Cannes to St. Tropez then Barcelona-- driving?

Hello fellow travelers,

Im planning on a multi-destination. On this particular leg I plan to take the Euro train from Paris to Nice or Cannes (least expensive) and from Nice/Cannes to St. Tropez, then on to Barcelona, Spain.

Would I be able to hire a car and drive this distance? how safe, how%26#39;s traffic, how far driving distance-wise from Paris to Nice and/or Paris to Cannes(I havent decided yet which one to go to. I%26#39;m only spending one night); then from Nice/Cannes distance to St. Tropez, then distance from St. Tropez to Barcelona). Im from the US and heard driving is similar. Might someone know the answer to these questions? Thank you in advance!

|||

If you pick up a rental car in one country and drop off in another, there will be a relocation fee of several hundred euros.

I take it you are aware that Cannes to Barcelona is about 400 miles? You can get driving directions, rather optimistic times, and estimated cost from www.viamichelin.com

|||

You haven%26#39;t said anything about when you are planning to do the trip. In the spring it is a truely beautiful trip along the coast from Cannes to St.Tropez and on to Marseille. There are some nice seaside towns to visit on the way - Bandol, Cassis just to name some. On the stretch Marseille - Barcelona there are also some very interesting places to stopp - Avignon, Sete, Narbonne, Collioure just to mention some.

Some recommendations on what to do:

- if going in the summer the traffic along the coastal roads is terrible. I would rather recommend sightseeing in the area around Nice. (Eze, ANtibes, Gourdon, Biot, etc) and then a flight to Barcelona (You can sometimes find quite cheap tickets Nice-Barcelona on http://www.vueling.com).

- if you are not thinking of stopping anywhere except St.Tropez and Barcelona - find another way to travel. (In the summer there is a boat service between Juan-Les_pins or Golf Juan and St. Tropez. There is also one from Cannes to St.Tropez)

Driving in France is fairly easy. On the motorways it is not much different from US highways. The small roads can be a bit busy - and you need to be aaware of the motorcycles all around you.

There is not much difference driving Paris Cannes or Nice. Last time we drove up to the outskirts of Paris I think we used about 8-9 hours. It was a pretty boring drive in my opinion. The only good thing was stopping in the Burgundy wine district which is definatley worth a visit if you enjoy wine.

Good luck on your choices !

|||

-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-

This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.

Removed on: 2:20 am, October 24, 2009