Avignon with Teenagers: Our Family Experience, City Pass & Camper Stay
Some places look exactly as you imagined them.
Avignon wasn’t one of them. It surprised us.
We visited Avignon during our family road trip through France, travelling in our camper with our two teenage boys.
Of course, we knew about the famous Palais des Papes and the Pont d’Avignon before arriving. What we didn’t expect was how much we would enjoy everything around them: the narrow streets, lively squares, cafés, art, medieval walls and that relaxed Provençal atmosphere that makes you want to slow down rather than rush from one attraction to another.
And when you travel with teenagers, that’s exactly the kind of city you appreciate.
Where we stayed: Camping du Pont d’Avignon
Travelling by camper changes the way we choose where to stay.
For us, location is often more important than luxury. We want to park the camper, leave it there and explore without having to drive into a busy city centre.
In Avignon we stayed at Camping du Pont d’Avignon, on Île de la Barthelasse, just across the Rhône from the historic centre.
And for our style of travelling, it worked brilliantly.
The campsite gave us something we particularly appreciate during a road trip: a little bit of holiday inside the trip itself.
We had our pitch, green surroundings and a swimming pool for some downtime, while one of France’s
most fascinating historic cities was just across the river.
For a family travelling with teenagers, that combination was ideal: culture when we wanted it, pool and downtime when we’d had enough sightseeing for the day.
Getting into Avignon without moving the camper
One of the things we loved was being able to leave the camper behind.
From Île de la Barthelasse we could easily reach Avignon and then explore the historic centre on foot.
This might sound like a small detail, but anyone who travels through Europe in a motorhome knows how much difference it makes.
No searching for city-centre parking. No squeezing a camper through unfamiliar streets.
Just leave it behind and go.
And then Avignon begins to unfold in front of you.
Our first impression of Avignon
Avignon feels surprisingly manageable.
Once inside the historic centre, we didn’t feel the need to follow a rigid itinerary. We could walk, stop for something to eat, visit a monument, wander through another street and decide what to do next.
And that’s increasingly how we like travelling as a family.
With two teenagers, we’ve learned that three memorable experiences are better than eight attractions visited just because a guidebook says we should see them.
Avignon made that easy.
The Avignon City Pass: was it worth it for us?
For us, yes.
We chose the 24-hour Avignon City Pass, and the way it worked fitted our itinerary particularly well.
We activated our pass during the afternoon of our first day and could continue using it the following day.
That gave us much more flexibility than trying to fit all our sightseeing into a single calendar day.
The pass includes some of Avignon’s most important attractions, including the Palais des Papes, Pont d’Avignon and Musée Angladon, as well as several other museums and monuments.
Instead of asking ourselves every time, “Is it worth paying another entrance fee?”, we could simply decide to go in and discover something else.
And that’s exactly what happened with one of our favourite unexpected stops.
➡️ Check the current Avignon City Pass prices and inclusions
Palais des Papes: the highlight of our stay
If we had to choose just one experience in Avignon, it would be this.
The Palais des Papes dominates the city before you even step inside.
It’s enormous.
The monumental residence of the 14th-century popes is part of Avignon’s UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered the largest Gothic palace in the world.
But facts don’t really explain how it feels to walk through it.
You move through courtyards, enormous stone rooms, staircases and spaces that make you realise just how important Avignon once was.
And this is where the visit worked particularly well with our teenagers.
It’s not simply a collection of objects behind glass.
You are walking through the place where the history happened.
The scale of the building itself makes the experience interesting, even for teenagers who might not normally ask to spend their afternoon visiting a historical monument.
We spent around an hour and a half to two hours exploring it, which felt like a good length for a family visit.
A different Palais des Papes in 2026
There was also something particularly interesting about the year we visited.
In May 2026, the Palais des Papes introduced a renewed visitor experience, with new interpretation, interactive elements and rooms that had not previously been open to visitors.
During summer 2026, the palace was also hosting Lee Ufan’s “Relatum”, a contemporary installation creating a fascinating contrast with the enormous medieval spaces around it.
We hadn’t planned our trip around the exhibition, which made discovering it inside the palace even more interesting.
➡️ Palais des Papes – Official Visitor Information
The famous Pont d’Avignon
And then there is the bridge everybody knows before they’ve ever been to Avignon.
Pont Saint-Bénézet — better known as the Pont d’Avignon.
Yes, the song will probably enter your head.
