Marseille Transport

Getting there & away

Contents

Land

Bus

The bus station (04 91 08 16 40; 3 place Victor Hugo, 3e; Gare St-Charles) is 150m to the right as you exit the train station. Tickets are sold at company ticket counters (closed most of the time) or on the bus.

Buses travel to Aix-en-Provence (€4.40, 35 minutes via the autoroute or one hour via the N8, every five to 10 minutes), Avignon (€17.20, two hours, one daily), Cannes (€23.50, two hours, four daily), Carpentras (€12, two hours, infrequent), Nice (€25, 2¾ hours, up to three daily), Nice airport, Orange and other destinations.

Services to some destinations including Cassis use the stop on place Castellane (04 91 79 81 82; 6e; Castellane), south of the centre. Bus drivers sell tickets.

Eurolines (08 92 89 90 91; www.eurolines.com) has buses to Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Morocco, the UK and beyond. Its counter is inside the bus station. Intercars (04 91 50 08 66; www.intercars.fr in French), with an office next to Eurolines in the bus station, also serves numerous countries. There’s also a joint office (04 91 50 57 55; 3 allées Léon Gambetta, 1er; Rèformès-Canabière) for these two firms nearer the Vieux Port.

Car

Rental agencies offering decent rates include Avis (04 91 64 71 00) and Europcar (04 91 99 40 90), both at the train station.

Train

Marseille’s passenger train station, Gare St-Charles is served by both metro lines. There’s an information and ticket reservation office (9am-8pm Mon-Sat; ticket purchases 4am-1am); plus a left-luggage office (rates from €3.50; 7.30am-10pm) next to platform A.

In town, tickets can be bought at the SNCF Boutique inside the Centre Bourse shopping centre, near place de la Préfecture.

From Marseille there are trains to pretty much anywhere in France and beyond. Sample destinations and starting fares include Paris’ Gare de Lyon (€75.20, three hours, 17 daily), Nice (€26.40, 2½ hours, 21 daily), Avignon (€16.40, 30 minutes, 27 daily) and Lyon (€43.10, 3¼ hours, 16 daily).

Boat

Marseille’s passenger ferry terminal (04 91 56 38 63; fax 04 91 56 38 70; Place de la Joliette) is 250m south of place de la Joliette (1er).

The Société Nationale Maritime Corse-Mé­diterranée (SNCM; 08 36 67 95 00; www.sncm.fr ; 61 blvd des Dames, 2e; Place de la Joliette; 8am-6pm Mon-Fri, 8.30am-noon & 2-5.30pm Sat) links Marseille with Corsica, Sardinia and Tunisia. It also serves the ports of Algiers, Annaba, Bejaia, Oran and Skikda in Algeria, although services are prone to disruption/cancellation because of the political troubles there.

There is an office for Algérie Ferries (04 91 90 64 70; 29 blvd des Dames, 2e; Jules Guesde; 9-11.45am & 1-4.45pm Mon-Fri).

Air

Aéroport Marseille-Provence (04 42 14 14 14; www.mrsairport.com), also known as Aéroport Marseille-Marignane, is 28km northwest of town in Marignane.