Take your pick of our suggested routes, depending on how energetic you're feeling.
The season for this holiday is:
01 April 2022 - 15 July 2022
01 September 2022 - 31 October 2022
01 April 2023 - 15 July 2023
01 September 2023 - 31 October 2023
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| °C | 10 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 22 | 26 | 30 | 29 | 25 | 20 | 14 | 11 |
| mm | 60 | 64 | 55 | 53 | 52 | 38 | 22 | 47 | 71 | 114 | 67 | 62 |
We can only accept payment in GBP, but you can use this converter to find out how much the holiday equates to in your own currency.
7 nights: 01 April 2022 - 15 July 2022, 01 September 2022 - 31 October 2022, 01 April 2023 - 15 July 2023 & 01 September 2023 - 31 October 2023
Start any day | End by latest date(s) shown above
| Starting | Price | Single room |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - 30 Apr 2022 | £995 | £590 |
| 1 - 21 May 2022 | £1020 | £600 |
| 22 May - 29 Jun 2022 | £1045 | £610 |
| 30 Jun - 8 Jul 2022 | £1095 | £615 |
| 1 - 30 Sep 2022 | £1045 | £610 |
| 1 - 24 Oct 2022 | £1020 | £600 |
| 1 - 30 Apr 2023 | £1095 | £650 |
| 1 - 21 May 2023 | £1125 | £660 |
| 22 May - 29 Jun 2023 | £1145 | £675 |
| 30 Jun - 8 Jul 2023 | £1195 | £680 |
| 1 - 30 Sep 2023 | £1145 | £675 |
| 1 - 24 Oct 2023 | £1125 | £660 |
| 3rd & 4th person discount | -£95 to -£145 | |
| Single traveller supplement | £95 to £145 |
Includes accommodation, meals and services integral to the holiday as described, plus walking notes and maps, but no travel from the UK, nor any connecting travel from the airport unless stated below.
Price includes: 7 days' category B car hire (eg Peugeot 208 or similar with manual transmission and air conditioning)
Driving time to the first hotel: Marseille 1h30, Montpellier 2h
Driving time from the final hotel: Marseille 1h30, Montpellier 2h
Book your flights through us and we'll find the best route and times to suit you. Please contact us to find out more about our flight booking service. We can also book connecting travel - see below.
7 nights: 01 April 2022 - 15 July 2022, 01 September 2022 - 31 October 2022, 01 April 2023 - 15 July 2023 & 01 September 2023 - 31 October 2023
Start any day | End by latest date(s) shown above
| Starting | Price | Single room |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - 30 Apr 2022 | £1245 | £590 |
| 1 - 21 May 2022 | £1290 | £600 |
| 22 May - 29 Jun 2022 | £1325 | £610 |
| 30 Jun - 8 Jul 2022 | £1360 | £615 |
| 1 - 30 Sep 2022 | £1325 | £610 |
| 1 - 24 Oct 2022 | £1290 | £600 |
| 1 - 30 Apr 2023 | £1370 | £650 |
| 1 - 21 May 2023 | £1420 | £660 |
| 22 May - 29 Jun 2023 | £1460 | £675 |
| 30 Jun - 8 Jul 2023 | £1500 | £680 |
| 1 - 30 Sep 2023 | £1460 | £675 |
| 1 - 24 Oct 2023 | £1420 | £660 |
| 3rd & 4th person discount | -£95 to -£145 | |
| Single traveller supplement | £95 to £145 |
Includes all elements in the 'walk price', plus standard-class travel by Eurostar from London St Pancras or Ebbsfleet International to Lille or Paris, with onward travel as described below.
Included travel from the UK: UK-Avignon (Eurostar direct or Eurostar/TGV via Paris), approx duration 6h45 plus 1h30 drive. Home, Avignon-UK (Eurostar direct or TGV/Eurostar via Paris), approx duration 7h30 plus 1h30 drive.
> More about 'by rail' prices
> The 'rail experience': what to expect
Price includes: 7 days' category B car hire (eg Renault Clio with manual transmission or similar)
If you book your holiday less than 10 months in advance of your travel date, seats may no longer be available at the tariffs on which our prices are based, but we may be able to offer you seats on the same services at a supplement.
7 nights: 01 April 2022 - 15 July 2022, 01 September 2022 - 31 October 2022, 01 April 2023 - 15 July 2023 & 01 September 2023 - 31 October 2023
Start any day | End by latest date(s) shown above
| Starting | Price | Single room |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - 30 Apr 2022 | £920 | £590 |
| 1 - 21 May 2022 | £940 | £600 |
| 22 May - 29 Jun 2022 | £970 | £610 |
| 30 Jun - 8 Jul 2022 | £970 | £615 |
| 1 - 30 Sep 2022 | £970 | £610 |
| 1 - 24 Oct 2022 | £940 | £600 |
| 1 - 30 Apr 2023 | £1015 | £650 |
| 1 - 21 May 2023 | £1035 | £660 |
| 22 May - 29 Jun 2023 | £1070 | £675 |
| 30 Jun - 8 Jul 2023 | £1070 | £680 |
| 1 - 30 Sep 2023 | £1070 | £675 |
| 1 - 24 Oct 2023 | £1035 | £660 |
| 3rd & 4th person discount | -£60 to -£70 | |
| Single traveller supplement | £60 to £70 |
Includes all elements in the 'walk price', plus a return Channel crossing between Folkestone and Calais with Eurotunnel for your party and one car.
