Getaways from Marseille: day trips and destinations close by.

Without a plane, the AVE to Marseille

To Marseille-Provence airport (MRS) there are direct flights from Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Málaga, Seville and Tenerife South. Without a plane, Renfe's AVE from Madrid to Marseille stops at Zaragoza, Barcelona, Tarragona, Avignon and Aix-en-Provence: you arrive without driving and hire the car there.

To leave Marseille for the interior, what works is a hire car, collected at the airport itself. The route for almost everything on this page is the A51 towards Manosque and, from there, minor roads across the Valensole plateau and Riez. The villages of the Luberon, the lavender and the Verdon have no useful public transport: buses are scarce and do not run along the canyon rims. The coast is another story: the Calanques, between Marseille and Cassis, are in a national park that in summer may close some accesses because of fire risk; it is covered on the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur page.

262 steps up to Notre-Dame de Beauvoir

Under two hours, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and the mouth of the canyon. The Moustiers and the Galetas bridge day leaves at 110 minutes: the 262 steps up to Notre-Dame de Beauvoir, the Faience Museum, lunch on the square and two hours by kayak or boat at the entrance to the gorge, back in Marseille around 19:30.

The Grand Canyon from above is a little over two hours away. Route des Crêtes and rafting at Castellane is 129 minutes to La Palud-sur-Verdon: the loop of viewpoints in the morning, lunch facing the Couloir Samson and a raft descent in the afternoon. The return from Castellane is about two and a half hours, so it is a thirteen-hour day.

With two nights, the whole Verdon without rushing. The Verdon in two nights, 110 minutes away, sleeps one night in Moustiers and another in La Palud to do the Blanc-Martel trail along the canyon floor and the Route des Crêtes without returning to the city. Everything told here is in the Verdon Gorge; for the rest of inland Provence, with the Luberon and its villages, there is the Provence page.

Moustiers, always Wednesday to Sunday

From April to October the Moustiers day works, always Wednesday to Sunday, because the restaurant closes Mondays and Tuesdays and the museum on Tuesdays. Castellane rafting runs from May to September and the Point Sublime inn closes on Tuesdays. The two-night getaway is from May to September, when the Blanc-Martel shuttle, the boats and the restaurants run.

May, June and September are the best months for all three. From mid-June to mid-July, the road also passes through the Valensole plateau with the lavandin in bloom. In July and August there is a queue at the Galetas bridge from mid-morning, the Route des Crêtes fills up and it is wise to book the boat and raft. In strong wind the passage of boats into the canyon is closed and the afternoon is swapped for the viewpoints.

From November to March none of the three fits: the Moustiers day is planned for April to October and rafting ends in September.

Moustiers with children, rafting with teenagers, Blanc-Martel with legs

• With children: Moustiers and the Galetas bridge. The museum is free for under-16s and the boats need no experience.
• With teenagers: Route des Crêtes and rafting. The discovery descent is from age 7, if you can swim.
• With good legs and a weekend: The Verdon in two nights, with the six-to-seven-hour Blanc-Martel.