South of France without a car?

[ScaryScienceT]

Has anyone gone to the Riviera by train?

I found this fab Pierre et Vacances resort near St Tropez, but don't relish the thought of the 13 hour drive spread over 3 days. I noticed in their directions, they gave details of the nearest train station.

So, I had a look at train websites, and the cost of a train looks really reasonable - St Pancras to St Raphael for under £500 for the seven of us. We would spend far more than this en route, between the tunnel, hotels and meals, petrol and tolls.

The resort is 3km from the coast and on a bus route and feasible taxi-wise.

Any thoughts, or experience to share?

Sounds like a good deal. Took Eurostar to Avignon when DS1 was a baby and it was fine. Do you have to change trains at all? We hired a car at the other end but only because the villa was in the middle of nowhere.

If we go via Paris, we'd have to change stations. If we go via Lille, we'd just have to change platforms.

I will look into car hire, but we'd need a people carrier which really racks up the cost. We probably wouldn't get much use out of it.

[stupid hat on]
why not fly to Nice?

although if there are 7 of you I guess you would fill a whole couchette compartment which makes it much more reasonable than if there were fewer of you

Not sure flying would help with the tricky bits - ie dealing without a car and having rely on buses and taxis if we want to be mobile.

It would also be more expensive than the train, and drop us off a lot further away than the train. Toulon airport would be closer, but Stansted isn't!

ah right
could you use Motorail to take the car on the train?

we went down on the train but hired a car at the end (I think we went to Marseilles, can't remember. Was super quick though.)

Hiring a car there is probably not as expensive as you think. Have you checked? If you have nectar points, I think you can use them for some hiring places (might have changed though).

Ah, must check the nectar points. I found a cheap car hire that was £350 - OK if we really needed the car, but would also pay for a lot of taxi fares.

We've Motor-railed before and it was good, but I remember there being a lot of restrictions as to height of car, and no roof rack. We have a MPV and a roof rack