Topic: Travel Feature: Cote d'Azur on a budget

[Autos_Editor]

The French Riviera may be one of Europe's wealthiest areas, but travellers can find surprisingly affordable accommodation and transportation.

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[Ex-airbalancer]

my wife love the market in Nice,
The train are cheap and easy to use if you need to go on a farther trip

[quadzilla]

I love budget articles as its very relative to every person.

Flights 900 x 2 = $1800
Apt = $745 (9 days)

Total without eating, drinking, transportation or any other hidden costs = $2545

So I imagine three grand easy for a 'budget' trip for two people.

This is as affordable as it can get with base prices (excluding taxes, etc.) of just $185 over and $140 on the return. Some people couldn’t drive their SUV from Montreal to Toronto for $140!

  Is that the same as saying my car only cost 25G without options or taxes or fees?

Montreal - Toronto is approx 550km

If the said SUV could get 10L/100km then it would need 55L of fuel @ 1.30 = $71.50

[CanuckS2K]

I had a neice who thought Nice was nice, but Nice was not nice to my neice, as she got lost once. 

  


I LOVED our visit to the Cote D'Azur.  The entire drive along that coast is spectacular!  Next time we are there, I'd like to venture further inland in the Provence region. 

[tpl]

I love budget articles as its very relative to every person.

Flights 900 x 2 = $1800
Apt = $745 (9 days)

Total without eating, drinking, transportation or any other hidden costs = $2545

So I imagine three grand easy for a 'budget' trip for two people.

...

If you have an apartment then food and drink are quite reasonably priced in France.  Resto bills can kill you tho'  ( I found that food shopping and cooking in France was a great part of the vacation...but then I like to cook)
Buses and trains( except the TGV) are cheap (ish) but rental cars and fuel will kill your wallet  faster than restos will.

[CanuckS2K]

I love budget articles as its very relative to every person.

Flights 900 x 2 = $1800
Apt = $745 (9 days)

Total without eating, drinking, transportation or any other hidden costs = $2545

So I imagine three grand easy for a 'budget' trip for two people.

...

If you have an apartment then food and drink are quite reasonably priced in France.  Resto bills can kill you tho'  ( I found that food shopping and cooking in France was a great part of the vacation...but then I like to cook)
Buses and trains( except the TGV) are cheap (ish) but rental cars and fuel will kill your wallet  faster than restos will.

Agreed.  Food shopping and cooking in foreign countries is always a lot of fun, or at least it is to me.  I love to cook as well though. 

[nlm]

I love budget articles as its very relative to every person....

For sure $ is relative but I think Peter set the parameters in the beginning of the article when describing the pizzazz of Nice. $3k for 9 days for two whereas some may pay that much for a single night out in Nice.

[Ex-airbalancer]

I am sure I have pictures of that skinny building also
One thing that surprised us was , the beach was rocky

[quadzilla]

I love budget articles as its very relative to every person....

For sure $ is relative but I think Peter set the parameters in the beginning of the article when describing the pizzazz of Nice. $3k for 9 days for two whereas some may pay that much for a single night out in Nice.

OR be able to travel for a month.

[CanuckS2K]

I am sure I have pictures of that skinny building also
One thing that surprised us was , the beach was rocky

The beach in Nice is far from sandy, however the beach in Cannes and also in Villefranche-sur-Mer (the beach in the pic I took above) was very nice and sandy.  The whole area is extremely beautiful. 

[Minou]

Done a very similar trip in 2005.  I was lucky enough to stay 10 days for free at the beautiful 5* hotel Royal Riviera in Beaulieu-sur-mer where my ex GF had been sent for a few months for work (the hotel management company she worked at had bought the hotel).  Rooms were like 450-650 euros A NIGHT.

I was at walking distance to the bus and train stations and went anywhere between Cannes and Menton, near the italian border.

I strongly recommend stops in Mougins (north of Cannes), Antibes, St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (where Canuck's picture was taken) and Menton.

I was there in October and the weather was perfect for visiting and walking, 20-23C day, 10-15C night.

I wholeheartedly agree with the author of the article about the preference for bus, train and walking over driving for this particular trip.  But be ready to walk a lot if you want to discover all the spots.  We also did city tours in Cannes and Monaco and visited the oceanographic museum and the prince palace in Monaco too.  Worth it and the view is fabulous.

It was also great fun to visit French car dealers along the way.  One Ford salesperson even asked me how he could contact dealers in Quebec for importing a Mustang.

