The French Riviera

The most beautiful times to visit are April to June and mid-September to October, when the weather is warm and breezy but not uncomfortably hot. May sees two of the Riviera’s main events – the Cannes Film Festival and Monaco Grand Prix – with an accompanying surge in hotel and flight prices. July and August are crowded, hot and expensive, but the most popular time to go for the beaches and nightclubs. November is the dullest month, when many things close down; December and January have many bright, shirtsleeve days – while late February to early March is a great time to visit Nice, as it hosts a famously vivid Carnival.

Note, unlike Nice, Monaco and surroundings, St-Tropez closes down out of season: as the only town on the Côte d’Azur to face north, it’s unsheltered from blustery winter winds and weather.

Nice airport, the second busiest in France, is the gateway to the Cote d’Azur. A taxi to central Nice should take no more than 20 minutes and is the fastest option, however, there are also regular, cheap shuttle buses, both to Nice itself and to Monaco, Cannes and Antibes.

By road, it can take up to three hours from Nice Airport to Saint-Tropez. There are direct Beltrame buses from the airport to St-Raphael, where you’ll need to transfer to another bus to Saint-Tropez. You can also take a train to St-Raphael, and a seasonal ferry from there to Saint-Tropez.

If you can afford it, by far the fastest way to get to your hotel is by helicopter. Helicopter taxi services run to Monaco, Cannes and Saint-Tropez from Nice Airport.

As the coastal road (especially in summer) is often an enormous traffic jam, it’s best to use public transport and taxis and only hire a car to make day trips. Trains frequently serve all the coastal towns, while two bus systems, Lignes d’Azur and Envibus go as far west as Antibes. RCA buses link Cannes and Grasse to points east.

Getting into Saint-Tropez, with its single access road, is a nightmare in summer: instead, take the hourly Bateaux Verts shuttle from Sainte-Maxime, Port-Grimaud, Cogolin or Les Issambres. The beaches are out of town, and while there are plentiful taxis and boat taxis, car parking is a nightmare.

First-time visitors should stay in or near Nice, where most of the sights are concentrated (or easily reached by public transport). Nearby Antibes, Cap d’Antibes and St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat are also fairly convenient – the ‘Caps’ are the ‘in’ places to stay, if you can afford it, along with Saint-Tropez. The hilltop setting of Eze, while touristy, offers a chance to get above it all.

Frequent visitors tend to stay put in gorgeous seaside hotels, spending afternoons on private beaches and popping out now and then for a walk, gallery, restaurant or nightclub.