Camargue Small-Group Day Trip from Avignon
Description
Choose this full-day tour to have plenty of time to discover the different faces of one of the most fascinating regions of France. The Camargue being one of the widest river deltas in Europe, it takes time to explore it! This tour will allow you to observe iconic animals as well as discover local legends, traditions and historical monuments. Your guide will stop along the road to give you opportunities to photograph Camargue horses and bulls. We include the entrance fee to the Bird Park, the best place in the region to see pink flamingos from close. Saintes Maries de la Mer and Aigues Mortes are lively little towns with century-old monuments, rich gastronomy and lovely shops. This tour is a real digest of the Camargue!
Tour Options
Itinerary
After a 1-hour drive through rice fields and brackish ponds, during which your tour guide will introduce you to the peculiarities of the Camargue, you will be dropped off at the beautiful Bird Park of Pont de Gau (admission ticket included). Created by a family of nature lovers in 1949, the Bird Park is situated in the heart of the regional nature park of the Camargue, which is how we call the delta of the Rhône river. There's no better place to observe the iconic bird of the region. An easy walk along marshes and ponds, following a well-signed footpath, will allow you to get very close to pink flamingos, that cohabit here with hundreds of other bird species.
The Camargue is also a country of traditions and history. Meet your driver again and head to the charming coastal town of Saintes Maries de la Mer. Discover the legend that led to the construction of the impressive fortified church Our Lady from the Sea, known in France for the celebrations it holds for each Mary's feast, in May and October. The feast held in May draws large numbers of Roma Catholics to the town for a week. They come here to worship the relics of Sarah, their patron saint. Don't miss a visit to the interiors of the church, dating back to the beginning of the 11th century, and enjoy a panoramic view from the sentry walk on the roof (4€/adult). Afterwards head to the beach, where you can go for a relaxing walk along the promenade, where reproductions of Van Gogh's paintings are exhibited, or for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea. Don't forget to taste some local specialties, like seafood, bull meat and rice (lunch not included).
After lunch, meet your guide again and continue the journey through wild landscapes and picturesque farms, ranches and salt marshes. Your tour guide will stop along the way to observe and photograph Camargue horses and bulls. These animals are a fundamental element of the region's culture, where it is not unusal to come across a bull race or a folklore event involving horses.
Before getting back to Avignon, discover Aigues Mortes, one of the highlights of the region, a wonderfully preserved walled city dating back in the 13th century. Funded by King Louis IX in 1240 as a starting base for the Crusades, Aigues Mortes comes out from nowhere among salt pans and rice fields. Its massive rampart shelters narrow paved streets and small squares, where you can do some shopping and taste delicious local desserts. You can also opt for a walk on the sentry walk atop the rampart, which is the best way to spot the neighboring salt marshes.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Children must be accompanied by an adult.
- The tour guide may have to speak multiple languages during the same tour.
- In case you plan to get to the meeting point by car, please contact us in advance so that we can suggest a parking lot and a more convenient meeting place.
Reviews(76)
Lovely tour with Veronica’s commentary, great company and recommendations at all places. She even took care of small things like carrying along insect repellent spray, cold water tank for refill and detours to get closer views of the wild horses. Would highly recommend!
A great tour. Our guide Veronica was amazing - very friendly and knowledgeable. Itinerary was ideal with a good mix between wildlife and villages. We stopped several times to see wild horses and bulls and the bird park with the flamingoes was great.
Nicholas was an excellent host and driver who shared lots of information along the way on this small group tour. We had plenty of time at the bird park to enjoy the abundance of flamingos and other birds. We stopped to see the white horses and the bulls of the Camargue. Aigues Mortes and Saint Maries de la Mer were both beautiful villages to visit with plenty of shops, restaurants and points of interest. A full day which I thoroughly enjoyed and would not have had the opportunity to visit without this tour.
Fantastic day with Nicholas. His commentary & responses to questions about all aspects of the area was very informative. Recommend doing this tour to anyone. Seeing probably more than a thousand flamingoes in one location should be interesting to anyone. Learning about the horses, bulls & the housing of the local inhabitants, their customs, history & contemporary lifestyles very interesting also. A constructive suggestion though: perhaps 5 or 10 minutes more for lunch at Saintes Marie’s del la Mer & 5 or 10 minutes less in the afternoon at Aigues-Mortes.
I have been trying to do this tour for about 4 years and it did not disappoint. The day was perfect, the van very comfortable and spacious so ideal for a group of 6 with space for more and still comfortable. Clean, modern (charger for my iphone after taking so many photos) and good for expressway and local roads driving. Veronica drove and was our guide. She was informative, had a good sense of humour, managed the group differences well and gave us good suggestions for lunch at one of our stops. The Bird sanctuary fantastic could have stayed all day, the mediterranean, beautiful and the town very distinctly different to anything else in France, the scenery - lovely to be out in all those spaces - the stop after lunch we got on a celebration day so lots of people - celebrating. That did not detract from this lovely town of Aigues Mort with its history. A great tour and so glad I finally got to do it. Planning on bringing a group back.
Veronica was knowledgeable, professional, and personable. Her commentary was astute and insightful. She was an excellent driver and skillfully steered us to the highlights of the area. Her detailed maps were appreciated by this wondering soul. ;-) My friend and I had the opportunity to sit up front and chat with her on the return trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing about her life & future travels. All in all a wonderful day!
We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Camargue. Veronica was a terrific guide - engaging and interesting throughout the day, giving us a deep and comprehensive background on the area while we were driving through it. The stops on the tour were well-chosen and interesting, with just the right amount of time to visit each. We saw plenty of wildlife, including horses, bulls, and more flamingos than I’ve ever seen in one place. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the area.
This was a wonderful experience that I’d wanted to do for a very long time and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Nicholas was an amazing guide and I’m so happy that I chose Provans to do this tour with. There was the perfect amount of time at each stop which included seeing the beautiful Camargue horses and bulls, the incredible bird sanctuary where we saw many many pink flamingos and other bird species, a stop at Saintes-Marie’s-de-la-Mer and Aigues-Mortes. Such an interesting day. Nicholas gave us just the right amount of information and tips and nothing was too much trouble. He is extremely knowledgeable about the area. I had a perfect day and highly recommend this fabulous company.
My daughter and I had a very enjoyable day. Our guide Nico was very knowledgeable about the area, he was friendly, punctual and we had plenty of time in each part of the trip to soak in the sights. We were well looked after being supplied with plenty of water as it was an extremely hot day.
It was a very well organized tour. The tour guide was friendly and told us a lot about the area. The free time in the cities was sufficient to walk independently through the streets and enjoy the views. The ride in the air-conditioned minibus and cold water for refilling were very pleasant at over 30 degrees outside temperature. It was a lot of fun. Highly recommended
