I am new to this website, suggested by a longtime slow trav friend of mine. It looks like I can get great tips and info from all of you! I am planning a trip next July to southern France. There will be 9 in my group (5 adults, 4 kids ages 11-17). I was hoping to start in the Cote d'Azur area- probably Nice then rent a car and travel to the Nimes/Arles/Avignon area and rent a villa for a week. My questions are these: Does anyone have some good suggestions for flying from the Boston area to Nice area?, Hotel suggestions for Nice?, and suggestions for a villas in the western Provence areas?. I know this is alot of info, but any tips I get will help! Thanks in advance for your help!
Nice and Provence are lovely areas. You will have a wonderful trip. If you haven't already, do check out the France section of our main website - Slow Travel. Here you can find reviews of vacation rentals and hotels along with other good information for Slow Travel in France.
For hotels in Nice, I'd suggest looking at either Hotel Windsor or the Hotel Cigales across the street. Rue Massena and Vieux Nice are both with in 20-30 minute walk and it is located in a quiet area.
I don't have any specific information regarding flying from Boston to Nice. If there are direct flights to Nice that would make it an attractive city to fly to. But don't forget about Marseille which is actually closer to Provence.
Welcome to ST. Your plans sound very good. Arles is an especially nice town, not big but compact, with a high concentration of interest, great food, plus surrounded by wonderful spots. Ideal base. An unimportant suggestion: you may consider staying longer than one night in Nice. Your group won't need a car. As Marta has already said, there are many threads on the two areas which you can look up. Bon séjour.
Merci to you both for the suggestions! We planned on staying in Nice for perhaps 3 nights. One member of the group really wants to visit Monaco while we are in the area. I planned on renting the car(s) when departing from Nice, and using public transport before that.
We stayed in Villefranche sur Mer. My trip report has some other suggested places you could visit. I could have stayed in the South of France forever.........sigh
Nimes, Arles & Avignon are all linked by fast highways.
Villas are cheaper West of the River Rhone, but anywhere in the Nimes - Arles - St Remy - Avignon - Uzes boxed area is fine for visiting W Provence & E Languedoc.
Hi there - have fun planning your trip. There are no direct flights from Boston to Nice. There is a direct flight from NY to Nice - I want to say Delta. My suggestion is to fly from Boston to CDG and then to Nice.
Hotel recommendation - we stay here with our family of four each time we have to stay in Nice - Hotel Mercure/Promenade des Anglais. Cheap rates, they use to allow all four in a room (big plus if you are traveling with small children), fantastic sea views from the rooms as you are directly on the Promenade. There is another Mercure in Nice but not on the Promenade.
Thank you for the info. I have looked at flights to various European cities with connections to Nice, but I'll look into flights out of NYC. I will definately look into the hotel. Thanks again! I can't wait to go on this trip!
I visited the south of france last September. We rented a wonderful villa in St. Remy - 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, with private swimming pool and walking distance to town, however, still very private. It was on VRBO - the name of it was Mas Garance... google it and you should find it pretty easily. I would stay there again without question... MJ
We loved the Cote d'Azur. We started in Nice, staying at the Hotel Suisse overlooking the Promenade des Anglais. As mentioned in many other threads, the transportation from Nice to some of the coastal villages is excellent (by bus or train).
Hotel Suisse has very small, clean, modern rooms and modern bathrooms. I don't know if all rooms have views. The view from our room was fantastic!