And no, it probably won’t leave again for the rest of the day.
But beyond the famous name, we enjoyed it because it gives you another perspective on Avignon and the Rhône.
Today only part of the medieval bridge remains, which somehow makes seeing it in real life even more distinctive.
It is also included in the Avignon City Pass, so it fits naturally into a day exploring the city rather than feeling like another attraction you need to plan separately.
An unexpected discovery: Musée Angladon
One of the things we liked most about having the Avignon City Pass was that it encouraged us to visit places we probably wouldn’t have planned in advance.
For us, Musée Angladon – Collection Jacques Doucet was one of those discoveries.
Hidden in Avignon’s historic centre, the museum feels completely different from a large traditional art gallery.
It is housed in a former private residence and still has the intimate atmosphere of an art collector’s home.
The collection originated with Jacques Doucet, the French fashion designer and important art collector, and today includes works by some extraordinary names.
Among the artists represented in the museum are Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Amedeo Modigliani and Alfred Sisley.
Seeing works by artists whose names we all immediately recognised in such an intimate setting wasn’t something we had expected when planning our time in Avignon.
During our August 2026 visit, the museum was also hosting temporary exhibitions, adding another dimension to the permanent collection.
It was the perfect contrast to the enormous spaces of the Palais des Papes.
One moment we were walking through one of Europe’s great medieval palaces; a little later, we were standing just a few steps away from works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Cézanne inside what still felt like someone’s beautiful home.
And honestly?
We probably wouldn’t have added this stop if it hadn’t been included in our City Pass.
That’s exactly why, for us, the pass was worth having.
Sometimes the best part is simply walking
Not every travel memory needs an entrance ticket.
Some of our favourite moments in Avignon were simply walking.
The streets, the squares, stopping for food, sitting down for something to drink, watching people go by and discovering corners we hadn’t planned to see.
And this is the difference between simply visiting a list of monuments and actually experiencing a city.
Travelling with teenagers has changed the way we plan our trips.
We still want our boys to see the places that matter, but we’ve learned that leaving some empty space in the itinerary often creates the best moments.
Avignon suited this style of travel perfectly.
Avignon with Teenagers: Our Family Experience, City Pass & Camper Stay
Is Avignon worth visiting with teenagers?
For us, absolutely.
But we wouldn’t recommend trying to see everything.
Our formula was simple: one major historical attraction, the famous bridge, an art stop, time exploring the city and enough downtime that nobody felt they were being dragged through a history lesson.
That’s what worked for us.
Avignon is particularly good for families with teenagers because the historic centre is compact, the Palais des Papes has a genuine wow factor and you can easily combine culture with cafés, food, walking and simply enjoying the city.
And if you’re travelling by camper, staying just across the Rhône makes the whole experience even easier.
What we would recommend for a short family stay
If we were planning the same trip again, we’d do almost exactly the same thing:
Stay at Camping du Pont d’Avignon, leave the camper there, get the 24-hour City Pass, visit the Palais des Papes and Pont d’Avignon, add Musée Angladon and deliberately leave some empty time for the city itself.
And if you’re travelling with teenagers?
Don’t over-plan it.
Avignon is one of those places where the spaces between the attractions are part of the trip.
Would we return to Avignon?
Yes.
Avignon wasn’t the longest stop on our French road trip, but it was one of the places that surprised us most.
We came for the Palais des Papes.
We left remembering the palace, the bridge, the art, the streets, the Rhône, the pool at the campsite, the food and the simple pleasure of exploring without rushing.
That’s our kind of family travel.
And next time?
We’d probably stay a little longer.
Planning your own family trip to Avignon?
Here are the official resources we recommend checking before your visit:
Avignon City Pass
Check current prices, included attractions and opening information.
➡️ Official Avignon City Pass
Avignon Tourisme
Useful for current events, attractions and practical information.
➡️ Official Avignon Tourism Website
Camping du Pont d’Avignon
The campsite we chose for our family camper stay.
➡️ Camping du Pont d’Avignon
Musée Angladon – Collection Jacques Doucet
Check the permanent collection and current temporary exhibitions.
➡️ Official Musée Angladon Website
This article is based on our personal family experience in Avignon in August 2026. Prices, opening hours, exhibitions and City Pass inclusions may change, so we always recommend checking the official websites before travelling.
Have you visited Avignon with teenagers? Or are you planning your first family trip to Provence?
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