ranked from the water
The Riviera’s best beaches, judged from a deck.
Beach lists of this coast are written from car parks. Judge from the water instead and the rankings change completely — access is nothing, crowds are optional, and the only currencies left are water, setting and lunch. Herewith, the boat’s honest top five.
reachable only by sea
1. The Cap Ferrat coves — the complete argument
The Fossettes and Fosses bays on the point’s east side, and the deep pool under the lighthouse: sheltered crescents facing back at the Alps, pines to the waterline, glass-clear over rock and seagrass, and anchorages directly off the buoy line. Arrive by 10:30, swim before the fleet, lunch at anchor or ashore at Passable, swim again while the road-bound queue for parking. Ten minutes from our quay, and the single most-requested day we run.
2. Plage de la Mala — the amphitheatre
Cap d’Ail hides this one under cliffs a staircase of 150-odd steps discourages: a green-water cove ringed by rock, two beach restaurants, and a smugness among those present that a boat renders instant. From the water it is a five-minute anchor-and-swim between Monaco and home.
shall we put a date in?
We reply within the day
3. Pampelonne — the institution
Saint-Tropez’s five-kilometre sand is where the modern beach day was invented, and its clubs — Club 55 first among equals — still run the genre’s masterclass. We save it for the glassiest days, and it repays every one of them: bow-to anchoring off the sand, tender to lunch, and the exact scene the Riviera exports to the world’s imagination.
4 & 5. Passable at dawn, the Lérins strait always
Passable, Cap Ferrat’s west-facing town beach, earns its place at anchor before nine — glassy, gold-lit, empty. And the strait between the Lérins islands is not a beach at all, which is precisely the argument: white sand under turquoise water with no land access whatsoever. The best beach on the Riviera, it turns out, is the one you need a hull to stand on.
The short answers
Outside the marked swim zones and posted no-anchor areas, generally yes — the captain knows the buoy lines, the seagrass no-go zones and the etiquette. The practical difference from the beach towel is total: you carry your own shade, bar and bathroom with you.
The Cap Ferrat coves are the ones we find ourselves recommending first — moments from our berth, pine-shaded, calm as a pool, with Passable a minute away by tender for one of the loveliest lunches on the coast. And the joy of a private boat is that the day can hold more than one beach: Pampelonne crowns a Saint-Tropez day, and La Mala is made for the swim on a Monaco day.
further down the chart
Your next summer story begins here.
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.