For our honeymoon we travelled from New York to the South of France. Here is a log of the trip.
Why Barcelona ? I thought you were travelling to France ?
We chose Barcelona as:
We flew overnight with AA, landing around 6:30am. I had intended to take the train from the airport but walked outside and found a bus waiting so took that; I think they are every 30 minutes.
The journey to the centre of Barcelona (steps from Las Ramblas) took around 40 minutes and was less than 10 euro.
Our hotel (Casa Luz Hotel Plaça Universitat - Sonder) did allow early check in, but not until 2pm. We dropped bags and took a city tourbus to burn some time.
Barcelona was great, clean, walkable, could rent Lime bicycles with the Uber app, and was suprisingly cheap for the quality.
If we had not secured 2pm check in, I would have used the DayUse app and booked a hotel for the day. I had looked into this before arriving but was a little put off by how far the available properties were from our actual hotel. Looking back this was not a concern as the place is so walkable with good transport options.
A TGV runs from Barcelona to Paris daily around 9:30am. We took a taxi from our hotel to the main station (9 Euros) and 1.5h later were in Perpignan, followed by a quick taxi to the Europcar office near the airport.
We took a one way rental from Perpignan to Nice which cost about 650 Euro. I used my Amex to pay and enjoy the rental insurance benefits.
We got an MG3 EV Hybrid which was excellent. Cost us around $80 in gas for the entire trip. I would not hesitate to rent one again.
For the first couple of nights we stayed at Les Mouettes which was great. We visited Colliore one evening.
Tips:
Sete was very nice, with long beautiful sand beaches
We stayed here - which was nice but probably the smallest Airbnb we have ever been to:
Spent a day here, which for 13 Euro beach lounger rental was exceptional value
SMDLR is a beachfront town with a number of outdoor activities. We rented electric bikes for a day and cycled the coast and wetlands.
Provence was the most city location we stayed at. It was ok, but very touristy and not as local as the rest of the trip.
La Ciotat was the hidden gem of the entire trip. We stayed here in the centre of the town
Took advantage of the boat tour recommended by the owners and enjoyed the relaxed vibe of the entire town; random live music on street corners, courtyards filled with tables at lunch time and kids running around in the evening.
Of all the locations, we would have stayed here the longest
Frejus is classic seaside town. Our Airbnb was a couple of streets from the beach.
It was very touristy but nice.
In Nice we had a beautiful Airbnb, on the second floor of a busy street with big doors permitting evening wine drinking and people watching.
We left to continue the trip via Sicily for a wedding, but Nice Airport had many options to return (direct flights to NY with Delta for example)
The website Flights From was invaluable for understanding airport options and schedules.