auto vs train travel

Will be arriving in Marseille Provence Airport for a 3 night stay in Cassis then on to Beaune. Have a plan for Aix en Provence one day. Trying to decide train and taxi cost vs car cost for transportation from airport to cassis, from cassis to aix en provence and back one day and from cassis to beaune. It is difficult to find point to point train fare costs and identify taxi cost to compare with cost of car rental. Seems like a 3 day car rental would be more convenient and economically better as well. Then the concern is navigating the unfamiliar territory. Any suggestions?

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%26lt;%26lt;It is difficult to find point to point train fare costs%26gt;%26gt;

I am not sure why this is difficult. It should be straight forward:

www.voyages-sncf.com (in French only)

www.tgv-europe.com

%26lt;%26lt;Then the concern is navigating the unfamiliar territory.%26gt;%26gt;

Concern? perhaps but not a problem with a map such as this:

http://tinyurl.com/cyt82o

However, parking can be a notable cost in both Cassis and Aix-en-Provence.

The rational for the one-day Cassis stay after Aix is not clear. Wouldn%26#39;t one logically travel Cassis to Aix-en-Provence to Beaune?

In any event, trying to reach Beaune from either Aix or Marseille by train will take anywhere from 3+30 to 4 hours using the shortest travel times.

Expect at least 4 hours drive time from Aix-en-Provence to Beaune.

To assist with drive times:

www.viamichelin.com

www.mappy.com

For car rental information:

easycar.com/car-hire/destination/France.aspx

http://www.easyterra.com/

http://www.kemwel.com/

http://www.novacarhire.com/

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A day trip from Cassis to Aix-en-Provence would be quite possible although you will have to change at Marseille St Charles. On both legs there is a train at least every hour and as they are local TER trains there is no need to book in advance.

For train from Cassis to Beaune, you woud certainly have to change at Marseille, probably in Lyon and possibly Arles or Avignon as well.

For both journeys you can find the timetables on www.voyages-sncf.com and click the Horaires Seules button. You may find that you have to do it in stages because the site doesn%26#39;t usually show jurneys with more than a couple of connections.

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If you take the train from Aix to Cassis, be warned, Cassis is about 2 miles from Cassis station. There is a shuttle bus, see www.cassis.fr/iso_album/horaires-11-2008.jpg

As one who has done this journey, I would further warn you that the travel time is not an issue, the issue is the length of time you have to wait for connections. Plan carefully.

If you look at www.lepilote.com/transports/ChoixLigne.asp… and download bus 072, (you have to fiddle about entering the day you want to travel) you will find that on some days (I think Thursday Friday and Saturday but check) it runs via Cassis, but the timing is probably not much use to someone travelling from Aix.