Arles sits on the Rhone at the top of the Camargue delta, a town of about 52,000 people with an unusual density of Roman building still standing in it. The amphitheatre, the theatre, the baths and the underground cryptoporticus are all here, and so is the Alyscamps, a Roman and medieval burial road lined with stone sarcophagi. The Roman and Romanesque monuments are collectively UNESCO listed.
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What separates Arles from an archaeological site is that the amphitheatre is still in use. It was built around 90 AD for some 20,000 spectators, and the town has never stopped putting events in it. That includes concerts and a reconstructed Roman games weekend, and it also includes bullfighting during the ferias at Easter and in September, both the bloodless Camargue course where riders take a cockade from the bull's horns and the Spanish corrida. It is worth knowing that in advance, because plenty of visitors would rather not be there for it and the town is full when it happens.
Van Gogh spent fifteen months here in 1888 and 1889 and painted around 200 canvases, including the Yellow House, the night cafe and the first Sunflowers. None of those paintings is in Arles. The Fondation Vincent van Gogh shows contemporary artists in dialogue with him and typically one loaned original, and the town has marked the spots where he stood. Arriving expecting to see the paintings is the single most common disappointment here, so it is worth saying plainly.
What you pack is set by fierce dry summer heat, the mistral, and the Camargue, which is a wetland and behaves like one.
The Arena, the Cloister and the Alyscamps
A working Roman arena, one of the great Romanesque portals, and a burial road out of town.
The amphitheatre takes less time than you expect, perhaps forty minutes, and is best early before the heat builds on the stone. The adjacent Roman theatre is more ruined and more atmospheric, with two surviving columns left standing out of the stage front. A combined ticket covers the monuments and the Musee Reattu, which is worth it if you are staying more than a day.
Saint-Trophime on the main square is the building to spend time on. The west portal, carved in the twelfth century, is one of the finest pieces of Romanesque sculpture in southern France, a Last Judgement with the saved processing one way and the damned chained the other. The cloister behind it, reached separately, has two Romanesque galleries and two Gothic ones and is the quietest place in Arles.
The Alyscamps is a fifteen minute walk from the centre and is often skipped, which is a mistake. It is an avenue of empty stone sarcophagi running to a ruined church, poplars overhead, and Van Gogh and Gauguin both painted it. It is usually almost empty.
The Musee Departemental Arles Antique, across the river canal, holds the Roman material including a Rhone barge raised from the riverbed and a portrait bust widely identified as Julius Caesar. It is modern, air-conditioned and the right destination for the hottest part of a summer afternoon.
Arles also hosts Les Rencontres d'Arles, a major international photography festival running from July to September, which fills the town's disused industrial spaces with exhibitions and is the reason to come for many visitors. The LUMA tower, a Gehry building on the old railway site, anchors it year-round.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Camargue
A wetland delta of salt, rice, white horses and flamingos, and it needs different kit.
The Camargue begins at the edge of town and runs to the sea: around 930 square kilometres of lagoons, salt pans, reed beds and grazing marsh between the two arms of the Rhone. It is a regional nature park and a major European wintering and breeding site for birds, with greater flamingos the headline and some 400 species recorded.
The practical options are the Parc Ornithologique de Pont de Gau for guaranteed close flamingo viewing on boardwalks, a horse ride on a Camargue horse, which is the traditional way across the marsh, or a drive to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and the Digue a la Mer, a sea dyke you can walk or cycle along between lagoon and beach. Salin-de-Giraud has the salt pans, which are pink.
Two things about the Camargue that catch people out. The mosquitoes are serious from late spring through autumn, and in the marsh at dusk they are relentless rather than annoying. And there is no shade anywhere: it is a flat open wetland under a Provencal sun, with the mistral crossing it unobstructed. Both argue for specific equipment rather than general optimism.
Getting around: Arles itself is walkable and compact. The Camargue effectively needs a car, a bike or a tour, and the distances are larger than the map suggests because the roads follow the dykes. Nimes and Avignon are each under an hour by train, and both are live on this site.
When to Go
April to June and September to October. July and August are very hot; winter brings the mistral.
Spring, April to June, is the best window. Temperatures run from the high teens into the high twenties Celsius, the Camargue is full of breeding birds, the rice fields are flooded, and the monuments are comfortable to walk. The Easter feria fills the town for a weekend.
