Paris to the French Riviera
9 DAYS
Paris 2 • Avignon 2 • Nice 3
Basic Inclusions
Accommodations
Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.
Meals
All breakfasts. All dinners.
Transportation
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.
Guide
Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout.
Travel Protection
Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.
Tour Summary
Itinerary Includes
Public Transportation Included
Days 1-2: Arrival Paris
Arrival transfer
Day 3: Paris
Paris City Sightseeing, Excursion to the Palace of Versailles, RER train to Paris
Photo stop near Notre-Dame Cathedral
Ascent to the second level of the Eiffel Tower: Optional Eiffel Tower Summit (subject to availability)
Optional Capitaine Fracasse dinner cruise
Day 4: Paris - Avignon
Tour director-led walking tour in Avignon
Departure transfer, TGV train Paris-Avignon, Arrival transfer
Day 5: Avignon
Excursion to the Pont du Gard and Nîmes: Visit to the Pont du Gard Roman aqueduct, Tour director-led walking tour in Nîmes, Visits to the Roman Amphitheater and the Maison Carrée with 3-D Film
Day 6: Avignon - Nice
Tour director-led walking tour in Aix-en-Provence
Day 7: Nice
Excursion to Èze and Monaco: Visit to the Fragonard perfume factory in Èze-Village
Day 8: Nice
Tour director-led walking tour along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice
Day 9: Departure
Departure transfer
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
CITY-CENTER HOTELS
Stay right in the heart of it. Why settle for staying outside of the city? Wake up in the city. Explore. Have dinner in the city. Explore. Return to the hotel at your convenience.
Check out our typical hotels
3-AND-4 STAR HOTELS
We’ve scoured each city for the finest hotels for our groups. Comfortable, conveniently located, clean and safe. That’s what we do.
HOTEL CHOICE
We give you options - but the choice is yours.
AMAZING FOOD
Student tour dinners don’t have to stink! Enjoy authentic, high-quality food, and lots of it. Three-course meals that you will want to post on social media.
Check out what our food is like
INDUSTRY BEST TOUR DIRECTORS
Passports contracts only the finest, A+ Tour Directors in the industry. With decades of experience, our team is second-to-none in terms of experience and professionalism. Read more about our amazing Tour Directors.
24-HOUR SERVICE
Your Tour Director will meet you at the airport and stay with you every step of the way until your return flight. They are your own personal travel expert.
INCLUDED FLIGHTS
We work with the airlines so you don’t have to.
BEST AVAILABLE ROUTINGS
We look for the best possible routings for your group with a minimal number of legs and ideal layovers. We try to get you in early - but not too early - to maximize your time overseas.
MORE INCLUSIONS
UNLIMITED PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION INCLUDED
You don’t want to have to worry about getting metro tickets when you’re pressed for time. We provide pre-loaded travel cards so that you can hit the ground running.
INCLUDED OVERSEAS MEDICAL COVERAGE
Passports provides and pays for a post-departure travel protection plan that helps protect you while on your trip with coverage for trip interruption, trip delay, baggage loss, theft or delay, emergency medical expenses, evacuation and more.
ALL TIPS INCLUDED OPTION
Tour Directors receive tips at the end of the tour. Including the tip in the up-front tour cost saves your group from carrying around extra money overseas or being surprised with an extra expense at the end of the tour. This is just another way that Passports is honest and up-front about all expenses. You can choose to include the tip ahead of time - or not to. Passports gives you the option.
NO ON TOUR UPSELL
Ever been pressured on tour to purchase an excursion? Or been shuttled into one workshop after another? Not with Passports.
VALUE VALUE VALUE
Dollar-for-dollar Passports is the best value you can get. Our tours are packed with included activities for a price that you can't beat with any other company.
HUMAN-FIRST POLICIES
FANATICAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT
We are here to be your partner. We support our group leaders 100%. Through thick and thin, we will work with you to make your travel program an annual success.
BEST REFUND POLICY IN THE INDUSTRY
Passports refunds 75% until 30 days prior to departure as our default policy. Early cancellations have fixed, low cancellation penalties. We would love for you to compare our cancellation policy to our competitors. Passports acts as the best partner we can, for every traveler, on every tour. That’s our promise.
SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT
Our Tour Advisors are amazing people who work with the group leaders during the pre-sale, enrollment, pre-departure, on-tour and post-tour periods. They check in when the group is overseas. They are the point of contact throughout the entire process to assist in all phases of the tour. This is more important than you would think unless you’ve been with another company and changed hands several times in the course of the tour. The point is: trust and accountability are critical in our relationship with a group leader.
NO HIDDEN CHARGES
No adult fee. With Passports, adults pay the same as students. Oftentimes adults will opt for a double room as they can’t room with students, and there is a charge for the double room. But there is no charge simply for being an adult.
No hidden airline fees. No hidden tripwire fees. With Passports, what you see is what you get.
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival
Weeks, or even months of preparation come to fruition at last as you board your airplane bound for Europe and the glittering jewel at her heart, Paris. Bienvenue!
Settle into your hotel, then have a look at one of the world's most beautiful capital cities.
Time permitting, you may want to head to Montmartre, Paris' highest hill and its most celebrated bohemian district. Artists still flock to the charming Place du Tertre, as they did when Toulouse-Lautrec painted the French Cancan dancers at the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Visitors enjoy panoramic views of the city as they make their way to the Sacré-Coeur, the white-domed basilica that anchors the Parisian skyline.
