Car Hire in La Rochelle - Getting to La Rochelle

La Rochelle is located in the province of Poitou-Charentes, halfway down the French coast on the Bay of Biscay. The resort has an excellent road connection, with its close proximity to the main A10 (Paris-Bordeaux) motorway. La Rochelle-Ile de Re Airport is right on the coast about five kilometres north of the city centre. Ryanair has daily flights here from London Stansted.

Autoplus is the city’s efficient bus network and bus number 7 services the airport/city centre route Monday to Saturday; the average journey is approximately 10 minutes and costs around €1.25. Taxis are readily available to and from the airport and are reasonably priced. The bus terminal is located on place de Verdun.

If you're driving to La Rochelle, follow the A10 south from Paris/Poitiers to exit Niort/St-Maixent, and then take the E601 west to the coast and La Rochelle (470kms from Paris). From Bordeaux, head north on the A10, forking off on to the A837 north of Saintes, heading for Rochefort. The E602 links up with the A837 and goes on to La Rochelle.

There are five to seven high-speed TGV trains daily from Paris’ gare Montparnasse (three hours). Six to eight trains arrive from Bordeaux and Nantes daily, taking two hours. From the elaborate gare SNCF on boulevard Joffre, take avenue de Gaulle, opposite, to reach the town centre.