Nordic Visitor Expands to France with 12 Tailor-Made Itineraries

Nordic Visitor has announced the addition of France to its portfolio of European tailor-made itineraries, unveiling self-drive tours across Paris, Provence, and the French Riviera, as well as three multi-country road-and-rail routes connecting France with Italy and Switzerland.

Founded in Iceland in 2002, Nordic Visitor is a European destination specialist offering tailor-made self-drive, rail, and guided vacations across the Nordics, the British Isles, Italy, and the Alps. The company works through local destination teams across Europe to create customized itineraries backed by regional expertise and in-destination support, with a trade-friendly model that allows advisors to book personalized FIT vacations for clients.

Now, the tour operator is offering trips across France as well. The new program includes 11 self-drive itineraries within the country and a France–Italy–Switzerland road-and-rail trip. Three other road-and-rail itineraries end in Paris, bringing the total number of France-touching itineraries to 15.

The Nordic Visitor France program is a strong addition for the tour operator. Not only is the destination a perennial favorite for travel within Europe, but its location between the U.K. and Italy allows Nordic Visitor to connect previously separate programs into longer multi-country itineraries.

“A company called Nordic Visitor selling Provence is a fair thing to raise an eyebrow at,” said Sigfús Steingrímsson, CEO of Nordic Visitor. “But we never sold ourselves as the northern-lights people. We sell careful planning, and we’ve done it for more than twenty years across Scandinavia and, more recently, Scotland, Italy, and the Alps. The skill is in the planning, and good planning doesn’t stop at a border.”

Sample itineraries include: “French Riviera Road Trip,” a five-day round-trip self-drive tour departing from Nice; “Paris & the South of France Road Trip,” a 10-day self-drive tour from Paris to Nice; and “2 Weeks by Road & Rail: France, Italy & Switzerland,” a 14-day road-and-rail itinerary from Paris to Zurich.

Most itineraries are built around fixed bases in Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, and Nice, with day trips exploring the surrounding regions. This approach allows guests to stay in the same hotel for multiple nights, limiting the hassle of packing and unpacking every day.

Emily Bavis, project manager for product development, Nordic Visitor, said the choice to design the itineraries around these hubs was made in response to traveler feedback.

“People are tired of the hotel-a-night thing. Nobody wants to spend their holiday packing a suitcase every morning, so we stopped designing tours that way. You pick a base, Nice or Avignon, and you actually get to know it.”