South of France 8-Day Itinerary
Navigate the legendary French Riviera from Monaco's billionaire haven to St Tropez's sun-soaked beaches, experiencing Cannes glamour, Nice culture, and Cap d'Antibes natural beauty along the way.
Day 1: Monaco
Your French Riviera adventure begins in Monaco, the world's second-smallest country, carved into cliffsides that plunge toward the Mediterranean. Port Hercules sits below, hosting superyachts worth hundreds of millions. Their gleaming hulls reflecting belle époque palaces tier by tier up the hillside. Midday embarkation and Champagne welcome. The crew guides you through the yacht while the Captain outlines the week ahead. Above, the Prince's Palace perches higher still on top of Le Rocher, offering panoramic views across the entire principality and stuning view of the Côte d'Azur. Down at sea level, Larvotto Beach provides crystalline swimming on imported sand, testament to Monégasque perfectionism. Evening transforms the place. Nightclubs open in converted wine cellars, exotic cars purr through tunnels carved into living rock.
Mooring Options: Port Hercules marina, Monaco Yacht Club, Fontvieille marina
Recommended Beach: Plage du Buse
Dining: La Môme Monte-Carlo
Activities: Noon embarkation at Port Hercules, Welcome Champagne and yacht tour, Lunch at Monte Carlo Hotel or La Môme, Casino Square exploration, Prince's Palace visit, Shopping, Sunset cocktails on deck
Day 2: Beaulieu-sur-Mer
A gentle hour's cruise along cliffsides brings you to Beaulieu-sur-Mer at the base of the Cap Ferrat. "Beautiful place by the sea." The name captures something real. Protected from northern winds by surrounding mountains, the town enjoys an exceptional microclimate that attracted British and Russian aristocracy throughout the 19th century. They left behind a belle époque heritage that remains stubbornly intact. Pastel hotels with ornate balconies. Palm-lined promenades. Gardens seemingly frozen in the gilded age. Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, built 1905–1912, is an Italian Renaissance–inspired villa created by Béatrice de Rothschild, reflecting the Belle Époque taste for art, travel, and spectacle. Surrounded by elaborate themed gardens, it reveals how immense wealth was curated into a carefully staged vision of elegance. Nearby, Plage de la Fosse provides the Riviera's clearest swimming. Beaulieu represents the Riviera before mas tourism discovered it, elegant and understated, favoring substance over flash in ways that feel increasingly rare.
Sailing: 1 hours (5 nautical miles)
Mooring Options: Port de Plaisance de Beaulieu, Baie de Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Fourmis Bay mooring buoys
Recommended Beach: Plage de la Fosse
Dining: La Réserve de Beaulieu
Activities: Morning departure, Arrival at St. Jean Cap Ferrat, