French Riviera

Six Towns On One Coast And They Do Not Behave The Same

People say the South of France as if it were one destination and then book the wrong part of it. The coast from Saint Tropez to the Italian border runs about a hundred and ten miles and the towns along it have almost nothing in common. Saint Tropez is a beach club destination with a village attached and a road in that becomes the bottleneck of the region every summer. Cannes is a working conference and festival town with a long hotel strip. Cap d'Antibes is quiet pine and private walls. Nice is a real city with a market, an old town, museums and the airport. Menton, against the Italian border, is warm, gentle and full of gardens. Monaco is its own country.

The planning decision: which end of the coast

Think of it as two halves. West of Nice you get Saint Tropez, Cannes and Antibes: beach clubs, boats, the festival economy and long summer traffic. East of Nice you get Villefranche, Cap Ferrat, Eze, Monaco and Menton: cliffs, corniches, gardens and shorter distances. Nice sits in the middle and is the only place here that works as a city break in its own right, with the best food, the best value and year round life. Most trips are better with one base and day trips than with three hotel changes, because the coast road is slow. If the group wants both halves, split between Cap Ferrat or Nice and one western base rather than moving every two nights.

The calendar sets the price of everything

Nowhere in Europe is the event calendar more decisive. The Cannes Film Festival in the second half of May and the Monaco Grand Prix at the end of the same month between them take over the entire coast, with hotel rates across the region moving sharply, minimum stays imposed and availability disappearing months out; the exact dates move each year and should be confirmed before anything is planned around them. Cannes Lions follows in June and the Monaco Yacht Show in late September. Beyond the calendar, June and September are the best travel months, with warm sea, open beach clubs and normal traffic. August is the single most crowded month, when French and Italian holidays overlap and the coast road, the beaches and the restaurants are all at capacity. Winter is quiet and mild in Nice and Menton, while Saint Tropez essentially closes from November to March.

Getting in, and the hill villages behind the coast

Nice Cote d'Azur is one of the best connected airports in Europe and sits fifteen minutes from the city. Helicopter transfers to Monaco take about seven minutes and are routine here; to Saint Tropez the flight is roughly twenty minutes against a drive of ninety on a good day and far worse in August. Trains run along the coast from Cannes through Nice and Monaco to Menton and beat driving on the eastern side. Behind the coast sit the hill villages: Saint Paul de Vence with the Fondation Maeght, Eze on its rock above the sea, Mougins, Vence with the Matisse chapel and Grasse for the perfume houses. Half your days are better spent up there than on the sand.

Stay strategy along the coast

Hotel du Cap Eden Roc on Cap d'Antibes is the historic address of the region, with its own rock bathing pavilion and twenty two acres of pine. Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat, a Four Seasons Hotel, holds the tip of the peninsula and is the best family choice at that level. In Saint Tropez, Cheval Blanc St Tropez sits on the harbor and La Reserve Ramatuelle stands above Pampelonne with the quiet the town itself lacks. In Cannes, Hotel Martinez and Carlton Cannes face the Croisette and fill entirely during the festivals. In Nice, Hotel du Couvent is a converted seventeenth century convent in the old town and is the most interesting opening on the coast in years. Chateau Saint Martin above Vence gives you the inland option with a view back down to the sea.

When to begin

Six months for June and September, and eight to twelve for anything overlapping the film festival, the Grand Prix or August. Villa rentals around Saint Tropez and Cap d'Antibes for the summer weeks are committed a year ahead. Beach club daybeds at the well known Pampelonne clubs, restaurant tables and boat charters all need arranging at the same time as the hotel. Helicopter seats during event weeks are limited and should be held early rather than assumed.

Four experiences worth building the days around

• A full day on a chartered boat from Antibes or Saint Tropez, anchoring off the Iles de Lerins or the Cap for lunch and swimming away from the beach clubs.
• The Fondation Maeght at Saint Paul de Vence in the morning, followed by lunch at La Colombe d'Or under the paintings.
• The corniche drive east from Nice through Eze and Monaco to Menton, taking the middle road out and the coast road back.
• Vieux Nice early, working through the Cours Saleya market and the socca stands before the rest of the city is up.

Who this trip suits

This suits travelers who want a coast with real towns rather than a resort, and it suits anyone combining a beach week with art, food and driving. It suits boat people above all. It works well attached to Provence inland for a second week, and it is an easy add to Paris on the fast train or a short flight.

When another plan may fit better

If you want empty sand and quiet, this is the wrong coast; Nice beaches are pebble, the public stretches are busy and August is relentless, and Sardinia answers that far better. If the trip is built around the Grand Prix or the film festival, understand that you are buying into the most expensive and most constrained week of the year and plan accordingly. And if you want quiet villages and lavender rather than a coastline, go inland instead.

Plan it with one accountable advisor

Tell us your dates first, because on this coast the calendar decides everything else, and we will pick the town, the transfer method and the boat before anything is held. Our luxury leisure travel planning covers the villas, the charters and the event weeks together.