the great run west
Cannes from the sea is the front row: the Croisette’s hotels lined up like an audience, the old port under Le Suquet’s hill, and — the real prize, twenty minutes off the beach — the Lérins islands, where the clearest anchorage on the coast hides between two islands the cars can never reach. The day takes both.
Timings are from her berth at Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Staying closer? We bring her to you — and it is simply a boat day in Cannes instead.
For fifty weeks a year, Cannes by boat is a handsome seafront pass — the Carlton and Martinez façades, the Palais at the west end, Le Suquet behind the masts of the old port. For two weeks in May it becomes something else entirely: the Film Festival fills the bay with yachts, the town with photographers, and the water with the best people-watching in Europe. We run Festival charters at the standard full-day rate on the prices page; the anchorage off the Croisette during the Festival is a spectacle worth the run on its own.
Fifty minutes west at speed, and the run is half the pleasure — open water, the Estérel turning red off the bow, the coast unspooling behind you. Then Cannes: the Croisette from the front row, the old port under Le Suquet.
The real prize is twenty minutes further. Once the hook is down between Sainte-Marguerite and Saint-Honorat you are in water so clear the anchor chain photographs, with lunch at La Guérite or aboard. If the islands are the draw, read their own page — they deserve it.
a few suggestions
These are suggestions, nothing more — places we actually take guests, each with the captain’s own note. Tell us which ones tempt you and the day is built around them, name somewhere that is not on the list and we go there instead — or leave the whole thing with us.
Beach clubs
arrive by sea
On Île Sainte-Marguerite since 1935, reachable only by water — Greek-leaning feast plates, then dancing between the tables.
Go for the full production number; go elsewhere for quiet. As the Lérins day’s lunch it is unbeatable theatre.
Restaurants
arrive by sea
The seafood institution by the old port — oysters shucked in the window, service that has not needed to change since 1953.
No reservations, so it suits a boat day: land when you land, queue briefly, eat extremely well.
Anchorages
arrive by sea
The shallow strait between the two islands: pale sand floor, sheltered from almost every wind, lit turquoise from below.
The best anchorage on the coast, and the best swimming for children anywhere in our range. Arrive before the fleet or after it thins.
Sights & museums
arrive by sea
The Carlton and Martinez façades lined up like an audience, with the Palais at the western end.
For two weeks each May the bay fills with the Film Festival’s fleet — the best people-watching in Europe, and best from the water.
Hotels
The white 1926 palace on the Croisette, and the Film Festival’s unofficial headquarters each May.
During the Festival its beach and terrace are the epicentre — which is exactly why the bay outside is the better seat.
whatever you have in mind, that is the day we build
from the log
Yes — Festival weeks are chartered at the standard full-day rate and go early. The bay during the Festival is extraordinary: superyachts at anchor, premieres ashore, and the Croisette lit like a set. Book months ahead for those dates.
Comfortably — about fifty minutes each way at cruise leaves five-plus hours for the islands, lunch and the town pass. The captain watches the forecast and picks the best day of your stay for the run west.
One boat, one crew, up to 10 guests, and a coast that is entirely yours for the day. Tell us how you want to spend it and the rest is ours to arrange. The day is yours and it is our pleasure to be part of it.