Aix-En-Provence or Cassis?

[ahoymatey3]

Hi all. I'm trying to decide between Aix-En-Provence or Cassis for the morning portion of my day in Massille, France. I'll be doing the Marseille city tour in the late afternoon.

 

Opinons on Aix vs. Cassis would be appreciated. Thanks!

[goldenprincess53]

I want to do "both" of these, and wonder if it will be possible to do one of them with the RCLL shore excursion and the other on my own (train/bus). I think Aix is the best one to do by train as it is more direct from the port, but I don't know if Cassis excursion is am or pm. Look forward to hearing peoples thoughts on these two places.

[bobinaustin]

I was in both towns a few years ago and stayed overnight in both.

Cassis is a small village directly on the sea. There's a harbor and small beach. The coastline there is steep and rocky with "calanques" (see http://www.beyond.fr/sites/calanques.html) which can be reached via hiking trails. There are a few open air restaurants along the harbor. But it's small.

Aix-en-Provence is a very charming city with a lovely, tree-lined main street. It has museums, churches and many places to sit and enjoy the passing scenery.

So, I'd say if you just want to sit around and drink pastis in the sun after hiking the calanques, then Cassis is OK. If you want to walk around more and see more architecture and history, then Aix marks the spot.

[Cleopatra]

I agree with Bobaustin, Aix is a charming small city, very easy to visit on your own. In fact, taking the bus is quite easy to do and allows you a glimpse of the countryside. The bus station is located just behind the train station in Marseilles. The busses run every 20 minutes as I remember.

[envy4u]

Is it better to take the bus or train to Aix?

[tom_uk]

I did an excursion to Cassis last May - in fact, just about a year ago today! - and I loved it. We were on a pretty 'historic port' intensive cruise, and the way it turned out was that the day in Marseilles was just a day resting & lazing about. The excursion to Cassis fitted with this - about 70 minutes drive there along the coast road, about 45/50 minutes back along the motorway, and about 2 and a half hours in Cassis. It's small but very pretty, and is the epitome of a small French harbour town/village on the Med coast. We had a lovely, relaxing time there, and I have very fond memories.

 

It also helped that it was the last full day of our cruise; we disembarked the following morning. We were ready for an easy day to get ready for the effort of the journey home, so we had one - Cassis in the morning, and then a lazy lunch and gentle wander around the Vieux Port in Marseilles afterwards.

[dbh62ark]

Of the two, I liked Aix better too but think that Cassis has a lot of charm. Aix just has beautiful architecture, lots of fountains, etc. Does that help? Sometimes when I want to get a preview to help me decide, I go to http://www.flickr.com to see some photos that other travelers took. Sometimes I'll look at the photos and realize that I'll be going to a place that looks very similar on the same trip, which may or may not be a good thing depending on what you like. I don't think you can go wrong with either. I have not done both in the same day as a port stop so (sorry) can't help with that. We did the train to Aix (didn't even consider the bus so that sounds like a good option too) and did the Vieux Port area of Marseille in a port day. I wrote some instructions on how to do that on another thread on these boards.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[Cleopatra]

We took the bus from Marseilles to Aix. The bus station is just behind the train station in Marseilles. From the port, however, you'll need to take a cab to the Marseilles Vieux Port as the cruise ships dock too far to walk. If your cruise provides a shuttle to the Vieux Port or even the train station that would work. Aix is a lovely city where you will find art, architecture, gardens and open air markets to enjoy.