Cannes – Monaco – Porquerolles – Saint-Tropez

Route · 14 days · round-tripYacht charter route · Côte d'Azur

Cannes via Monaco & Porquerolles.

A 14-day yacht charter from Cannes along the French Riviera and Esterel coast: Antibes, Monaco, Saint-Tropez, Port-Cros and Porquerolles.

The route

Day-by-day route

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Day 1

Cannes → Antibes

A gentle first leg from Cannes to Antibes, home to Europe's biggest yacht harbour and a walled old town worth an afternoon.

Distance

5 NM

Sailing

~1h at 5 kn

At a glance

Route at a glance

Best season

May – October

Duration

14 days

Departure

Cannes

Sailing area

Côte d'Azur

Route summary

Click any day to jump back to the map and see its photos, narrative and mooring tip.

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The full story

Day-by-day journey

Named anchorages, mooring notes and things to do for every leg of the week — the map follows along as you scroll.

Day 1 / 14

Day 1

Cannes → Antibes

Short and forgiving, this opening leg lets the crew settle before the real distances begin. Cannes to Antibes runs about ten miles, close along the coast, with Cap d'Antibes green and low ahead of you. Port Vauban is the largest marina in Europe, and the superyachts lined along the Quai des Milliardaires make the scale obvious the moment you round Fort Carré. Ashore, the old town rewards an unhurried afternoon. The Marché Provençal on Cours Masséna sells tapenade, socca and Provençal linen under its iron roof most mornings. Above it sits the Château Grimaldi, now the Picasso Museum, where the artist worked in 1946. We usually drop the shore lines by mid-afternoon and walk the ramparts before dinner. A simple day, but a good one to shake the boat down.

Things to do

Wander the Marché Provençal on Cours Masséna

Tour the Picasso Museum in Château Grimaldi

Walk the ramparts by Fort Carré

Swim off Plage de la Garoupe, Cap d'Antibes

Mooring tip

Port Vauban takes visitors, but call the capitainerie ahead in July and August when the big berths fill fast. For a quieter night, anchor in sand off Cap d'Antibes and tender in.

Day 2

Antibes → Villefranche-sur-Mer

From Antibes you track past the airport approach and the long sweep of the Baie des Anges before Nice slides by to port. The Rade de Villefranche opens soon after, one of the deepest natural harbours in the Mediterranean, dropping close to ninety metres between Cap de Nice and Cap Ferrat. The bay holds boats well and stays calm in most conditions, though a strong southerly sends swell straight in, so watch the forecast. The town climbs the hillside in ochre and pink. Rue Obscure, a vaulted medieval passage below the houses, is worth finding, and the baroque Chapelle Saint-Pierre carries decorations by Jean Cocteau. Cap Ferrat next door holds the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and its gardens. We often anchor off the beach and take the tender to the fishing quay.

Things to do

Find the vaulted Rue Obscure passage

See Cocteau's frescoes in Chapelle Saint-Pierre

Visit Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild on Cap Ferrat

Swim off the Plage des Marinières

Mooring tip

La Darse marina is small and its berths mostly private, so plan to anchor. Holding is good in sand and mud at eight to twelve metres; take a southerly forecast seriously and move if it builds.

Day 3

Villefranche-sur-Mer → Monaco

Barely an hour under power, or a lazy sail if there's wind for it. What you remember is the arrival, not the miles. Round Cap Ferrat, pass Cap d'Ail, and Monaco stacks up ahead of you, apartment towers rising straight from the water. Port Hercule has around seven hundred berths but only a handful for visitors, and space in season is scarce and pricey, so booking ahead is close to essential. The Principality repays the effort of getting ashore. The Oceanographic Museum sits on the cliff at Monaco-Ville, its aquarium worth a couple of hours. The old town and the Prince's Palace crown the Rocher, and the Casino de Monte-Carlo needs only a jacket and some nerve. If berths are full, Cap-d'Ail's Port de Fontvieille lies just west and stays calmer.

