Marseille and Provence Cruise Port Guide for 2025!

Marseille is France’s second largest city and the gateway to the lovely Provence region, with the famous lavender fields, Avignon, and Aix en Provence. On this cruise ship port of call, we give you all the port basics you need and our experience (and lessons) from renting a car here. Things did NOT turn out as planned! We sailed with the Sun Princess on Princess Cruise Line.

0:00 Intro
1:11 Port
5:07 Car Rental and French Driving
6:48 Provence Road Trip
10:03 Racing Back to the Ship
11:48 What We Learned

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⚓Helpful links 

Car Rental Contacts

Olympic

Olympic location

Discover Cars
https://discovercars.tp.st/gvlBIeKf

French Road Signs
https://www.rhinocarhire.com/France/France-Road-Signs.aspx

https://assets.ctfassets.net/mivicpf5zews/6okZXfaBqwhVRdv9GU4F1x/2e142c442efb3a94181f7d5ff9478c53/france-road-signs.pdf

https://www.autoeurope.com/travel-guides/france/france-road-signs/

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Marseilles is the gateway to provance in southern France this was a bucket list destination for us for years in fact we planned a honeymoon here but we used the money to adopt our son from China 14 years ago instead so when we learned we were coming here on our family Mediterranean cruise we were elated and determined to make the most of it suffice to say things didn’t go as plan we almost missed our ship you’re the last one on you’re the last one oh my God we’ll share with you how we navigated this situation and the lessons we learned along the way plus our usual Port Report with all the details you expect I’m Troy and this is a port Lowdown Mar is along the southern coast of France part of the cour dour or blue Coast this area has long been a tourist magnet for the lovely provance region and their legendary Lavender Fields the famous Pope’s Palace at Avon and the quaint towns of exom provance and ARL The Stereotype of idelic picture postcard Countryside contrasts hugely with the rougher Marseilles France’s second largest city in the mediterranean’s biggest port with deep history and lots of museums Cathedrals palaces to take in but we were passionate about a road trip through pance so we pre-booked a rental car to pick up in the city marsel has two ports the small port de la Juliet for fairies and small ships and the huge gr Park maritan de Mar gate 4 some 20 minutes or about 6 miles north of downtown walking to town is not an option from here this place welcomes the big boys across six docks a through f for our purposes though there were were two principal docks A and B that share a big parking area between we docked a terminal B being the early bird I was off right away at 8:00 I made sure I took a picture of the port agent contact number and a reminder of our 5:30 boarding time just in case we had a 9:00 a.m. appointment to pick up the car so while waiting for my wife son and in-laws I did my investigating the terminal was wide with ample seating and generous amounts of bathrooms [Music] and no FRS no tourist info no Cafe no gift shop just big super clear signage directing you to all your points of departure taxis to the left just stand in line and take the next one ship tours and oh buses met outside to the right where there are some benches facing the big parking lot and a shuttle bus stop facing forward which was used by our cruise line taking you to town for a $16 all day pass but I knew there was a free shuttle to town so I got directed to this green line just follow it and I’ll get there in 15 minutes lots of independent companies were using points along the route for pickups the Seaman Club just a few minutes to walk away and this alley at about 10 minutes now it may have been about 15 minutes to the freeze shuttle but it felt longer I don’t not about this guys this is like this may fall into the category of more work than it’s worth we’ll see free is good what are you laughing at the shuttle didn’t start until 9:00 a.m. and according to the website via this QR code it operated every 20 to 30 minutes and dropped you off the small Port area of plast La Juliet about a 20-minute walk North from the old Harbor the line kept going so I passed the Guard Station who had this already ready for tourists venturing this far another 5 to 8 minute walk took me to the local bus stop route 35t which was a simple two-point Loop dropping off at Juliet for connections to other parts of the city here’s the ticket kiosk and prices and for your Freeze Frame convenience I’m throwing in the city maps on display too in case you’re interested bottom line if you want to be independent you’ll need to walk and either wait for the free shuttle or pay for the public transport the walk back was a decent 20 minutes but at least it was flat not a lick of shade though now I got back right when my family was coming out and ready to take the taxi into town taxi base fairs start at about €2 then distance and time are factored in credit cards are accepted but cash is always appreciated we stocked up on Euro before we got here lucky things since we didn’t see any ATMs at the terminal we had the address to our car rental company Olympic rentals ready to show the driver your location to Mar no rental yeah how much uh location one day oh how much one day 100 100 yeah now we’re running late for our 9:00 a.m. pickup time but we figured it’s only a 20-minute Drive well remember when I said this city was the second largest in France that meant big city traffic and big city congestion turns out traffic here is a major headache even for the [Music] locals we reached Olympic rentals on time we got the driver’s contact number to make coming back easier Arrangements like that are common with cabbies all over and saved us lots of time in the long run the facility was nice clean with helpful and really young staff our young friend was quite helpful going over the various additional Insurance options which we always take and specifying which type of gas to refuel with and apparently there’s a lot of options here and car inspection the whole process from arrival to driving off took about 20 minutes now we chose Olympic because it’s a large company with high customer ratings but it’s also near the train station but not in it so we didn’t pay the extra fees attached to the train station and airport locations see our Link in the description for contact info the roads are in great shape wide and well-maintained you drive on the right just like the states but France has its own versions of road signs which While most likely self-explanatory you may want to get some orientation beforehand see our links in the description for some help there were tolls where you get a ticket at the entry point and pay on EX it credit cards are fine and actually faster than fiddling around with spare Euros speed limits fluctuate quite a bit here so much so that I needed to call out the speed signs to keep Angelia on track as we wanted to avoid speed traps so one says 50 over here and