Overnight: Paris
Day 3: Paris City Sightseeing, Excursion to Versailles, RER train to Paris, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Eiffel Tower
Set out on a coach tour of the city in the company of a local guide. On the Right Bank of the River Seine, see Napoléon's Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysées, the Place de la Concorde, and the exuberant Opéra Garnier. On the Left Bank, discover the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Enjoy a bit of relevant French history today at the palace where the Sun King, Madame de Pompadour and Queen Marie-Antoinette all come to life. In this ultimate example of Baroque architecture, you will marvel at the lavish decoration, abundant gilding and exuberant ornamentation, particularly in the Royal Apartments of Louis XIV and in the Hall of Mirrors. Imagine the sense of self-importance that must have inflated the ego of these kings and queens.
Then, take a stroll around the Main Gardens.
Return to Paris using the efficient RER transit system.
View Notre-Dame de Paris, gutted by the fire of April 15, 2019, but still standing, solemn and magnificent with its iconic towers miraculously preserved from destruction.
Begun in 1163 and completed in 1272, this cathedral has presided over centuries of glorious and somber French history, including its desecration during the French Revolution. In 1831, Victor Hugo launched a campaign of restoration with a novel he titled Notre Dame de Paris. Because he saw the cathedral as the main character, he strongly objected to the title of the English edition: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Take an elevator to the deuxième étage of the most famous cast iron structure ever built, la Tour Eiffel, for an unforgettable panorama of Paris.
Ascend to the third level of the tower.
This evening, dine in style and see illuminations transform Paris into a wonderland like no other as the Capitaine Fracasse cruise ship takes you along the River Seine.
Overnight: Paris
Day 4: Train to Avignon, Avignon Walking Tour
Enjoy a walking tour: see landmarks such as the imposing fortress-like Palace of the Popes, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms, the Saint-Bénézet Bridge (Pont d'Avignon!), the central Place de l'Horloge, and the charming rue des Teinturiers.
Today, there's the excitement of a ride on a Train à Grande Vitesse (no clickety-clacks on these smooth rails) all the way down to Avignon, au coeur de la Provence.
Overnight: Avignon
Day 5: Excursion to the Pont du Gard and Nîmes
Marvel at the Romans' engineering genius at the Pont du Gard, an aqueduct constructed in 19 BC which delivered 44 million gallons of water each day to the Roman city of Nemausus (Nîmes).
On a walk through the city's historic center, you will see impressive ruins such as the Porte d'Auguste, a Roman gate built at the entrance to the Via Domitia when Colonia Nemausus was founded by the Romans in 28 BC.
Enter the Maison Carrée, the best preserved Roman Temple, built c. 7 AD. Thomas Jefferson used it as a model for the Virginia State Capitol Building. A 3D film show inside takes visitors back to the Roman era.
Then, visit the Roman amphitheater, which is better preserved than Rome's Colosseum.
As time allows, you may stroll in town, where shops offer local specialties such as perfumes, olive oils, and the attractive fabrics called tissus provençaux. Nîmes also gave us the less colorful but ubiquitous blue cloth known as "denim," a deformation of the name of the fabric first woven in this city and called serge de Nîmes.
Overnight: Avignon
Day 6: Aix-en-Provence, Nice
Today, depart Avignon and head toward the familiar silhouette of la Montagne Sainte-Victoire, often featured in Cézanne's paintings.
Discover the historic district of the "City of a Thousand Fountains" as you stroll along its best-known avenue, the Cours Mirabeau, past monumental fountains from the 17th century. Other landmarks include the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville with its open-air cafés and the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur, whose Romanesque cloisters house a famous triptych, The Burning Bush, painted in 1476.
Continue over the parched hills of the Massif des Maures on your way to the capital of the French Riviera. This is the Côte d'Azur, celebrated for its sunny climate, the turquoise Mediterranean, and the vedettes de cinéma who inhabit the surrounding hills.
Overnight: Nice
Day 7: Excursion to Monaco and Èze, Nice
Board your coach for an excursion today.
Discover a picturesque Provençal village perched atop a towering cliff, high above the Mediterranean Sea.
Enter the Parfumerie Fragonard and learn about the esoteric artistry of the "nez" - the perfumers nicknamed "Noses" who compose renowned perfumes from a workstation known as a perfume organ.
Discover the Principauté, a fabulous display of white buildings and winding roads set into steep hillsides. Landmarks include the harbor, Monte Carlo and its Grand Casino, favored by the world's well-to-do, the Cathedral, and the Prince's Palace, once inhabited by Prince Rainier and his bride from Philadelphia, the actress Grace Kelly.
The afternoon is unscheduled.
Of course, in Nice there's the famous crescent of the beach: as all beaches in this region, Nice's beach may be a touch pebbly, but the deep blue water looks great!
Overnight: Nice
Day 8: Promenade des Anglais Walking Tour, Nice
Enjoy a walking tour along the Promenade des Anglais, which is said to be Europe's most handsome boulevard (see the luxury yachts from the world over). Time permitting, venture down side streets into the Old Town, known as Vieux-Nice.
The afternoon is unscheduled.
Art lovers may want to visit the colorful Musée Matisse or the Musée Chagall, the latter highlighting one of the artist's major works, Le Message Biblique.
Choose to travel back in time at the Human Paleontology Terra Amata Museum, set on the site of a prehistoric hunters' camp dated as far back as 400,000 BCE (one of the earliest human settlements known in Europe).
Overnight: Nice
Day 9: Departure
Le retour, hélas... Your plane awaits. This time the earth rotates towards you, allowing an arrival in the U.S. seemingly shortly after you left Europe! You're eager to share your adventures with family and friends.
CUSTOM TOURS
All tours can be customized to your particular needs.
Or start from scratch - we will build your dream tour!
Passports Teacher Training Conferences take educators on a journey to some of the most iconic destinations in the world. These conferences are more than just professional development—they’re a celebration of the hard work and dedication of group leaders. Watch the video to see why this is the ultimate reward for educators.