Travelling in Provence
 

I will be travelling around South France in mid-August. I'm wondering about getting from Provence to Nice and St. Tropez. I will rent a car in Arles. Should I just keep it and use it to get to Nice and drop it off there when I'm done or drop it in Mersailles and train to St. Tropez and Nice and rent a different car there? Ideas? Thanks.

I'm not clear on your itinerary. But Nice is an excellent public transportation center. So I'd vote for driving your car to Nice and dropping it off immediately.

There is not a train station in St Tropez. Car traffic in & out of St Tropez will be horrid in mid August.

I suggest that you drive to St Tropez very late in the day - 7:00PM or so and go via Le Luc, le Garde Freinet, & Grimaud. Find a hotel (with parking) in St Tropez & stay there for 2 nights. I suspect you will have a lot of difficulty finding a place this late - unless you are talking about next August.

Then head to Nice early in the morning, drop off the car, & take trains from Nice to various spots in the Cote.

Don't try to do St Tropez as a day-trip by car - unless you like spending hours in traffic. Perhaps get to St Tropez via boat from Cannes or Nice. I've never done that, so I can't advise on the practicality of this method.

Stu Dudley

You can take the train to St-Raphael and then continue on to St-Tropez by bus or boat.

No need to have a car in Nice--it's more of a nuisance, and an expensive one at that because of parking costs. You can walk in the central district and take the bus up to Cimiez or other areas away from the center.

How about getting to Vence and St.Paul de Vence from Nice? Won't I need a car for that?

Would you avoid using a car travelling from nice to Monaco?

Is there a high-speed train from Nice to Paris?

The high-speed tracks begin at Aix-en-Provence or Marseille; from Nice to either of those there's a "regular" train. That's why the Nice to Paris route takes six hours plus, while you can go from Paris to Aix in about 2-1/2 hours.

How long will you be in Nice & what is your budget?

If you're going to be in Nice for only 2-3 days, then you probably won't venture out of Nice too often & you can take a bus to St Paul & train to the larger villages. If you'll be there longer than that & you can afford to pay for a car for a few days while it's parked all day, then a car would be very helpful for visiting the villages & sites around Nice, and deep into the Nice Hinterland.

We've stayed in Nice for as long as 7 days at a stretch, and we have not had any trouble parking the car, if you don't mind returning to the car to put more money in the meter, parking farther away from the hotel outside the metered areas, or in a parking lot. We stay at the Windsor on R Dalpozzo and we stayed in Nice in mid-Sept for the 7 day visit.

Stu Dudley

Oh, and take a train to get from Nice to Monaco.

Good luck with your plans but for sure, don't try to drive in Nice!! Yah, maybe drive into and park your car for the time you will be there. But don't get into the traffic, if possible. We accidentally ended up in rush hour traffic on the main drag in Nice around 5 in the afternoon. We stayed at a nice place near St. Paul de Vence. That day we drove to Eze and toured it. Lovely!! Well, when leaving, we planned on driving to a smaller village on the coast (name escapes me now) but got on the wrong road and ended up in downtown Nice!!

We did manage to find an underground parking garage and did enjoy walking along the water, etc. But we sat in traffic for about an hour after that trying to get out of town.

The area you are going to is lovely. You will love it.

Ginny

You can take the train from Nice to St-Raphael and then a bus to St-Tropez. Taking a boat is another possibility.

P.S. Both St-Tropez and Nice are in Provence--the eastern part of the region.