Tour Guide Marseille

[ALBOB330]

Looking for a private tourguide for our day in Marseille. We would appreciate any firsthand information

 

Thanks in advance

 

Bobbie

[EASYTRAVEL777]

You do not need a tour guide for Marseille itself. Much of what to see and do is at the old port.

 

We wanted to do Provence on our own. The ship tour to just Aix-en-Provence was $52. We looked at local bus and train options, but the cab fare to the station roundtrip was as much as the ships tour.

 

Then we found Tania. She can be reached at http://provencetours.free.fr/livre_or_uk.htm

 

Her van holds 6, she does custom tours, and speaks fluent English. What a joy it was seeing Provence at your leisure with no worries. We only had 8 hours in port, but she took us to Aix-en-Provonce, a charming village with side walk cafes and many shops. Then we drove the countryside to the Cassis with its splendid view high a top the cliff. Cassis is on the sea and is very charming. Next we took a boat ride to three fiords. We ended the tour by seeing the church in Marseille high above the city. Any questions just ask. I would highly recommend her. Meets you right off the ship.

[EASYTRAVEL777]

Take a look at my photo show at

 

http://www.photoshow.net/aix/favorites

 

Both Cassis and Marseille are on the site

[dbh62ark]

We had a great day with Olivier of http://www.rendez-vous-provence.com last September and highly recommend. Olivier is a great guide and took us to the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, to Les Baux-de-Provence, and to Arles. Olivier is a wonderful guide and provided great commentary for our group. His charges were very reasonable, and his cancellation policies are also very reasonable (passengers are not charged for events beyond their control such as change in ship's schedule due to weather, etc.).

 

The Vieux Port area of Marseilles is nice, but it is not as nice as the surrounding villages in my opinion. If you want information on seeing the Vieux Port area independently, please do a search because I've spent time writing about that on other thread. Aix-en-Provence is very easy to do on your own via train or bus from the Vieux Port area of Marseilles.

 

We've been to most of the villages in this area and like Cassis and Aix-en-Provence and all the others, but my favorite is Les Baux.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[Nanatravel]

Bobbie, we have booked a tour of the Provence area with Catherine. I will post her email address this evening as I don't have access to it from the office. She made at least 5 tour suggestions and we modified one to satisfy every one's sightseeing requirements.

 

She was really great responding to our inquiries and modifying our requests, even to tell us that what we requested was not possible in our time frame.

 

Bon Voyage

Nanatravel

[ALBOB330]

Thanks for all the information given so far for tourguides in Marseille.

 

I am sorry I gave the impression that We wanted the guide to show us only Marseille.

 

What I meant to say is we wanted to see as much of the varied beauty of Provence as possible in a day leaving from the port of Marseille.

 

Once again thank you and please keep your hands on experiences coming

 

Bobbie

[scrapycruiser]

Bobbie...we have booked Tania ( Provence Tours ) for our cruise in Aug. She is very flexible. I believe we are seeing Les Baux, Arles and St Remy.We wanted to also see the olive gardens, so she said no problem. I also wanted to go to a market. She said St Remy has a market on Wed ( the day we'll be there ). Each town has their on markets on different days. Hope this helps, Gina ;)

[Debbierpof]

We used Catherine two summers ago and she was fantastic -- probably the best guide we used in our two Med cuises. She had a great minivan that fit 8 of us rather comfortably. We visit Marseilles (from Old Port to the top of Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica), a winery (with tour and wine tasting - Chateau Romanin), St. Remy de Provence (tour of town, a lovely lunch at a local bistro and tour of monastery St. Paul de Masoule where Van Gogh was treated at the psychiatric hospital), finally Les Baux (unique and beautiful). Her English was very good, her love of Provence and its his history very evident. I'd tour with her again in a heartbeat (and wish we were back in Provence to do so!). Everyone in the group was extremely impressed with Catherine. Below is her website.

 

http://www.provence-travel.com/provence/fichiers/aboutus.swf

[kidcoos3]

You do not need a tour guide for Marseille itself. Much of what to see and do is at the old port.

 

We wanted to do Provence on our own. The ship tour to just Aix-en-Provence was $52. We looked at local bus and train options, but the cab fare to the station roundtrip was as much as the ships tour.

 

Then we found Tania. She can be reached at http://provencetours.free.fr/livre_or_uk.htm

 

Her van holds 6, she does custom tours, and speaks fluent English. What a joy it was seeing Provence at your leisure with no worries. We only had 8 hours in port, but she took us to Aix-en-Provonce, a charming village with side walk cafes and many shops. Then we drove the countryside to the Cassis with its splendid view high a top the cliff. Cassis is on the sea and is very charming. Next we took a boat ride to three fiords. We ended the tour by seeing the church in Marseille high above the city. Any questions just ask. I would highly recommend her. Meets you right off the ship.

 

 

There are 5 of us. We would like to visit Marseille on our own - I am having trouble finding information on the distance from the port to town. Can anyone help?

[dbh62ark]

It depends on where your ship is docked in Marseilles. Most of the cruise ships dock in a yucky industrial port area. I docked there on a large HAL ship and on the smaller Oceania Insignia last year. You would need to either take the ship's shuttle or a 20 - 30 Euro taxi ride to the Vieux Port area of Marseilles. I would not recommend that you try to find the subway station near the ship's docks because that is a bad area of town. Once in Vieux Port, you can visit the TI center, which is next door to a shop called "Les Baux" (not to be confused with the village Les Baux). The Vieux Port area is approx a mile from the train and bus stations that will take you to Aix-en-Provence and to some other villages in the area. The Vieux Port area of Marseilles is nice, and the TI center gave us a nice walking tour map, but I must let you know that we only spent a 1/2 day there and have found that the other options in the area are nicer and some are much nicer than Marseilles. We have been to all the villages and cities in Provence that are listed as options on these boards and can give you information on the advantages/disadvantages of your different options if you need that. If you want to spend time in Marseilles, I recommend that you balance that with a 1/2 day in Aix-en-Provence as we did three years ago because that would make for a much nicer day for you in my opinion.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna