From the Vieux-Port to the Calanques.
Boat trips through the limestone coves, long lunches on the old port, lavender days out across Provence. What each one is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
The tours that make the trip.
First visit or fifth, these earn their morning: the sail out to the coves, a food walk through the Noailles market, the clifftop road down to Cassis for lunch. Booked, priced and rated for you.
City Sightseeing Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
Marseille hop-on hop-off with phone audio and real-time tracking. Panoramic views, Old Port to Notre-Dame de la Garde, in one flexible day.
From $27 per person
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★ 4.7Safe betCôte Bleue Calanques Half-Day Kayak TourFrom $64877 reviews
★ 4.3Books out fastMucem Skip-the-Line Entry TicketFrom $13619 reviews
★ 4.9Local favouriteCalanques National Park Guided Hike with PicnicFrom $41516 reviews
★ 4.8Worth the tripCalanques National Park Guided HikeFrom $41489 reviews
★ 4.1Easy winMusée de l’Illusion Entry TicketFrom $22488 reviews
★ 4.7Crowd favouriteCalanques Côte Bleue Marine Park Boat CruiseFrom $102429 reviews
The coves are why you come.
Board at the Vieux-Port, round the headland, and the coast breaks into one white-limestone inlet after another over water you can see straight through. Swim stops, an anchor for lunch, back by late afternoon. This is the day people build the whole trip around.
How do you want to see the Calanques?
Everyone leaves with the coves; the only real choice is how you reach them. Three ways to do it. Pick the one that sounds like your group, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
By boat
The easy way in
3 - 4 hours · from $93 · 411 reviews
A catamaran or a sailboat out of the Vieux-Port, anchored in a cove by lunch, the deck to yourselves for the swim. No effort past stepping aboard. The most coves for the least sweat, and the one to pick when the group has mixed legs.
See the boat trips →
By kayak
The close-up way
3 hours (approx.) · from $66 · 89 reviews
Paddle in under the cliffs where the tour boats cannot follow, into inlets barely wider than the hull, and beach on a pebble cove for the swim. A guide, a wetsuit in spring, and arms that will remember it. For anyone who wants the water at eye level.
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On foot
The earn-it way
5 hours · from $41 · 516 reviews
From the trailheads above Luminy and Cassis, down through the pines to En-Vau and Sugiton, the whole massif dropping away to turquoise below. Proper shoes, water, and a guide who knows which path is open that day. The views the boats never get.
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The day ends out on the water.
As the light turns copper the boats slip out past the Frioul islands, a bottle open on deck and the whole coast going pink behind you. Dinner sails, apéro sails, a slow loop of the bay under Notre-Dame. The hour Marseille keeps for itself.
Lunch is the main event.
Marseille eats loud and long: bouillabaisse that takes an afternoon, panisse from a Noailles stall, a pastis before anyone has decided anything. A food walk is the quickest way into the real city. Here are the three to book first.
The afternoon turns to rosé.
Côtes de Provence and Bandol sit an hour from the port, and the cellars pour where the vines run down to the sea. Half-day tastings out of Aix, long lunches among the rows. Bring an appetite and let the minibus do the driving.
Provence starts where the city ends.
Cézanne’s Aix and its fountains, the ochre villages strung across the Luberon, the lavender rows above Valensole through July. Half an hour inland the noise drops away and the light does the rest. Take the day out, keep the pace slow, be back for dinner.
Marseille, quarter by quarter.
The city reads best on foot, one quartier at a time. Le Panier for the stairs and the studios, the Vieux-Port for the morning fish, Noailles for the market smells, then the sea and Provence at the edges.
Know what you’re after?
Twelve ways to spend a day here. Pick the one that sounds like yours, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Provence is a morning away.
A car or a minibus, and half of Provence fits inside a day: the ochre villages of the Luberon, the lavender plateau at Valensole, the wine roads, a clifftop lunch down in Cassis. The seat home is part of the ticket.
Your first three days.
You cannot do all of Marseille in one trip; you can absolutely nail the right three days. This is the order we would hand a friend landing tomorrow.
Day 1
The old port and Le Panier
Coffee on the Vieux-Port, up the stairs into Le Panier for the studios and street art, panisse for lunch, then the little ferry across the harbour. Easy pace, maximum Marseille.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Out to the coves
Down to the port for the boat, a morning threading the Calanques, a swim in water the colour of glass, back for a late lunch and a rest before apéro.
Plan day two →
Day 3
A day trip into Provence
Pick your Provence: the clifftop road to Cassis and Cap Canaille, Cézanne’s Aix, or the lavender if it is July. Watch the mistral forecast and save the boat day for the calm.
Plan day three →
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