A supplement of £65 per car per single journey applies for outbound travel on 1-2, 8-9, 14-15 & 29-30 April, as well as for inbound travel on 9-10, 16-18 & 23-24 April. A supplement of £42 per car per single journey applies for outbound travel on 27-28 May; 2-3 Jun; 15-16, 22-23 & 29-30 Jul; 5-6, 12-13, 19-20 & 26-27 Aug; and 21-22 Oct, as well as for inbound travel on 2 May; 4-5 Jun; 30-31 Jul; 6-7, 13-14, 20-21 & 27-29 Aug; 3-4 Sep; and 29-30 Oct.
Room upgrades (£ per person per night)
| Hotel du Poète, Fontaine-de-Vaucluse | ||
|---|---|---|
| 'Mélodie': 01 Apr - 15 Jul 2022 | £32 | |
| 'Mélodie': 01 Sep - 31 Oct 2022 | £32 | |
| 'Mélodie': 01 Apr - 15 Jul 2023 | £36 | |
| 'Mélodie': 01 Sep - 31 Oct 2023 | £36 |
Extra nights (£ per person per night) in a double or single room
Prices include extra days' car hire.| Hotel du Poète, Fontaine-de-Vaucluse (B&B) | Double room | Single room |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Apr - 15 Jul 2022 | £124 | £202 |
| 01 Sep - 31 Oct 2022 | £124 | £202 |
| 01 Apr - 15 Jul 2023 | £138 | £224 |
| 01 Sep - 31 Oct 2023 | £138 | £224 |
Travelling from the UK
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Birmingham - Marseille (via Paris) | Air France |
| Birmingham - Montpellier (via Paris) | Air France |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Edinburgh - Marseille | Ryanair |
| Edinburgh - Marseille (via Amsterdam Schiphol) | KLM |
| Edinburgh - Marseille (via Amsterdam) | Air France |
| Edinburgh - Marseille (via Paris) | Air France |
| Edinburgh - Montpellier (via Amsterdam) | Air France |
| Edinburgh - Montpellier (via Paris CDG) | Air France |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Glasgow - Marseille | easyJet |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Humberside - Marseille (via Amsterdam Schiphol) | KLM |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Heathrow - Marseille | British Airways |
| Heathrow - Montpellier (via Paris) | Air France |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Luton - Montpellier | easyJet |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| London Southend - Marseille | Ryanair |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Stansted - Marseille | Ryanair |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Manchester - Marseille | Ryanair |
| Manchester - Marseille (via Paris) | Air France |
| Manchester - Montpellier(via Paris) | Air France |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Newcastle - Marseille (via Paris) | Air France |
| Newcastle - Montpellier (via Paris) | Air France |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Southampton - Marseille (via Paris) | Air France |
| Southampton - Montpellier (via Paris CDG) | Air France |
This list of flight options should be used as a guide only, and you should check each airline’s website for current routes, frequency and schedules. Not all flights operate daily, and may not run for the entire season. You should also heed the latest flight arrival time and earliest flight departure time stated in the connecting travel section, as it may not be possible to arrange connecting travel outside these times. Please do not book your flights until we have confirmed your accommodation to you. Alternatively, our expert reservations team will be happy to offer advice and to make flight bookings for you for any of the options listed above except those operated by Ryanair. We charge £35 per person for our flight booking service. Your flights are then covered by our package-booking conditions, which give you greater protection in the event of delay or cancellation, as well as providing ATOL cover.
If you've experienced this holiday first hand, why not write a review?
We are keen for as many customers as possible to review their holiday. To make it easier to do so, we include a specific review section on our post-holiday questionnaire, and this is what we publish here, unedited. Read our full review policy >
Highly recommend
all was perfect!
The hotel de Poete was exceptional. Magical setting and wonderful friendly, helpful staff.
Fantastic holiday - beautiful hotel in wonderful setting. All round fabulous walking with wonderful villages. Avignon very worthwhile as an add on.
Highly recommend
all was perfect!
The hotel de Poete was exceptional. Magical setting and wonderful friendly, helpful staff.
Fantastic holiday - beautiful hotel in wonderful setting. All round fabulous walking with wonderful villages. Avignon very worthwhile as an add on.
