South of France with 1 yr old baby - recommendations

  • Thread starter JohnnieKipper
  • Start date
J

JohnnieKipper

Guest
We want to go to the south of france with our 1 yr old this year. Any recomendartions on where to stay, how to get there, hire car or public transport, etc.

Thanks
 
Travelling to France with young baby

Went to mid France coastal region 3 years ago with a one year old. Ferry for 17 hours and 8 hour drive.

Would not recommend this way of travel with a young baby. Cabins were very small . Had to sleep with him on the inside of the bunk!

I would suggest fly drive as the way to go.

Some people fly into northern Spain and drive back up.
 
Travelling to France with young baby

Buy an open jaw. Fly into say Nice and out of Marseilles or Lyon.

I assume you are thinking of the summer months. During that season when travelling with very young, you may find air conditioned transport and accommodation a necessity if you hit on a heatwave. (although they have snow in Marseilles at the moment)
 
Re: Travelling to France with young baby

Buy an open jaw. Fly into say Nice and out of Marseilles or Lyon
Click to expand...

I don't understand . What is this ?

Probably travel in June.
 
Re: Travelling to France with young baby

Hi Jonnie,

An open jaw ticket allows you to fly into one airport and fly back from another. So you could fly into say Nice, rent a car and tour the coast to say Marseilles and return your rental car there. You can experience more of the country without backtracking. Aer Lingus allow it on their Multi City facility.

RGDS, Sumatra
 
Johnnie,

I take it you've already had a read of the key post on and the relevant links therein re. car hire etc.
 
France

Thanks everyone. We're thinking of staying in All Suites Residence in Nice , which is a self catering . Anyone been there ?
 
nice

You could do a lot better than staying in Nice itself which, like a lot of cities, can be a bit kippie. Far better to fly into Nice, hire a car and stay in a village called Villefranche sur Mer about 4 kilometres away (still on the coast) heading towards Monaco/Italy direction - only 10 minute drive. Villefranche has loads of little restaurants, cafes etc, it's the village where the Mediterranean cruise ships drop in as well. Nice little harbour - it's where Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Steve Martin and Michael Caine was shot if you know of that film - and great bus and train service if you don't have a car. And you can still visit Nice on the bus if you don't think driving through it once is enough! I can recommend a good restaurant as well if you do go that way. (I'm there a lot as I have a studio in a village nearby)
 
Re

That hotel is actually in Cannes. Is that better ?
 
Re: Villefranche

Hi podge&rodge, do you know of any self-catering accomodation in the area you could recommend?
 
south of france

1) Cannes is popular with a lot of Irish people, personally I found it to be a "nice to see for a day" type of place. The advantage of staying on the east of Nice i.e between Nice and Italy is that you have a few nice places in between - there is Eze village - a lovely village way up high with fantastic views of the riviera (it's where Bono has a pad and the Edge got married a couple of years back), and of course you are only a 10 minute drive from Monte Carlo which is a great place to watch the world go by. A few minutes further down the road you can then venture into Italy for another nice day out.

2) Vanilla, I know someone who has knowledge of self catering in the area and will check and post back. By self catering are you referring to commercial complexes or privately owned apartments for rent?
 
By self catering are you referring to commercial complexes or privately owned apartments for rent?
Click to expand...

We are interested in self catering complex style .
 
Re: south of france

I really dont mind if its a commercial complex or a private apt- although for a private apt, I would want to see a website or photos etc first. I've stayed in Roquebrune Cap Martin before and loved it, so I'd love to try Villefranche or Menton or that area.
 
I agree that you should not actually stay in the bigger places i.e. Nice, Canne, Monte Carlo. The smaller towns and villages are much nicer and once you have a car you can still travel to the cities very easily. We stayed just outside Nice last year, but if we went again I would love to stay in Antibes which is very historic, or some of the other smaller towns along the way. They are still big enough that they have a range of restaurants and shops but are much more charming than the cities.
If you are hiring a car, make sure it has air conditioning - you will be very glad of it in June over there.
 
Re

I was planning to not hire a car and take the train up and down the coast. I can then relax a bit more and enjoy some fine frence wine with my lunch :)
 
Hi Johnnie- as an aside, I booked a private apt in Roquebrune the last time I went there through www.abritel.fr


We thought a car was invaluable by day as we could visit lots of places around easily- even doing the supermarket shopping is easier with a car. I had to laugh though at the car park in the supermarket in Monte Carlo- every second car was a Bentley or a Ferrari or such like. Despite this, the super market was much better value than at home.

By night of course we left the car behind..and walked to nearby restaurants and liberally sampled the lovely french food and wine ( mind you this was before the advent of baby, so...)
 
Re: Re

Don't forget that baby will still have to put up with smoke in restaurants. Why not head over the border to Italy where they have implemented their own smoking ban.
 
Has anyone any specific advice on places to take young ones?? We are hoping to travel to France (Carcassonne looks good) with a 14 month old, but we have no experiance of travelling with a baby. I was thinking the campsites look very child friendly, but dont' know how self catering or a hotel would work out. Anyone done this before?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top