Summer, July and August, is hot and dry, routinely into the mid thirties, and Arles has very little shade: the arena, the Alyscamps and the Camargue are all fully exposed. The photography festival is on, which is a real draw, and the sensible shape of a day is monuments early, air-conditioned museum or exhibition in the afternoon, town in the evening. Mosquitoes in the Camargue are at their worst.
Autumn, September and October, is excellent: the heat eases, the September feria is on, the photography festival runs into September, and the light is the best of the year. Flamingo numbers build again. Late October brings heavy rain, which on the delta can flood roads.
Winter, November to March, is cold, bright and dry, around 10 to 13C, and this is the mistral's season. The wind funnels straight down the Rhone valley and across the flat delta with nothing to break it, blowing for days at a time and making the apparent temperature far lower than the figure. The town is quiet and the monuments are empty. Flamingos are present in winter in good numbers.
Is Arles Safe for Women Travelers
Arles is a small, safe Provencal town. The real hazards are heat, wind and the wetland.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in France, and its terrorism wording is the strongest it uses: terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in France, with shopping centres, entertainment venues, sporting events, transport hubs and crowded gatherings named as possible targets. The everyday risks are more specific than that sounds. Pickpocketing is organised on the Paris Metro and on trains, typically in pairs with one person distracting you, and the FCDO records SERIOUS ASSAULTS on RER lines B and D, which matters because line B is the train most visitors take from the airports. Drink spiking is named with the drugs rather than hinted at: be alert to the possible use of date rape drugs including GHB and liquid ecstasy. Strikes and demonstrations happen at short notice and can stop trains and close roads, usually peacefully. And wildfires affect the south in hot dry summers.
The RER line B and D warning is Paris-specific and does not apply here, though it is relevant if you arrive through Paris. In Arles the theft risk is modest and concentrated where crowds are: the arena entrance, the Saturday market along the Boulevard des Lices, which is one of the largest in Provence, and the feria weekends when the town is packed and drinking. The drink-spiking warning naming GHB and liquid ecstasy belongs to those feria nights more than to ordinary evenings.
Day to day the town is calm and residential, and a woman alone attracts no attention. The centre is small enough to cross in fifteen minutes, it is busy in the evening, and eating alone is ordinary. Violent crime against visitors is rare. The one caveat is the feria: during Easter and September the town is extremely busy, the bars are full from early, and the atmosphere shifts from provincial to festival. It is good-natured and it is also not a quiet weekend.
The physical risks are the ones to plan for. Heat first: Provencal summer on unshaded Roman stone is a medical risk rather than a discomfort, and the Alyscamps and the Camargue have no shade whatever. Carry far more water than feels necessary and treat headache with nausea as heat exhaustion.
The mistral is the second. On the open delta it is strong enough to make cycling genuinely hard work and to unbalance you on an exposed dyke, and it drops the apparent temperature sharply in winter.
The Camargue is the third, and it is mosquitoes rather than anything dramatic. They carry no significant disease risk here, but the volume at dusk in the marsh is the kind that ends an evening. West Nile virus is present in southern Europe at low levels, which is one more reason to use repellent rather than tolerate bites. Horse riding carries the ordinary risks and helmets should be worn and asked for.
France is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which means you pay the same patient share a French resident pays rather than nothing. That is not the same as free and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. French hospitals are excellent and a pharmacie, marked by a green cross, handles minor problems without an appointment and will tell you where the duty pharmacy is out of hours. Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Dial 15 for a medical emergency or 112 for anything.
The Arles Packing List
Base layers, for heat and for the mistral
Arles has the widest comfort range of any destination in this batch: 35C on unshaded stone in August, and a January day at 11C that feels like 3C in the wind. Merino at 160gsm handles both because it regulates rather than insulating at one level, moving moisture while you walk the monuments and continuing to work when the mistral hits you on the Boulevard des Lices. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron with no synthetic blend. A long sleeve merino wool base layer for women also gives sun cover in the Camargue, where there is none, and is the layer that makes a winter visit pleasant rather than endured.
Insect repellent, which is not optional in the Camargue
DEET insect repellent. The delta mosquitoes from late spring to autumn are serious, worst at dusk in the marsh and around the lagoons, and they are the single most common complaint from visitors who went out to see flamingos at sunset. Apply before you go rather than after the first bite.
