Arles is not interchangeable with Lyon, the other common Rhône embarkation point. Boarding here means you begin at the Mediterranean end of the river and travel north, so the landscape progression runs from flat Camargue marshland and Provençal light into the steeper, cooler Beaujolais hills. That south-to-north sequencing also front-loads the most recognisably 'southern French' stops — Avignon, the Pont du Gard, the wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape — in your first few days, when energy and novelty are highest. If you boarded in Lyon instead, you would encounter those same highlights at the tail end of the week, often with less time ashore because many itineraries compress the southern segment on return legs.

Arles also changes the pre- and post-cruise calculus. The port has no commercial airport, so most travellers fly into Marseille Provence and transfer overland — roughly an hour's drive. That logistical step is a genuine consideration, but it also creates a natural opening for a night or two in Provence before boarding: Aix-en-Provence, the Calanques coast, or Arles itself, which has enough Roman and Van Gogh heritage to fill a full day comfortably. Choosing Arles as your departure port, in other words, rewards travellers who treat the embarkation city as part of the trip rather than just a transit point.