France · Côte d'Azur
The Riviera, Cannes to Saint-Tropez
Seven nights along the Côte d'Azur — the Lérins, Antibes, Saint-Tropez and the Îles d'Hyères, with the anchorages taken early.
7 nights · Round trip from Cannes
The Riviera is the most crowded water in this itinerary set and the one where timing matters most. Everything worth anchoring off is within an hour of somewhere else, which sounds convenient and is actually the problem: by eleven in the morning the good bays hold thirty boats. This route is built to be in each of them at nine.
The route, day by day
Day 1
Cannes
Board and cross to the Lérins in the afternoon — two islands twenty minutes off a city, one of them a working monastery, and a first night that costs no passage at all.
Day 2
Îles de Lérins
Sainte-Marguerite for the morning: pine, eucalyptus, the fort where the Man in the Iron Mask was held, and water that is startlingly clear for somewhere this close to a promenade.
Day 3
Antibes
East along the Cap, past the villas that are the point of the Riviera, and into a harbour that still has a working old town behind it rather than only a marina.
Day 4
Villefranche
The deepest natural harbour on the coast, a hill town above it, and Monaco close enough to go in for the evening if that appeals.
Day 5
Saint-Tropez
West again — the long leg of the week. Arrive early, before the day traffic from Nice, and take the Pampelonne anchorages while they are still empty.
Day 6
Porquerolles
Further west to the Îles d'Hyères, which is where the Riviera stops being the Riviera: no cars, pine forest, and beaches that would be famous anywhere else.
Day 7
Cannes
The run back east, with a last stop off the Estérel — red porphyry cliffs straight into blue water, and the least photographed stretch of the whole coast.
Worth knowing
- No yacht is based on the Riviera: what sails here comes from the western Mediterranean, so this week is planned earlier than an Italian one
- Every leg is short — the week is about arriving early, not about covering ground
- Nice airport sits between Cannes and Monaco and is twenty minutes from either
- July and August fill the anchorages by late morning; June and September do not
- Monaco is an evening rather than a night: berths there are scarce and expensive, and Villefranche is twenty minutes away
Where this route goes
Yachts that sail this route
Itineraries
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