Tips for Marseille mini-bus and coach tourism

Useful tips for Marseille bus groups with ‘what to see’ and ‘what to do’ items and  ‘bus- friendly’ or must see tourist sites in Marseille. Check our list of attractions before planning your bus tour with a stop or departure in Marseille. Let us know if your favourite attraction or ‘bus-stop’ is not there and you think we should add it to our list of Marseille highlights.

What to do see and do in the region: Provence Alps Côte d"Azur?

This region offers a variety of landscapes, beautiful nature, hills and mountains, picturesque villages, and culturally rich cities. You can join a lovely walk enjoy the nature or admire all the beautiful things. Yet still in for more relaxation? The Côte d"Azur has wild beaches and coves, bustling seaside resorts where you can laze easily. 

Côte d"Azur is the chic part of the French coastline, and is known for its many famous places along the coast. We will mention a few that are all worth it to spend a few weeks holiday or to visit for a day while on your bus tour.

l"Étang à CucuronCôte d"Azur credit: decar66 CC BY 2.0

Saint Tropez: This is the most famous resort, within the harbour many large and beautiful yachts. This place is for us Dutch people well known for its movies with Louis de Funès starring Brigitte Bardotte.

Cannes: Is a coastal town with style and beautiful buildings. Known worldwide for its annual film festival. The wealth of this city is mainly seen in the impressive hotels, large and expensive shopping streets and a marina where the most beautiful yachts can be found.

Monaco: Officially a city-state and therefore not really a part of France. Owes its fame to the Casinos, the chic beach life and the famous Grand Prix held on the streets of Monaco.

Monte Carlo Casino. credit: sam garza CC BY 2.0

Antibes: This city is a coastal town, with picturesque streets wild nightlife and a large marina. Furthermore an annual holiday destination for young people from mainly France and the United Kingdom.

Nice: Is a famous resort, situated on the Côte d"Azur. The city has an extraordinary cultural and artistic wealth where famous painters, writers and musicians have made a contribution. A thing to do whenever you are in Nice is to take "Le train de Merveilles". This train leaves every morning from Nice through a beautiful natural area of the Mercantour to Tende in the Vallée des Merveilles. Do you want to do once again something different than the standard bus tour? Book a one-way ticket to Monaco by helicopter!

 Other important places in the region

 Avignon

This city is the heart of Provence, with its cultural and tourist centre. This city is classified by UNESCO World Heritage Site and is also known for its historic resources. In this city the Palais des Papes is situated, this is the largest Gothic palace in Europe and was the residence of the Pope in the 14th century. In addition, Avignon is famous for the bridge, which also known from the song Sur le Pont d"Avignon. Other attractions in this city are: the church La Notre-Dame-des-Domes, which is having a golden Mary statue on the church tower.

Pont Saint-Bénezet credit: Chiugoran CC BY-SA 3.0

Arles

Arles has a magnificent amphitheatre where many performances are given. This amphitheatre is characterized by the Ancient Roman style. In addition, the famous painter Van Gogh lived in this city, although there is not much left of the paintings he painted back than. 

Hyères

This city is also called Hyères les Palmiers because of the many palm trees along the streets. Over the years, the city developed very well with the help of tourism. Due to the beaches, which were built in the 20th century became this city a popular summer resort. Both in winter and summer are tourists frequently visiting this place. Some attractions are on top of the hill, the ruins of feudal castle he "le château des Aires, against the hill the St Paul"s church and the largest marina Le Port Saint-Pierre.

L"autel de l"église de Giens, à Hyères credit: Thomas Bresson  CC BY 2.0

Toulon

This port city is located at the foot of Mont Faron (542m) in one of the most beautiful bays in Europe. Although this city is less trendy than other resorts of the French Riviera, is this city very lively and hospitable. Due to its ideal location between the hills of Provence with canyons, pine forests and the sea, makes it also suitable for walkers. However, driving over the mountain roads doesn’t make a car ride less exciting than walking along the seaside. Moreover the city is divided into two districts, the new and the old part, whereas the old part is popular among tourists, because most of the attractions like; Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure and Tour Royale are situated over there.

Landscape Haute Provence, France credit: x1klima CC BY-ND 2.0

 Flying

If you want to fly to this region by plane than you can chose between five airports you want to fly on. These airports are: Aéroport Marseille Provence (MRS), Toulon Hyeres Airport (TLN), Aéroport Nice-Côte d"Azur, Aéroport de Cannes (CEQ), Avignon Caumont Airport (AVN). Of these airports are Aéroport Marseille Provence (MRS) and Aéroport Nice Côte d"Azur (NCE) the international ones. Moreover the airport of Nice is about 7km away from the centre of Nice and Marseille Provence Aeroport is at a distance of 25 km on the northwest of Marseille. At both airports are taxi stands present and are shuttle buses available for tourist to transport them to-and from the airport.

Voyage Ryanair (FR) credit: jean-louis Zimmermann CC BY 2.0

Business tourism

The region offers many possibilities when it comes to business tourism. For example: Every year many seminars, conferences and exhibitions are organized and especially the places Marseille, Avignon St.Tropez have lots of capacity to accommodate a large numbers of people.

Modern convention centre in Avignon is Palais des Papes, In this building the Avignon Festival is annually organized, which includes drama, song and dance. Moreover Marseille also has excellent facilities for conferences, seminars and events. An estimated 350 events per year are organized and the number of visitors continues to increase. Some facilities are: Palais du Pharo and the congress palace Chanot park of the World Trade Center.

 Not to forget to mention is that all places are easily accessible by air, rail and road.