then one says 70 on that side and this one says 110 you seriously need a second second set of eyes to watch over this if you don’t know what’s going on cuz it’s like you could just get nailed so easily on this and only like 70 90 and like within like so many meters of course the locals were hip traffic flows we decided to play it safe and take it more cautiously and slower than normal and roundabouts the French love their roundabouts and especially along the non-f freeway roads we encountered a lot go to level two roundabout side by side play the game roundabout game now we had a route plan we were more interested in ainong and the Pope’s Palace rather than Exon provant true aen Yong was 45 minutes farther up North but we had time and the car plus with check out the Lavender Fields at AB de notam de about another hour East we started driving about 9:30 and right away we needed a restroom we’re already in the car driving through a difficult unfamiliar City with limited spaces to even stop go that’s that’s that’s a train station don’t go there do this here so we opted to get out of central town but where do we stop that was tricky it’s not like you can Google Map starbu for the next roadside location we finally chose a shopping mall which is about 20 minutes out of town Grand l all one of France’s biggest shopping malls actually a pretty cool place not just nice and free bathrooms but a place to get supplies for the road or check out the local stores we’re back on our way by about 10:30 we got to Aven Yong about noon the infrastructure layout was pretty easy man I wish we had more of these at home an electronic sign telling you how many available parking spaces there were before entering town we focus on the historic pulp’s Palace Square which had underground parking super convenient aong was a second Vatican during the 14th century with seven popes making it home during the corruption of R the square has the palace entrance a small tour train and several tourist eateries we chose one of those to save time and although it had tourist prices we expected the food was quite good and the view was to die for just be careful of the Cobblestone sidewalks of course and easy to miss low Ledges along slopes like long stairs at lunch we had to decide to stay or make a run for the Lavender Fields it was already 1:00 p.m. but the lavender field were an important part of our plans so we skipped going to the palace opting for lunch and taking a few pictures before heading back on the road by 1:30 by the way if you’d like to be independent like us while cruising be sure to like And subscribe to get easy access to our other Port reports ship tours and tips AB notam de sank was another hour’s drive but we figured we could park and get some nice pictures while exploring the fields and Abby grounds well the ABY is inside a mountainous region which is Dro dead beautiful but it’s also slow goinging with tight twisting roads lots of bikers along blind turns and no phone signal the GPS would track us but no directions we reached the Abbey about 2:30 to find quite a large crowd of tour coaches and cars so entrance to the ABY was restricted that day the crowds were just too big anyway the stop was a quick one the Lavender Fields themselves seemed a bit muted maybe it was past your full color we’re driving again by about 3 p.m. now we started to feel the clock ticking we had 2 and 1/2 hours left before the boarding deadline we had an hour and a half Drive South back to the car rental location and another 20 minutes to get back to the ship which meant we needed about 2 hours we figured no problem we still had 30 minutes leeway plus we had to make a few stops first we found our fantasy lavender field by chance along the road cars were honking at us but we couldn’t get this chance again we bolted out and got our shots without entering or disturbing the field my mother-in-law in particular dreamed of seeing Fields like this for a long time so this is a wish fulfilled next we need to rest rooms again but at least the McDonald’s we found on Route had decent parking last approaching marsill turned into a bit of a nailbiter as our ways navigation app kept increasing the ETA 5 minutes more 10 minutes more 20 minutes more the closer we got to town plus it was approaching rush hour and P 5:00 p.m. Angelia was already thinking about the worst case scenario how do we fly to our next Port of Call in Genoa Italy after missing the ship here’s where that picture from the ship saved us step one we called the port agent and explained the situation he relayed the message to the cruise line with our contact number the ship gave us a 15-minute grace period next we called the cabbie number and arranged to have him meet us at the rental office as soon as we got there okay we made it we managed to get back to the rental office at about 520 or so we got done with the return process in about 10 minutes needless to say we never got the gas so we ate the fuel charge our cabby met us there and the race was on to get back to the ship this is the first press this is the first time to be late for the ship give have plenty of time to return the car cuz this town is just not great hi thank you thank you we had an extra cash tip waiting for him at the end of it but we asked for a hustle he delivered and the cruise ship called us twice to check our progress asking can you see the ship yet where ship look I see it’s not sail away yet we got back on board the ship within a few minutes of our 15minute window so this is what it looks like when you’re late for the ship we have everyone comes to greet you it was awkward but no harsh words just friendly greetings back we took the step to notify everyone ahead of time and that made a huge difference still the experience of being a pork Runner wasn’t one I wanted to repeat so what did we learn first we underestimated how long things would take from traffic conditions to necessary side trips also plan for crowds and finding parking to eat up some of that time second be sure to get the port agent number and any other numbers like the cabie number to reach for saved our bacon third there’s a time constraint with ports of call which meant in this case perhaps weth thinking the car rental option entirely it’s perfect if you’re staying a few days and have time to wander but we needed at least an hour of travel and processing time to get the car if I could do this again and wanted to explore provance I would have searched out a private driver for the day who would pick us up at the port or if we still wanted to rent a car get out of port ASAP and perhaps stay closer visiting Exon pance and the Lavender Fields there but ideally we want a slow travel here this is a region to savor we’re had a similar situation in insata Mexico with the car rental and delays getting back you can check that and the solutions to that situation here and as always we love your comments and questions what do you think of this situation would you have done anything differently let us know and happy travels