St Tropez

Still A Village, Underneath All Of It

St Tropez was a working fishing port that the painters found, then the film people, and it has spent seventy years being famous without ever getting any bigger. That is the thing to hold onto. The old town is still small enough to cross in ten minutes, the market at Place des Lices still sells vegetables on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and behind the harbour there is a hillside of ochre houses that has not changed. What has changed is the water in front of it, and the price of everything.

The planning decision: village or Pampelonne

These are two different holidays. The village puts you in the middle of the harbour and the shops, walkable and lively, with the boats fifteen metres from dinner. Pampelonne is the long beach around the headland where the famous clubs sit, ten to twenty minutes away by car, and it is where most people actually spend their days. The best week for most travellers is a hotel or villa near Pampelonne with the village for evenings, because the reverse means driving out to the beach every morning into the traffic that defines a St Tropez August. Inland, the vineyards around Ramatuelle and Gassin are quieter, cooler and thirty percent less expensive.

Season, and how different the same place can be

June and September are the correct answer. Warm sea, everything open, the beach clubs running properly and the roads still usable. July is busy. August is a different destination: the single road in and out backs up for kilometres, restaurants require reservations weeks ahead, and the harbour becomes a spectator sport. Some people come specifically for that, which is a valid reason, but it should be a choice rather than a surprise. May and early October are lovely and low key, though several beach clubs are only just opening or already closing. Most of the town shuts from November to March.

Where to base, and getting here

Nice airport is roughly ninety minutes to two hours by road depending on the season, and considerably more in August. The helicopter transfer is twenty minutes and, at these prices, is the transfer most people should take. Toulon Hyeres is closer but has far fewer flights. Arriving by boat from Nice or Cannes is genuinely the nicest way in. Once here, a car is useful for the beach and the vineyards, and a nuisance in the village, where parking is its own small crisis.

Stay strategy

Cheval Blanc St Tropez sits on the water at the edge of the old town and is the address in the village. Lily of the Valley, above Gigaro on a quieter stretch of coast, is the modern wellness led option and the best hotel in the area for anyone who wants space. Villa Marie sits in the pines above Pampelonne. Chateau de la Messardiere holds the hill with the widest view. La Reserve Ramatuelle is the quiet, architectural choice. The villa market inland is deep and, for a family or a group of friends, is the sane way to do this coast.

When to begin

Nine to twelve months for a good villa in July or August, which turn over slowly because the same families come back. Six months for the hotels in the same window, four for June and September. Beach club daybeds at the well known clubs are reserved rather than turned up for, and in high season they are held by the same names year after year, so this is a place where an advisor relationship does actual work rather than saving you a phone call.

Four experiences worth building the days around

• A day at Pampelonne, arriving late morning and staying through the long afternoon, which is the whole point of the place.
• The Tuesday or Saturday market at Place des Lices, early, before the village wakes up properly.
• A boat along the coast to the Calanques of the Esterel or out to the islands off Hyeres, away from the harbour entirely.
• Lunch at a vineyard in the hills behind Ramatuelle, where the Provencal rose that everyone drinks on the beach is actually made.

Who this trip suits

St Tropez suits couples who want glamour with a village underneath it, groups of friends taking a villa, and anyone combining a week here with a boat. It works well alongside the wider Riviera or a few nights in Provence inland.

When another plan may fit better

Families with small children usually do better somewhere calmer along the coast, or in Provence proper. Anyone who wants quiet in August should not come in August. And anyone whose picture of the Riviera is Belle Epoque hotels and promenades is thinking of Cap Ferrat and Cap d'Antibes, which is a more formal and rather different world.

Plan it with one accountable advisor

Tell us your dates and whether you want the village or the beach, and we will place you accordingly and hold the beach club and the transfers before they go. Our luxury leisure travel planning covers it, and our group travel planning handles villa weeks and boats.