New Hotel Bompard, Marseille

Advantages: A unique city, full of history and character
Disadvantages: Racy reputation, some grim districts

...approaches are being rebuilt, and we were there at the height of a summer heatwave. A little shabby and seedy in places - in the streets near the station dubious-looking characters are selling oddments of merchandise, old and new, from suitcases or makeshift stalls - but it is easy to ignore their blandishments. This is the Quartier Belsunce, the old Arab quarter, but we are soon through it and into the business district behind the Vieux Port. The Vieux Port is the ancient centre of Marseille, the inlet that formed the original harbour. It is no longer used by serious shipping. New docks, container and ferry terminals have been constructed along the coast to the north, leaving the Vieux Port to cope only with pleasure craft, of which there are plenty. The masts of myriad yachts jut up from the moorings like the bristles... Read review

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Advantages: Gorgeous Climate, Beautiful Culture, Picture moment Scenaries
Disadvantages: driving(?)

...) In Orange we also took a pic with the arc de triumph. Food there is excellent, like we have hot dog stands - icecream vans, there they have pizza vans - and i must say the pizzas were absolutely delicious and very different to what we are used to here (much thinner/crispier). In marseille they love their fish dishes, which are pretty good. Its important to note that marseille has a natural culture. That is why you wont really find packaged holidays to marseille, (a bit touristy) you would mostly arrange your own visits there, but its still a great experience in my opinion. A nice hotel with swimming pool may cost just under 100 pounds a night. There are places just outside Marseille worth visiting, the shakespeare thing for example and a place i went to called Toulon (largest opera house after paris) During my journeys around... Read review

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Advantages: An interesting Vieux Port (old port) area, good accommodation options nearby
Disadvantages: A noticeably high crime rate, not a great deal to see outside the port and coast areas

...A “reputation for roguishness and danger”, as an older edition of our guidebook states, at first seemed a rather strange claim to make about Marseille. Regrettably, however, crime rates here are among the highest in France, and our own impressions could do nothing but strengthen this view. I had first visited the city two years ago, in the summer of 1999. That time, I had stayed in a pleasant (though rather unhygienic) youth hostel far from the Vieux Port area, and had avoided any kind of mishap whatsoever. This was still true after a confused two-hour walk back to my accommodation (after the Metro had unexpectedly shut down on Sunday evening), which took me through dark alleyways of the worst description. In fact, it was only other people that ever appeared to hold a grudge against Marseille’s inhabitants... Read review

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