Many think of Provence in terms of sunflowers and lavender which would be much later in the season. Although many facilities only get going at the beginning of May, we found this to be an excellent time for walking before it gets too hot. Especially striking were the wild flowers, blossom, butterflies and birdsong, and all of the routes offer beautiful scenery and panoramic views. The most popular locations (eg Gordes and Rousillon) were crowded and best visited and then left - there are lots of smaller but still picturesque hilltop villages to enjoy. Hotel du Poete as a base could not be faulted.
Waiting for the TGV at Gare de Lyon, we liked the Cafe Paris Lyon for lunch, behind the Novhotel in the Place Henri Frenay.
The guided tour of the Abbey Senanque was excellent, non French speakers can have a 'Histopad' which is brilliant. The Ochre caverns at Roussillon were well worth a visit, L'Isle de la Sorgue is delightful and the doll and toy museum is amazing. Our favourite walk was Maubec to Odepe le Vieux. The model of Versailles in Fontaine de Vaucluse paper mill is the best 1 euro's worth I have had in a long time. We liked La Vanne Marel for an evening meal, Hotel du Parc not so good, Cafe de la Source doesn't have a river view but the food was good. Try the Boulangerie in Fontaine for a picnic lunch, but go early, it seems to run out of stock and close late morning. No ATM in Fontaine now. The hotel gave us a useful map as an overview of the area, we could plan our day without opening up the large road map and searching on it.
We had the French equivalent to the NHS app on our phones and migrated a copy of our Covid certificates to it; this made the checks (for Pass Sanitaire) at bars and restaurants etc very easy. They were checked even if sitting outside in a small village bar-tabac. Mask wearing in indoor venues and on trains was compulsory; on the trains the conductors usually checked masks before returning later to check tickets.
The walks were all very enjoyable and to the grade expected.
Fontaine de Vaucluse is nice but very touristy during the day; it was quieter in the evenings and restaurants appeared to take it in turns to close then. The Hotel du Poete was very pleasant as were the staff. The walks were all straight forward with lovely hilltop villages.
An excellent holiday using a hotel of unique character as a base. The staff were welcoming, friendly and helpful. The breakfasts were a daily highlight! The location is superb with clear, rushing water everywhere. Fontaine de Vaucluse is set in a spectacular location, set in an amphitheatre surrounded by high cliffs which glow golden in the evening light. The geology is very interesting too.
The selected walks were generally good and varied, many with scope to shorten or lengthen according to inclination. It's well worth going to Mont Ventoux, if only for the drive combined with a short walk along the ridge.
We drove to Avignon, but we should have taken Inntravel's advice and gone by train! They are building a tram system with all the associated roadworks and also the traffic on the inner ring road was exceedingly slow. Parking was not a problem though. One day we went off piste to Arles and Les Baux. Unlike Avignon we found Arles distinctly underwhelming, but Les Baux was well worth the visit. The walking potential around there looks interesting too.
Of the walks we did, numbers 2 and 8 were perhaps the most interesting.
The main roads in the region were generally very busy, as were many of the lesser roads...not really conducive to the "Slow Holiday" tag!
Fontaine is well supplied with restaurants. We used four:
La Pointe Noire. Not gourmet by any means, but good basic food and a very welcoming owner.
Chez Dominique. The best food of the restaurants we ate in, with very generous portions. Again, friendly service.
Petrarque. The food was good but the cavernous dining area lacked atmosphere.
La Vanne Marel. This got the thumbs down from us. The entrees were good, but I couldn't cut my Ongle de Boeuf!
In 30 years of walking holidays in France, this was without doubt the most enjoyable we have experienced, with an excellent base hotel and superb walks through spectacular scenery and intriguing history.
This was a lovely trip. We found the Hôtel du Poète to be quite magical and welcoming any time of day. There is nothing like eating figs in the morning that were picked off of the trees on site. We were concerned about hordes of tourist in Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, and though tourists arrived daily, they left by later in the day and we had a somewhat sleepy French village almost all to ourselves. We had hot and then very windy weather (les mistrals), so much so that the Sentier des Ocres (the Ocre Trail) was closed the day we were there. While we found the "most beautiful villages" quite beautiful indeed, they were filled with tourists, especially on market days. Nevertheless, it was easy to get off the beaten path with the hiking and by exploring perhaps equally beautiful sleepier towns. Like others, we enjoyed the hike to Oppède-le-Vieux.
In terms of meals, we didn't venture out of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse in the evenings. We somewhat alternated between Chez Dominique and La Vanne Marel. Sitting on the river terrace nearby the waterwheel and the church (at the latter) was quite lovely in the evenings. Portions were large and reasonably priced. For lunch, we loved Restaurant Philip, located on the river midway between the town and "the source".
Without saying more, we loved this trip and will most probably return to this area again. Thanks for our 8th or 9th successful trip!!!