Provence and the French Riviera

I booked at the last minute as my plans had changed. This tour happened to fit in with my dates and luckily I was accepted to travel. I didn’t fully check what the tour comprised of but saw it went to most of the places I had wanted to see. It didn’t disappoint and was fantastic from the start. Well chosen restaurants for our group dinners and each day took us to a variety of ‘wow’ locations. Can’t go wrong with small Provence villages, winery and olive farm tours, spectacular views, great food, along with following in the footsteps of great painters such as Cezanne and Van Gogh - and of course the opportunity for shopping. Our great guide Davide brought it all together being both relaxed and interested in us all while still imparting wisdom and getting us on time to all the fabulous places and accommodation. Plus great driving from Ervins on some pretty crazy roads!Accommodation was varied but still clean and had everything we needed. Highlights for me were the Pont du Gare, picnic under the olive trees, and the stunning views through the Gorge Verdon - and of course our guide Davide and the lovely, fun group of fellow travellers. Thanks Back Roads.

Wonderful scenery, nice food

Wonderful tour. Great guide and driver, accomodation in good localities, meals good . Thoroughly enjoyed small group tour experience with a great group of people.

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole week. We had a great tour leader who was able to tell us about the attractions, culture and history of different areas in an interesting way. Each day seemed well planned to give us the best use of the time available.

Alberto led a great tour through Provence! Thoroughly enjoyed his commentary during the tour.

Excellent itinerary, Albert was an excellent guide and I learnt a lot from him. French villages and towns are lovely. A couple of the hotels could have been a bit better but the excellent special extras at the winery and olive grove made up for it. I would have liked a little extra time in Aix-en-Provence, it is very special.

The guide Francoise was incredible and really went the extra mile. The driver Dennis was also great.
The accomodation was terrible some rooms were dirty, smelt of cigarettes, we had asked for double beds and got a double bed once while single people got double beds. There were ripped dirty curtains and the doors were cracked and peeling. The food was very average ,. We are totally disappointed and feel we should have compensation. You really should go on the trip so you can experience it!!!

The places we visited and activities we did were excellent. The tour guide and driver were very friendly and supportive at all times.

Tour was amazing great destination made even better with the perfect combination fantastic tour guide a Frenchman in France with extraordinary knowledge and a great sense of humour a great bus and driver the depth of knowledge Fracesoir had of the area with extra updates along the way was amazing good solid standard of accommodation and the ability to blend the group into a fun bunch weather way over and above could not have asked for a better tour

I enjoyed this tour. I especially liked having the 4 nights in Arles and the hotel was perfect just inside the walls of the old town.

The areas we covered were just beautiful and not too touristy.
Loved Cassis and Les Baux . Loved the lavender hills too .
I found the hospital where Can Gough was very interesting and his Starry nights original was in Arles so we were lucky .
The french tour guide was excellent .
I would have liked more historic history in some areas so perhaps you can offer specialized historians on this tour for some places .
I didn't mind the hotels as position is more important to me and in Nice and Aryles this was great .
I will definitely do another one in France . Not sure which one . Depends on the tour guide as i would only like a french guide .
I would have like to see huge lavender fields not just a small one and also had a day at Monte Carlo

Excellent guide through an excellent selection of sites in Provence.

Poor accommodation
Terrible guide limited knowledge using google in couch throughout tour
Lunch at olive farm inedible
Few paid attractions
Limited spending of float by the guide
No advance information prior to arriving at each destination

GOOD
Interesting towns

I have done an ondrpth survey supplied by guide.Mani
Not doing another one!@

The tour took us to pretty much all of the sites that guide books recommend. Our guide Manu provided plenty of relevant information along the way and went out of her way to help my wife and I. Aleks is a very good driver and also very friendly. To cap it all off, we were blessed with great weather.

Wonderful tour guide, small group

Great destinations, guide and driver. Again, more wine and food options would improve it eg- no Medoc. A coup,le of dodgy hotels were disappointing.

Tour destinations really great as was the guide…..however 3 star hotels and cramped bus really undermined the enjoyment.

Location of hotel in Arles where we remained for 4 nights was rather seedy. Once inside it was acceptable but where we boarded and exited bus revealed a run down location.

Enjoyed the places visited, superb scenery.

Many outstanding stops along the way. The guide -- Maxime Giron, and the driver -- Ken Piddlesden, were both amazing. Very professional and went the extra mile to make things work. Only suggestion: we got separated from our group and got lost in the Popes Palace. Suggest a guided tour similar to the Abbey, or simply skip the Popes Palace.

Beautiful villages and scenery and a great team on board a small groups tour.
Responsive and informative.

We loved our experience made new friends

We visited beautiful places and learnt such a lot. We stopped, frequently, so we were never in the bus for long

We went to a lot of places, Asia took us to extra places, plenty of stops for photos, our bus driver , Alex was excellent, so helpful and a gentleman
At times I felt there was not much to do or explore. 4 Days in Arles I felt was too long. The hotel in Arles was disappointing, fair walk into town, people with walking disabilities struggled. The area was not good. A lot of men hanging about the streets. All the women felt unsafe, lucky we were in a group, if I was alone I would feel unsafe, the hotel needs to be reviewed. Not up to back roads standards.

Very poor quality as compared with previous B/R tours
See comments on previous tour.

Loverly sites chosen as part of the tour

There were many interesting locations and experiences. I have dropped a star only as I was surprised that tours advertised as ‘back to back’ repeated some of the itinerary.