Local Transport

This section covers getting around Provence on public transport, whether within a local area or in one of the major cities. Click here for specific guides to travel within Aix, Avignon, Marseille and Toulon and our drives and rides section for more ideas for tourist itineraries.

An excellent new site will help you plan your best itinerary by public transport within Provence. It's called Pacamobilité and has versions in English, Italian, German and Spanish. Just key in your destination and time and date of travel and let the app do all the work!

If you are planning to travel around extensively by public transport, it's well worth considering buying a ZOU! card. It can give you substantial discounts on local coach and train travel in Provence.

There is a range of different types of ZOU! card aimed at both regular and occasional travellers: check the SNCF website for what's currently available.

Of particular interest to tourists but available during the summer only is a daily ZOU! rail pass which is on offer from 1 June to 30 September.

It gives you one day's unlimited travel in any one of the six départements of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur network for 16 €uros.

These are: Les Alpes de Hautes Provence (04), Hautes Alpes (05), Alpes Maritime (06), Bouches du Rhône (13), Var (83) and Vaucluse (84). You need to specify which département you want at the time of buying the pass.

Note that the ZOU! card qualifies for discounts on either the local bus (LER) or the local train (TER) network, but not both. By the way, "Zou!" is provençal slang for "Let's go!"

Click here to book a hotel in Provence