Hotels in Marseille

Marseille is France's oldest city and its most unruly, a Mediterranean port founded by Greek sailors 2,600 years ago and shaped ever since by everyone who has arrived by sea. The Vieux-Port still sits at the centre of everything, with fishing boats unloading each morning below the hilltop basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde.

The city divides into sharply different neighbourhoods: Le Panier's narrow lanes above the port, the market bustle of Noailles, the design-led docks at La Joliette and the MuCEM, and the seaside villas of the Corniche. Just beyond the southern edge, the white limestone inlets of the Calanques National Park drop straight into turquoise water.

Marseille rewards visitors who treat it as a working city rather than a resort. Eat bouillabaisse where the fishermen do, take the ferry to the If and Frioul islands, and use the fast TGV connections to reach Aix-en-Provence, Cassis and Arles on day trips.