Marseille or Cassis

Hello,

I had originally planned a day in Marseille to see Notre Dame and the view and walk around the town. Then I started seeing post about Cassis. It looks amazing. Now I am torn. I have a 10 year old that would probably like the beaches in Cassis. We are traveling in October. Any suggestion or advice?

Marseilles is a big industrial city

Cassis is a fishing village-great views and chance to sail out to the calanques

Cassis hands down

While on our cruise last week (end of August) I had several people tell me they absolutely loved their day in Casiss

If you are visiting the south of France in October, the weather might not be warm enough for swimming, but the town of Cassis itself is gorgeous. There's also plenty to see and do in Marseilles.

Boats depart from Marseille's Old Port for the Calanques seaside mountains which are stunning, but I don't know if they travel as far as Cassis. There are similar boat tours available from Cassis (that run towards Marseille).

http://travelflicks.ca/tourism/france.php

You will be bored stiff after a couple of hours in Marseille. Get out of town. You can find things to do, but you will be "making do."

The water will be too cold for swimming in October, but the boat trip to the Calanques will be a lot of fun. If you could take a tour that includes both Aix-en-Provence and Cassis, you will see some of the nicest places in Provence. Marseille is a gateway city. Use your time to see much more interesting places.

Thank you!! It's a bad problem to have too much to choose from. 😀

We docked in Toulon two weeks ago and rented a car to drive to both Cassis and Le Castellet (a walled medieval village in the hills) on our own. Cassis was very beautiful, but due to pollution the lifeguards were not allowing people to go in the water - not sure if that's a recurring issue or if it was just that particular day. We had planned to do the boat tour to Les Calanaques but since it was a short port day we were worried about time, so we just walked around for an hour, enjoyed some delicious pastries and then headed to Le Castellet which was amazing - incredible views, very few tourists, and quaint shops and restaurants. The drive was very scenic and it gave us a taste of Provence. Our kids (7 and 12) really enjoyed it as well. We had contacted a few local tour companies about doing the same itinerary, and were quoted a cost of 480 Euro - the car rental, plus gas, parking and tolls only cost us about 90 Euro total.

Marseille is like any other city, some interesting things but generally hot smelly and polluted. Foe me Cassis hands down no contest.

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Take a boat tour of the Calanques - there's at least one in Marseille that you can take (without too much arranging beforehand) and travel towards Cassis to see the Calanques.

We'll be there in early October and opted to hire a private boat to go from Marseille to Cassis. Hoping that the weather will still be nice, but we're very excited about see the calanques and not having to figure out a way (by land) to get to Cassis before getting on a boat to see the calanques.

You can do Cassis and Aix en Provence easily during a port stop. Get a private van for 6 or 8 and driver is also a guide. See my review of what we did. Cassis is small and can be crowded during summer - but not so bad October and later.