Things to do

Tour the cliffside Oceanographic Museum

Watch the palace guard change at Monaco-Ville

Stroll the Casino de Monte-Carlo square

Walk the exotic garden's cactus terraces

Mooring tip

Book Port Hercule well ahead in summer; visitor space is limited and rates are steep. Fontvieille, just around the point, is a cheaper and quieter fallback if the main port is full.

Day 4

Monaco → Antibes

This is the day you unwind the eastern corner and head back toward the Esterel end of the coast. Monaco to Antibes is roughly twenty-five miles, long enough to feel like a proper sail if the afternoon breeze fills in from the southeast. We usually leave by nine to have the wind behind us for the second half. There is no shortage of places to break the run. Beaulieu-sur-Mer and the sheltered water off Cap Ferrat make an easy lunch stop, and the Villa Kerylos, a reconstructed Greek villa on the point, is visible from the deck. Back at Antibes, choose a different berth or anchorage than your first night; the Baie de la Garoupe on the cape's east side is calm in most summer conditions and a short tender from the lighthouse path.

Things to do

Lunch stop off Beaulieu-sur-Mer

Spot Villa Kerylos on Cap Ferrat

Anchor in the Baie de la Garoupe

Walk the Sentier du Littoral coastal path

Mooring tip

The Baie de la Garoupe on Cap d'Antibes gives good sand holding and shelter from anything but an easterly. Arrive before mid-afternoon in July to find swinging room among the day boats.

Day 5

Antibes → Iles de Lerins

Short enough that you could almost drift there. The run drops you into the channel between Sainte-Marguerite and Saint-Honorat, the two Lérins islands off Cannes. The water between them is a favourite anchorage, sand at five to ten metres with good holding, and it fills with day boats by noon and empties again by evening. Sainte-Marguerite carries the Fort Royal, where legend puts the Man in the Iron Mask, and pine paths cross the island to quiet coves. Saint-Honorat belongs to a Cistercian community that still works its vines; the monks make a wine and the Lérina liqueur, both sold at the abbey shop. Anchoring is banned directly in front of the monastery, marked by yellow buoys, so leave that stretch clear. Stay the night once the trip boats leave and you get the place nearly to yourself.

Things to do

Explore Fort Royal on Sainte-Marguerite

Taste Lérina liqueur at Saint-Honorat abbey

Walk the pine paths to quiet coves

Snorkel the shallow channel between the islands

Mooring tip

Anchor in sand at five to ten metres in the channel, but keep clear of the yellow-buoyed no-anchor zone off the abbey. Booking a park mooring buoy is possible and saves fretting over holding in a blow.

Day 6

Iles de Lerins → Agay

West again, and the coast changes character completely. The Esterel massif is old volcano, red rhyolite that colours the cliffs and the water at their foot a rusty pink. From the Lérins it is a straightforward run past Théoule and the Pointe de l'Aiguille to Agay, tucked between Cap Dramont and the Pointe de la Baumette. Agay is one of the better natural harbours on this stretch, well protected except from the south. The bay has a buoy field on its eastern side, and because the seagrass beds are protected, taking a buoy rather than dropping the hook is both required in places and simply kinder to the seabed. Cap Dramont, just east, is where Allied troops landed in August 1944, and the little Ile d'Or with its stone tower sits offshore. A calm, red-walled anchorage to end the day.

Things to do

Swim beneath the red Esterel cliffs

Walk to the Cap Dramont landing beach

Photograph the Ile d'Or's stone tower

Hike a stretch of the Sentier du Littoral

Mooring tip

Take a buoy in Agay rather than anchoring; the eastern field is well sheltered and the seagrass beds are protected. Arrive by early afternoon in high season, as the buoys go quickly and are not always bookable.

Day 7

Agay → Saint-Raphael

An easy morning. Saint-Raphael sits only a few miles round Cap Dramont, so there is no rush; the leg is really an excuse to potter along the red coast and swim off the Ile d'Or on the way. The town runs into Fréjus behind it, and the old port gives you a proper marina with fuel, water and a walk into the centre. Saint-Raphael grew as a Belle Époque resort and kept some of that air. The Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire, Byzantine in style with a striped dome, stands a few streets back from the water. There is a morning market, a decent fish counter, and enough restaurants along the front to make provisioning painless. A good spot to top up tanks and stock the galley before the longer crossing to the Gulf of Saint-Tropez tomorrow.

