Pont du Gard and Nimes Day Trip: Roman Occitanie in One Day

Most of Occitanie's Roman history is scattered and half-buried, a column here, a foundation there. Nîmes and the Pont du Gard are the exception: a working aqueduct bridge still standing after two thousand years, and an amphitheater in the city it once supplied water to that's still hosting events today rather than sitting behind a museum rope.

The two sit close enough together that seeing both properly in one day is realistic without either place feeling rushed, provided you plan the order and the tickets in advance rather than winging it.

The Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct bridge and UNESCO World Heritage Site, sits about 24-27 km (roughly 35 minutes by car) from Nîmes, home to the Arènes de Nîmes amphitheater and the Maison Carrée Roman temple. Access to the Pont du Gard site itself is free, with charges only for parking (around 9 euros per vehicle) and for the museum and discovery areas (around 8 euros for adults). A day combining both sites works best by car: visit the Pont du Gard in the morning before the site gets hot and crowded, then drive to Nîmes for the amphitheater and Maison Carrée in the afternoon. Without a car, both sites are reachable from Nîmes by shuttle bus and local train, though schedules are limited and require more planning.

The Pont du Gard: what you're actually looking at

The Pont du Gard is the tallest surviving Roman aqueduct bridge in the world, built in the 1st century AD as part of a nearly 50-kilometer aqueduct system that carried water from a spring near Uzès to Nîmes. It's a three-tiered structure of dry-stacked limestone blocks, some weighing several tons, assembled without mortar, and it's remained standing largely intact for roughly two thousand years, a fact that tends to land differently once you're standing under it rather than reading about it. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Entry to the site and views of the bridge itself are free. What you pay for is parking, roughly 9 euros per vehicle regardless of group size or how long you stay, and optional access to the museum, cinema, and children's discovery area on the site, priced around 8 euros for adults with reductions and free entry for under-18s and students. Guided tours of the bridge's upper levels run separately and cost more, and they're worth booking ahead if walking across the top tier specifically interests you, since access is limited and seasonal.

Nîmes: a Roman amphitheater still in active use

Nîmes calls itself the most Roman city outside Italy, and the claim holds up better than most tourism-board superlatives. The Arènes de Nîmes, the city's Roman amphitheater, isn't a static ruin. It hosts concerts, the springtime Grands Jeux Romains reenactment, and other events throughout the year, essentially the same function it served when it was built roughly two thousand years ago, which makes it a rare case of a Roman monument still doing its original job rather than being preserved purely as a museum piece.

A short walk away sits the Maison Carrée, widely regarded as the best-preserved Roman temple anywhere, still standing largely intact because it's been in continuous use since antiquity, first as a temple, later as a church, a stable, a city hall, and eventually an art gallery. Both sites sit close enough together in the compact city center to see on foot within a couple of hours, leaving time for lunch in the old town before heading back.

How to combine both in one day

Start at the Pont du Gard in the morning. The site gets hot and the parking areas fill up as the day goes on, especially in summer, so an early arrival buys you a calmer visit and better light for photos of the bridge from the riverbank. Budget two to three hours here if you're walking the surrounding trails and visiting the museum, or closer to one hour for a focused look at the bridge itself.

From there, it's roughly 24-27 kilometers and about 35 minutes by car to central Nîmes. Arrive by early-to-mid afternoon, park near the old town, and give yourself two to three hours to see the Arènes and the Maison Carrée at an unhurried pace, plus time to wander the surrounding streets. This order, aqueduct first, city second, works better than the reverse, since the Pont du Gard site has less shade and benefits more from cooler morning hours than the amphitheater does.

Getting there: car versus public transport

A car is the easiest way to do this day trip properly, since it lets you set your own timing between the two sites and avoid waiting on limited shuttle schedules. If you're driving, both sites have on-site parking, though the Pont du Gard's fee applies regardless of visit length.

Without a car, it's still doable but requires more planning. Nîmes-Pont-du-Gard station, on the regional rail line, sits closer to the bridge than Nîmes' main station, and seasonal shuttle buses connect Nîmes' city center to the Pont du Gard site directly during the busier months. Trains between Nîmes and Montpellier run frequently, roughly every hour with journeys under an hour, so if you're based in Montpellier rather than Nîmes, a rail-based version of this trip is workable, though it will likely mean choosing one site over doing both comfortably in a single day.

Distance and timing from Montpellier

If you're based in Montpellier rather than Nîmes, the Pont du Gard sits a little further out, roughly 45 minutes to an hour by car depending on your route, and the same distance again to reach Nîmes afterward. That's still a workable single day if you start early, but it leaves less slack than a Nîmes-based trip, so consider trimming the Nîmes portion to just the Arènes and Maison Carrée rather than a longer wander through the old town if you're driving out from Montpellier and back in one day.

For a broader look at how this fits into a longer Occitanie trip, the Occitanie travel guide covers how Nîmes and the Gard fit alongside the region's other highlights, including the Canal du Midi further west and the best villages in Occitanie, which sit closer to Carcassonne and the Ariège than to this Roman-focused corner of the region.

Sources

• Prices and ticketing - Pont Du Gard official site — current entry, parking, and museum pricing, retrieved 2026-07-20
• Opening Hours - Pont Du Gard official site — seasonal opening hours, retrieved 2026-07-20
• Getting here - Pont Du Gard official site — transport and shuttle information, retrieved 2026-07-20
• Montpellier to Nîmes train - SNCF Connect — train frequency between Montpellier and Nîmes, retrieved 2026-07-20

Frequently asked questions