during the summer season. I wouldn't travel all the way to Calvi just to see Calvi - do you want to see other places on Corsica?

How much time to spend is really an open question. Even if you had weeks, you would still find plenty to do, in both Paris and Cote d'Azur. You don't have weeks so maybe Paris (4 nights) Cote d'Azur (6) somewhere enroute between the two (4)? If you want to include Calvi, you could visit Paris (4 nights), fly to Calvi (4), ferry to Nice (6).

Thanks! I'm not sure what other places in Corsica, we were going to Calvi in July for a beach music festival. We thought a rental car would be better just because it would be easier to transport luggage. Would we have to sleep in Saint Tropez, Cannes, Eze, Monte Carlo and Nice during our 6 days? How do people typically do this?

You can sleep in Nice and get around via train or bus fairly easily, If you prefer not to rent a car. . The places you list are not far apart, save perhaps St Tropez.

To be really blunt, if you need a car to transport your luggage, you have too much luggage. Luggage is a necessary millstone and the less you can get away with (which is always less than you think) the better. On the other hand if you want to get to remote places, then a car would be useful. Do consider parking though which is not always easy. Bus and train timetables are online if you want to check out travel times.

yeah, I agree with that and I'm not even one of these super light packers. But having so much luggage for a two week trip (in summer, no less, when clothing is lighter) that you think you can't manage it on a train is shocking to me. I handle my baggage alone on trains and I dont' even travel that lightly. I have one small carryon (and I do not mean a suitcase but a tote bag) and a 24 inch lightweight roller bag usually. Sometimes I have a 22 inch bag, but either way, I manage a train.

Having been to the south of France 3 times, I would highly recommend to train from Paris to Nice. It's about a 6 hr journey but a relaxing & easy way to travel. most of the places you want to go are very very easy to get to from Nice either by train or bus-cheap & short distances.
During the summer there is a boat that will take you in the morning from Nice to St Tropez returning around 7 pm. From what I read the traffic along the coast in the summer is horrible. I personally would rather spend my time seeing the sights & not stuck in traffic.

Thanks everyone! I'm not sure about the luggage as neither of us have ever been able to pack light even with solely summer clothing. Though we would manage our bags, it's just that in previous Cote D'Azur trip blogs I've read, most people seem to stay in different locations rather than just Nice and that's why they rent a car to transport their luggage everywhere. If each of those places are just worth day visits and we don't go to Calvi (if going in May) then we would add those days to Lyon. What are your must visits for the Cote D'Azur? We won't be spending much time in Paris and can cut down from there as well or remove it entirely.

How much would you recommend budgeting for this trip? We want a bit more glamorous experience.