gofarhaveacigar

We will be traveling to southern France on our honeymoon 9/8-9/19. Our itinerary so far is:

Fly in to Nice - 9/9
Nice 9/9-9/11 - Hyatt Nice
Cannes 9/11-9/13 - Hyatt Cannes
Marseilles 9/13-9/16 - Radisson Blu
Avignon 9/16-9/18 - B&B in the city
Lyon 9/19 - Hotel near train station
Fly out of Lyon 9/20

Our only plans so far are:
-Day trip to Monaco 9/10
-Guided wine tour around Provence 9/17

We're looking for the must see and must taste recommendations. We won't have a rental car, and will be doing our traveling almost entirely by train/bus - although if there is something that's worth a drive, we're open to getting one for the day.

UAPremExecflyer

Have you done any research? Trip Advisor? Fodors? etc
If you looked on this first page of this forum, you'd find a thread on a near identical question (minus the honeymoon)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/franc...rn-france.html

gofarhaveacigar

I have done some research, and read through most of the posts on this forum, including the one you linked. However, that particular traveler will be driving around southern france, which we won't be able to, and limits our options.

Thanks for the link though!

Yahillwe

Not easy getting around the south without a car, you'll be missing the beautiful little gem towns.

BTW the south in August is congested with people.

stevens397

Congratulations!

We left the GH Cannes yesterday and could not rave more. If it were me, I would choose either Nice or Cannes rather than moving over and over. As a Hyatt Diamond, we were treated exceptionally well and I can say that having breakfast outdoors, looking out over the Mediterranean, well, it was magical. A truly magnificent hotel.

We are now in Aix en Provence - our base for five nights. We have a car and really could not imagine doing the area without it. Not sure of your reason for not doing it but you might wish to reconsider. We had already chosen Aix for a number of reasons and had a hotel reserved when suddenly, Marriott announced a Renaissance Hotel was opening in Aix - and that's where we are. Nice to be able to do another hotel on points. Aix is a wonderful city and has been a great base. Can't speak to Avignon, sure you have your reasons, but we love it here. We go to Avignon on Tuesday.

As to Marseilles, we avoided it totally. Did not really hear great things about it and saw no reason to go. Perhaps we don't know what we're missing but no regrets.

Either way, this area is truly magical and I'm sure you will have a wonderful vacation made even better by the fact that its your honeymoon!

SanDiego1K

I, too, am in the final throes of planning my trip to the Riviera and Provence. I, too, will be staying at the Grand Hyatt in Cannes, so was delighted to read stevens397's positive review in the Hyatt forum. We also will be staying at the Renaisance in Aix, so am hoping for good words there. We'll be at the Interconti in Marseilles one night. And before Marseilles, we have a number of nights at various stops throughout the Provence area.

I really encourage you to buy a couple guide books. Ones that I am using to organize my own travels:

- Eyewitness Travel, Top 10 Provence and the Cote d'Azur
- Frommers or Fodor Provence & the French Riviera (I have both, and haven't yet decided which will make the cut to take with me)

We have been to these areas before and always had a rental car. Thus, it is hard to advise you as to how to do it sans car. What I will say is that this is a remarkably beautiful part of the world with amazing food. A couple places that I have stumbled on for my own travels:

1) There is a ferry from Cannes to St Tropez. It's twice a week thru June and then I think it is more frequent. We will go on a Saturday when there is a Provencal market in St Tropez. I've been to St Tropez by car before. It's a challenge by car, there's no way to access it by train. The ferry will provide great views of the shoreline and easy travel. There is also a ferry from Cannes to nearby Isle St Honorat, owned by monks. You can eat at their restaurant weekdays for 39 euros including the boat. (I've no idea about the food quality.)

I found Antibes and the Picasso Museum fascinating on a prior visit. Look and see if a tour is offered from Cannes.

2) Marseilles - This will be our first visit. We will likely use the Hop On Hop Off bus as an easy way of seeing the highlights. I also plan to go to the Museum MuCEM, opened just last year. The structure looks fascinating.

I like the series from the New York Times on "36 Hours in ..." I looked up the one on Marseilles for you, know there is one on Cannes, and imagine there is on Nice. The UK newspaper Independent runs a series, "48 Hours in ...". Here is the one on Avignon. Avignon is dense with sightseeing possibilites. Be sure to see the Palace des Papes.

There is a Hilton in Lyon where you can take the tram to the old town quite easily.

Both Provence and Lyon have exceptional food. You can find Michelin rated restaurants online at their viamichelin website. I just saw the Anthony Bourdain program on Lyon last night. It has an extraordinary concentration of Michelin starred restaurants.

GUWonder

I found the Michelin Green Guide for the area to be the best guide for the area, especially if interested in driving around the area and also getting in some time going up in altitude in the Maritime Alps. But that guide isn't so good when it comes to public transit info. This is it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/190709...&robot_redir=1

Having a car to explore the area made my trips all the more enjoyable and I recommend considering a rental car for a good chunk of the time. [Even as I usually try to avoid driving when/where I can, my best trips as an adult to this area included driving around.]

JoelA

Consider swapping out some of the time in Marseilles 9/13-9/16 - for Arles.

Lovely UNESCO world heritage city. No cars in city center. On the train line to Avignon. Tons of great B&B's. Loved this place. Really!!

Analise

This is your honeymoon and you'll be spending a lot of time packing and unpacking moving from lodging to lodging. Are these many separate stays set in stone?

Yahillwe

Had the same thought.

gofarhaveacigar

Thank you for all th advice and input!

I took some of your recommendations and revised the plans as follows:

Fly in to Nice - 9/9
Nice 9/9-9/12 - Radisson Blu/Hyatt
Cannes 9/12-9/15 - Hyatt
Avignon 9/15-9/18 - B&B in the city
Lyon 9/18 - Hotel near train station
Fly out of Lyon 9/19

We're using Avignon as a "base" for some small towns. We might rent a car, or we might use the train system to go from place to place. Right now we have an all day wine tour planned one day, one day for exploring the city itself, and one day open which we might use to go to Marseille just for the day.

thucanhho

Not a big fan of Cannes. May seem glamorous from the film festival but I did not find it so romantic. If Monaco is still on the itinerary, Eze is a worthwhile 1/2 or full day stop on your way there.

Yahillwe

I would stay in either Nice or Cannes, since they aren't that far from each other. Not a fan of the Riviera, but at least in Sept, all the maddening crowds are gone and you'll have the place empty of all the paps and wanna be's.

gofarhaveacigar

We're pretty excited about Cannes. Staying in a really nice hotel (Grand Hyatt), and it happens to be a yachting festival which we'll be sure to check out.

There's a couple islands that we may go to as well, so we won't spend the entire time in the city.

Monaco will be a day trip, but perhaps we can take a half day trip to Eze as well.