Sun protection, for a town with no shade
A wide brim sun hat with a chin cord, because the mistral removes anything that does not fasten, plus high SPF sunscreen and real sunglasses. The arena, the Alyscamps, the salt pans and the sea dyke are all fully exposed, and the pale stone reflects.
Shoes with grip
Walking shoes with grip for the arena's worn stone tiers, the cloister stairs and the Alyscamps' uneven ground. Merino wool socks for heat and distance. If you plan to walk the Digue a la Mer, something closed is better than sandals because the dyke is loose gravel and shell.
A windproof
A packable rain jacket for women, earning its place here chiefly against the mistral, which is the defining weather of the Rhone delta, and covering the heavy autumn rain.
A warm layer outside summer
A fleece mid layer for October to April. Winter here is bright and dry and feels much colder than the number because of the wind.
Binoculars
Worth the space if the Camargue is any part of the plan. The flamingos at Pont de Gau are close enough without them; everything else on the lagoons is not.
The small things
A refillable bottle with real capacity. Something to cover shoulders for Saint-Trophime, which is a working church. Cash in euros for the Saturday market, which is largely cash. A European two-pin adapter. And a check of the feria dates before booking, because the town is either wonderfully or impossibly full on those weekends depending on what you came for.
Essential Resources for Women in Arles
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
Non-emergency police: the Police Nationale cover the town and the Gendarmerie the Camargue. A theft needs an in-person report, the plainte, to produce the document an insurer will require. Dial 17 for police directly or 112 for anything.
Main hospital or clinic: the Centre Hospitalier Joseph Imbert in Arles has an emergency department, with the large hospitals in Nimes, Avignon and Marseille within an hour for anything specialist. Dial 15 for a medical emergency, which reaches the SAMU ambulance service. A pharmacie with a green cross handles minor problems and posts the duty rota.
Official health authority: Sante publique France. A UK GHIC or EU EHIC gives you state-provided care on the same terms as a French resident, meaning the same patient share rather than nothing, and it does not cover repatriation
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Paris. Paris, with a consulate general in Marseille about an hour away, which is the nearer post
Official tourism authority: Atout France, the national tourism body. With the Arles tourist office for the feria dates, the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival programme and the combined monument ticket, and the Camargue regional park for the Digue a la Mer and bird site access
The amphitheatre is a working venue: it hosts concerts, a Roman games weekend and, during the Easter and September ferias, bullfighting in both the bloodless Camargue style and the Spanish corrida. Check what is on before buying a ticket if that matters to you.
The Camargue: no shade anywhere, serious mosquitoes from late spring to autumn, and distances longer than the map suggests because roads follow the dykes. West Nile virus is present in southern Europe at low levels, which is a further reason to use repellent.
The mistral: the cold northerly that funnels down the Rhone and crosses the flat delta unobstructed, blowing for days. It makes cycling hard, unbalances you on exposed dykes, and drops the apparent winter temperature well below the forecast.
US State Department travel advisory: the France advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Solo women safety assessment: Arles is a small, calm Provencal town and an easy place to travel alone. The centre is crossable in fifteen minutes, it stays busy in the evening, eating alone is unremarkable, and violent crime against visitors is rare. Theft is modest and concentrated where crowds are: the arena entrance, the big Saturday market on the Boulevard des Lices, and the feria weekends. Those ferias, at Easter and in September, are the one thing to decide about in advance: the town goes from provincial to festival, the bars are full from early, the atmosphere is good-natured but loud, and bullfighting in the Spanish style takes place in the Roman arena. The FCDO's drink-spiking warning, naming GHB and liquid ecstasy, belongs to those nights more than to ordinary evenings. What will actually affect you is environmental. There is almost no shade in this town or in the Camargue, and Provencal summer on bare Roman stone is a medical risk rather than a discomfort, so go early and carry far more water than feels necessary. The mistral is strong enough on the open delta to unbalance you and to make a winter day feel ten degrees colder. And the Camargue mosquitoes at dusk are the reason to carry repellent rather than buy it after the first evening.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the France travel guide for women. For why fine wool covers both a 35C arena and a mistral morning, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
