Marseille Review - Getting out of the city

[VirtualRain]

Hi, we recently concluded a 12 day Medi cruise on the Carnival Magic and one of our stops was in Marseille. Here's what we did with our day which is a bit unconventional.

 

Based on my research, it seems the popular things to do are:

 

• Simply take the transportation into Vieux-Port (old area of town)
  
• Tour the Notre-Dame de le Garde
  
• Take a train to Aix-en-Provence
  
• Rent a car or hire a driver to explore Provence
  

Having seen it, I couldn't imagine trying to spend a full day around Veiux-Port. However, Notre-Dame looks amazing and the views from there are apparently fantastic. Aix-en-Provence or otherwise getting out of Marseille appear to be among the best choices.

 

Based on my research there are a number of great places to visit in Provence within 60-90 minutes of Marseille...

 

 

• Les-Baux-de-Provence Village and Castle
  
• Pont-du-Gard Roman Aquaduct
  
• Avignon town and the Palace of Popes
  
• Chateauneuf-de-pape and the Ogier Caves for wine lovers
  

Map

 

Here's my Google Map that shows where all these are.

 

Getting out of Marseille

 

One of the issues with making a port of call in Marseille is that the cruise ship terminal is a long ways out of the city center as you can see from the map below. You basically have three options to get into the city center where you can either explore on foot, take a train from the St. Charles train station, or rent a car from Hertz (what we did).

 

 

1. Take a Taxi: We had planned to take a taxi but when we disembarked from the ship, all the "taxis" there were hoping to get hired for the day to drive people around and had no interest in taking us into the city center.
   
2. Take the ship shuttle: For 12-Euro round-trip this is your best bet. The coach will most likely drop you off in Vieux-Port near the large "A" pin marker on the map. From there, you can jump on the Metro to get to the train station or even walk.
   
3. Take public transit. There are public buses that serve the port frontage road but service is sporadic so it's probably not the best use of your time.
   

Taking a train:

 

I didn't investigate this, but I believe there are other resources in the forum here on how to take a train to Aix-en-Provence.

 

Renting a car:

 

Hertz has a counter in the St. Charles Train Station and also an outlet on Boulevard Nationale as marked on my map. I booked a rental at the latter before I learned there was a location at the train station itself which would have been a little more convenient.

 

The cost of a car, rented in advance, was 50-euro. With my iPhone and a Nav app, it was easy to navigate to the A7 freeway which takes you out of the city. It is a toll highway so have a few euro in change to make payment of the toll easier. It's a slightly different system than most toll roads I've encountered... you get a ticket at the start, like you would at a parking garage, and you insert your ticket and pay at the end based on how far you travel (I assume).

 

Map Notes: Ship transportation for 12-Euro will drop you at "A". You can take the metro (red line) to the train station. Hertz rental at the train station and also at another location on Boulevard Nationale near the station (marked on the map).

 

Where we went:

 

Given my personal interest in castles, we opted to visit Les Baux de Provence and the village of Saint Remy. If we had time, we planned to visit Avignon as well, but that never materialized. Baux and St. Remy are about a 1 hour drive out of Marseille.

 

Les-Baux-de-Provence is a fabulous little village perched on a mountainside adjacent to the ruins of a castle.

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Remy is a beautiful little village with some neat shops and side-walk cafes in the middle of the Provence country side.

 

 

[VirtualRain]

More Photos of Marseille as seen from the Cruise ship on departure...

 

Notre-dame on the hill top in Marseille...

 

 

Saint John fort's tower at the entrance to Marseille harbor with Notre-dame in the background at sunset...

 

 

 

 

Limestone islands off the coast of Marseille...

 

 

 

[Chmielel]

Thank you for sharing the port information and pictures.

 

Linda

[Mcink]

beautiful pictures !!!!!! thanks for sharing

[KirkNC]

Wow, great information. Thanks for sharing.

 

Kirk

[cruise kitty]

Thanks so much for this, your photos are beautiful, as always!

[hubofhockey]

I agree with OP with respect to Pont du Gard and Les Baux. We combined those with Arles and it was one of our favorite days on our Med cruise. We paid a bit more to do this. But I would recommend to anyone to get out of Marseille and venture into Provence to see theses places.

[cruisinskier]

Thanks for sharing the info. We are currently looking at a cruise for 2013 that would overnight here so this info is very useful. Thanks again!!