Things to do

See the Byzantine Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire

Browse the Saint-Raphael morning market

Swim off the Ile d'Or on approach

Stock the galley at the port fish counter

Mooring tip

The Vieux Port at Saint-Raphael and neighbouring Santa Lucia both take visitors and offer fuel and water. Book a night berth in season and use the stop to fill tanks before the open crossing west.

Day 8

Saint-Raphael → Saint-Tropez

The first real crossing of the trip. From Saint-Raphael you leave the coast and head roughly twenty miles southwest across open water to the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, so pick a settled morning and keep an eye on the afternoon sea breeze, which can build over the gulf. Saint-Tropez itself is expensive and busy in the port, so many crews anchor in the Baie des Canebiers, just east of town. The bottom is sand and grass with good holding, and a buoyed channel keeps swimmers and boats apart. From there it is a short tender to the beach and a half-hour walk past the marine cemetery to the citadel and the old harbour. Place des Lices holds its market on Tuesday and Saturday, and a slice of tarte Tropézienne is close to obligatory. Sénéquier on the quay is for people-watching, not budgets.

Things to do

Anchor and swim in Baie des Canebiers

Browse Place des Lices market, Tuesday or Saturday

Climb to the Citadelle for gulf views

Try tarte Tropézienne near the old port

Mooring tip

Anchor in the Baie des Canebiers in sand and grass at five to ten metres; the port is costly and often full in summer. Keep inside the buoyed channel and leave room to swing when the sea breeze veers.

Day 9

Saint-Tropez → Port Grimaud

Hardly a passage at all. You cross the head of the gulf to Port Grimaud, the canal town the architect François Spoerry built from scratch in the 1960s. Pastel houses front the water, each with its own mooring, and the whole place is laid out like a small Provençal answer to Venice. The marina has around five hundred berths, with some sixty kept for visitors on boats under twenty metres, so a call ahead in season is sensible. Once you are tied up, the town is all footbridges and quiet quays, best seen with an evening walk and a coche d'eau, the little electric ferries that thread the canals. Climb to the old hilltop village of Grimaud behind it for the wider view, castle ruins and a Templar chapel included. An easy, pretty night after the crossing.

Things to do

Ride a coche d'eau through the canals

Walk to hilltop Grimaud's castle ruins

Cross the footbridges at golden hour

Eat at a canal-side terrace

Mooring tip

Port Grimaud keeps around sixty visitor berths for boats under twenty metres; reserve ahead in July and August. Approach slowly and watch the shallow, marked entrance channel, which silts on the edges.

Day 10

Port Grimaud → Cavalaire

Leaving the gulf, you round the string of protected headlands that make this one of the prettiest corners of the Var coast. Cap Camarat with its lighthouse, then Cap Taillat and Cap Lardier, all part of a shoreline kept free of building. Slip in behind them for a swim; the Plage de l'Escalet and the water off Cap Taillat run clear and quiet on a calm day. Cavalaire-sur-Mer sits at the end of the run, a wide bay under the Massif des Pradels with a long sandy beach and a modern marina. It is an unpretentious resort after the gloss of Saint-Tropez, good for restocking and a relaxed evening. The bay opens to the south and east, so it is a fair-weather anchorage; the marina is the safer bet if any swell is forecast.

Things to do

Swim off Cap Taillat's sand spit

Anchor at Plage de l'Escalet

Restock at Cavalaire's seafront shops

Walk the protected Cap Lardier trail

Mooring tip

Cavalaire's bay is open to south and east, so anchor only in settled weather and take the marina if swell threatens. Off Cap Taillat the holding is good in sand, but it is a daytime stop, not an overnight one in wind.