Luxury bus 53 seater from Azur Evasion in Marseille

Tours through and around Marseille

Marseille Le Grand Tour

Via this hop-on, hop off bus all sights could be admired. The available headphones will provide at each sight the necessary information. As wished you can hop of the bus to walk around that particular neighborhood, whereas you can hop on later on again to continue your tour. If you want to see the beautiful rock formations of Marseille than you can also book a boat trip. 

History: Marseille has 26 century long history, which visitors and residents of Marseille admire. A number of attractions in Marseille are the port still preserved in its original state, the famous Count of Monte Christo, the cradle of Christianity and the castle of If.

Front of the Palais Longchamps in Marseille - Natural Historiy Museum credit: Moumousse13 CC BY 2.5

Transportation to and from the airport 

The distance from Marseille Marignane Airport (MRS) to the city center is 30 kilometers. A ride in a taxi during the day is expensive and can easily cost 40 euro’s, however they do transfer you fast to you intended destination. Some taxi companies who can bring you to your destination are: Accent Taxis this one is located at Gare De Rognac, northwest of the city. Taxi Blue Provence is based on 21 Avenue du Docteur Heckel between the 12th and 10th arrondissement in Marseille and the last one is Marseille Taxi Donati. This company is located in the northwester part of the city in the 14th arrondissement in the street 44 Impassse Davin. If you need a large vehicle like a motor coach or minibus for your group, you can just indicate that on our bus rental quote form.

Regrettably are there no train connections from the airport. Therefore busses are available who can bring you to the destination or to the railway station Saint Charles in Marseille or any other TGV station. From the stations on the train can be taken to the respective destination. In the months December and April, there is a shuttle bus available that carry you on to the Alps. With this additional service are all places in this region excellent reachable with public transport. However, if you want to travel with this bus a reservation of 72 hours in advance have to be made.

Vista interna de la Terminal 1.,Airport Marseille, Provence credit: Phillip Capper CC BY 2.0

Culture: This city can also be seen as the cultural center with its 43 theatres and 17 museums. Some recommended museums are the "Musée d"Archéologie Méditerranéenne". This museum possessed next to Louvre the 2^nd largest collection of Egyptian art. Five rooms are exhibit objects from the Egyptian and Coptic period. While the Musée d"Histoire de Marseille, is showing the history of Marseille up to 2600 years. All pieces exhibited in this museum are mainly from excavations in the city.

France, Bouches-du-Rhône (13), Marseille credit: (vincent desjardins)CC BY 2.0

Coastline & Water

Marseille also has one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. It is therefore not surprising that this city created one of the best water sports facilities in order to practice all water sports. Whenever you are travelling to this region Marseille certainly must not be forgotten.

Vent de victoire sur Marseille credit: Ghost-in-the-Shell CC BY 2.0

The following sites are worth to visit when you make a tour through this region and to this city.

8-Seater luxury minibus from BELLE PROVENCE MINIBUS DELUXE in Marseille

•  Notre dame de la garde: This is a cathedral where you can climb to the tower, which is giving you a breath taking view over the city. This cathedral was built on the highest point from Marseille. Besides the large amount of tourists that it is receiving every year, is it also attracting pilgrims. This cathedral is also called la bonne mère ("the good mother") among residents. The basilica is a 60-meter high bell tower with an image of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus. This statue of the virgin Maria and the baby Jesus can be seen from far and wide. Saint Mary was also seen as the patron saint of sailors. The Notre dame de la garde is situated at Fort Rue du Sanctuaire in the centre of Marseille between the 6th and 7th arrondissement.

Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde Marseille credit:José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro CC BY-SA 3.0

• Calanque de Morgiou: Calanque de Morgiou is a former fishing port and famous for its huge tuna fisheries. The fishing huts, which still exist, are no longer in use, but only for tourism purposes. Furthermore, the Morgiou Calanque best known for his Cosquer cave, this is an underwater cave in which many cave drawings dating back to 27,000 years BP can be found. This fishing port is located between Marseille and Cassis

Calanques Puget Oeil de verre Cap gros credit: akunamatata CC BY-ND 2.0

• Chateau d"if : The castle is located on the smallest island of the archipelago Friuli that is situated in the Mediterranean Sea. The fort was first intended as defences of attacks from the sea. However, when the fort no longer served as a military establishment, it became a prison. In the 19th century the prison closed its doors. Whereas this fort it nowadays a tourist destination. However, the castle became tourist destination because of Alexandre Dumas’s book, who wrote about "The Count of Monte Cristo of which a movie was made with the same name; “The count of Monte Christo”. This island lies off shore about 20 minutes from the Old Port (Vieux Port) in Marseille. In that port, groups of tourists can take with one of the many companies the boat to the island. Every first Sunday of the month the entrance is for free, while the other days have to be paid for both entering the island and visiting the castle.

 View of the Petit Nice on the Corniche, Chateau d"if credit: Jddmano CC BY-SA 3.0

• Vieux Port: This ancient port was almost completely destroyed in 1943 during the Battle of Marseilles. Due to the destruction, the port was re-built in 1948. Today many tourists visit this port because lots restaurants can be found over here. This port is located in the harbour between the 3rd and 6^th arrondissement of Marseille. Some recommended restaurants are: Chez Madie lesson Galinettes, on the terrace delicious meat and fish dishes, bouillabaisse, and not to forget a spectacular view of the harbour can be joined.  La Chop a restaurant is specialized in meat. You can even see the chef from behind the counter preparing your food. Together with you meat fine wines form the Marseille city can be tasted. And last, Perion restaurant, this restaurant offers a breath taking view of the island of Iles de Friuli and the Mediterranean Sea. In this restaurant you can join a romantic lunch and dinner.

Cool globe, devant le restaurant le Marseillois, vieux port de Marseille credit: JeanneMenjoulet&Cie CC BY-ND 2.0

Click here to read more about trips and routes in the city of Marseille and in the province of Provence