[tinnemeneer]

As I live in the Netherlands the Cote d'Azur is easy to reach (1450km) by car, but so are quite a lot of other places which are nicer and cheaper.
IMHO the Croatian coast is much nicer and way more affordable. Of course people don't speak French in Croatia but they speak English very well so that shouldn't be a huge problem for Canadians.
Just an example; we've seen flip-flops being sold in St.Tropez for E 99,- which is a bit expensive.
In a supermarket 3km from the beach my wife bought a nice pair for less then E 5,-

On a plus side; On one day I counted 104 Porsche 911's, 6 Ferrari's, 2 Bentley's, 2 Aston Martin's and didn't see any other Dodge Stratus except our own.
So who's got the exclusive car eh ?

('eh' intentionally added ).

 

[tpl]

As I live in the Netherlands the Cote d'Azur is easy to reach (1450km) by car, but so are quite a lot of other places which are nicer and cheaper.
IMHO the Croatian coast is much nicer and way more affordable. Of course people don't speak French in Croatia but they speak English very well so that shouldn't be a huge problem for Canadians.
Just an example; we've seen flip-flops being sold in St.Tropez for E 99,- which is a bit expensive.
In a supermarket 3km from the beach my wife bought a nice pair for less then E 5,-

On a plus side; On one day I counted 104 Porsche 911's, 6 Ferrari's, 2 Bentley's, 2 Aston Martin's and didn't see any other Dodge Stratus except our own.
So who's got the exclusive car eh ?

('eh' intentionally added ).

Never been to Croatia... but I have spent many, many summers the other side of France in the Pays Basque...which is where, as I am sure you know, EVERY motorhome and caravan has Dutch numberplates.  This shows that the SW of France is in fact a better place for sensible Dutchmen than the Cote D'Azur... if not as cheap as Croatia, the Atlantic, unlike the Med won't put you in hospital if you drink it accidentally.   

[tinnemeneer]

Never been to Croatia... but I have spent many, many summers the other side of France in the Pays Basque...which is where, as I am sure you know, EVERY motorhome and caravan has Dutch numberplates.  This shows that the SW of France is in fact a better place for sensible Dutchmen than the Cote D'Azur... if not as cheap as Croatia, the Atlantic, unlike the Med won't put you in hospital if you drink it accidentally.   

Oh, you'll see Dutch people everywhere. We're like a plague. We are with 17 million and each year 2.4 million will visit France, 1.9 million will visit Germany and 1.7 million will visit Spain.  In total over 10 million visits are across the border. This isn't as strange as it sounds though; the Netherlands are very small so if we go driving for a couple of hours we'll be in another country anyway.
Last year I visited Danmark (and therefor Germany), Germany itself and Portugal (implying Belgium, France and Spain). I really like to drive.

I think I drank the Med _completely_ when trying to water ski and didn't end up in the hospital so you're exaggerating.

[tpl]

Compared to some other people who holiday in SW France you are a GOOD plague! 

Of course I was exaggerating about the Med water...but near shore around some resorts it is very polluted.

[tinnemeneer]

Compared to some other people who holiday in SW France you are a GOOD plague! 

Of course I was exaggerating about the Med water...but near shore around some resorts it is very polluted.

Well, I might have not drank it all. So we both can't be trusted on a forum.
But I'm not to sure we're a good plague though. It might not be an issue for you but every holiday when we're in a small village or near a deserted beach the first non-locals we see are Dutch. Of course we do that to them as well but it is weird that it happens every time we're somewhere.

[Ex-airbalancer]

I can drive 2000km and still be Ontario
1400km drive is a walk in the park

[tpl]

Compared to some other people who holiday in SW France you are a GOOD plague! 

Of course I was exaggerating about the Med water...but near shore around some resorts it is very polluted.

Well, I might have not drank it all. So we both can't be trusted on a forum.
But I'm not to sure we're a good plague though. It might not be an issue for you but every holiday when we're in a small village or near a deserted beach the first non-locals we see are Dutch. Of course we do that to them as well but it is weird that it happens every time we're somewhere.

AHA!  When one makes a comment in schoolboy French in the hearing of  a Dutch vacationer one is immediately replied to in flawless English and then asked if one is English or Canadian ( we are both) ...to me this is a good thing. 

[tinnemeneer]

I can drive 2000km and still be Ontario
1400km drive is a walk in the park

1400km is a walk in the park. But what's wrong with that ? I don't want to start a Europe versus Canada argument (that would be terribly rude to do so) but why would you want to have a province that stretches over 2000km ? I haven't ever been to Canada so I'm probably wrong, but I doubt that many Canadians ever take an exit of the interstate (?) 11 in the east or 17 in the west to travel 200km north. Although I envy the vast amount of nature you have it's not really what I'd crave for on a daily basis.
Paris is 7 hours away and I can reach the Alps in a day. If I travel 2000km I'd be in Madrid. That can't be a bad thing.

The reason I visit this website is the fact that canadiandriver has smart articles and isn't totally biased to musclecars as most American websites tend to do. In Europe everybody now wants small and cheap cars, especially in the Netherlands. 

[Ex-airbalancer]

just to show you how lucky you are