Day 11

Cavalaire → Le Lavandou

A relaxed coastal leg under the Massif des Maures, the dark wooded hills that back this shore. Past Cap Nègre and the discreet villas along its flanks, then the string of coves the locals call the twelve beaches of Le Lavandou. Cavalière is the biggest, with room to anchor off the sand in settled weather and swim ashore for lunch. Le Lavandou is a real fishing and holiday town rather than a set piece, and better for it. The port takes visitors, the market is genuine, and the seafront has the kind of unfussy restaurants where the catch is local. From here the Iles d'Or lie just across the water, so it makes a natural staging point before you cross to Port-Cros. We often provision here for the two island nights, since the parks have little for sale.

Things to do

Anchor and swim off Cavalière beach

Provision at Le Lavandou's market

Eat fresh catch on the seafront

Sail past the villas of Cap Nègre

Mooring tip

Le Lavandou's port takes visitors and is a good place to top up before the Golden Islands, where supplies are thin. In an offshore breeze you can anchor off Cavalière beach; move in if the wind swings onshore.

Day 12

Le Lavandou → Port-Cros

A short crossing takes you to Port-Cros, the wildest of the three Golden Islands and the heart of a national park set up in 1963, among the first marine reserves in Europe. The whole island is protected, thickly wooded, and free of cars, and the rules on the water are strict for good reason. Moorings come from a park buoy field, sized for boats up to fifteen metres, and anchoring is banned in the Passe de Bagaud to protect the seagrass. Your boat needs a holding tank for black water to use these waters. Once settled, the walking is the draw: the path to the Fort de l'Estissac and the shaded trail across to the Plage de la Palud, where a marked snorkel trail runs the shallows past the Rascas islet. Quiet, green, and a world away from the Saint-Tropez quays.

Things to do

Snorkel the marked trail off Plage de la Palud

Climb to the Fort de l'Estissac

Walk the shaded path across the island

Watch for grouper in the clear shallows

Mooring tip

Use a national-park buoy; anchoring is restricted and forbidden in the Passe de Bagaud. Buoys suit boats up to fifteen metres and a black-water holding tank is required, so arrive early and have the tank sorted.

Day 13

Port-Cros → Porquerolles

Porquerolles lies a gentle few miles west, the biggest and most inhabited of the islands. The village grew around a nineteenth-century garrison, and its square, dusty with pétanque and shaded by eucalyptus, still feels like a frontier outpost that decided to stay for the wine. The north coast holds the best-known beaches, Plage Notre-Dame and Plage d'Argent among them, both sand and both sheltered from the mistral behind the island. Anchor off the north shore and you are a short walk or bike ride from the village; the island has vineyards making Côtes de Provence rosé and lanes easily covered on a rented bike. Fort Sainte-Agathe looks down over the harbour, and the lighthouse walk at the south end gives you the cliffs and the open sea. The most polished of the three islands, and a fine last anchorage.

Things to do

Swim at Plage Notre-Dame or Plage d'Argent

Rent a bike through the vineyard lanes

Taste Côtes de Provence rosé at a domaine

Walk to the southern lighthouse cliffs

Mooring tip

Anchor off the north-coast beaches, sheltered from the mistral, in sand at five to twelve metres. Plage Notre-Dame and d'Argent fill with day boats by late morning, so drop the hook early to claim swinging room.

Day 14

Porquerolles → Cannes

The longest day of the fortnight, and one to plan properly. Porquerolles back to Cannes is a big stretch of open water, well over forty miles, so we usually slip the buoy at first light to be in before the afternoon breeze hardens. If the crew wants to break it, Le Lavandou or Cavalaire make sensible halfway stops. The coast rebuilds as you go, the Maures giving way to the red Esterel and finally the low green of Cap d'Antibes and the Lérins. Cannes closes the circle in style, La Croisette running gold along the front and Le Suquet, the old town, climbing to its church tower and the view back over the bay. Berth in the Vieux Port or anchor off the Croisette for a last night, and toast a fortnight's sailing well done.

Things to do

Walk La Croisette and the old harbour

Climb Le Suquet for the bay view

Browse Marché Forville for last provisions

Toast the trip from the Croisette anchorage

Mooring tip

Leave Porquerolles at dawn for this long leg and watch the afternoon breeze off the Esterel. In Cannes, the Vieux Port takes visitors but is busy; anchoring off La Croisette in settled weather is a pleasant, cheaper last night.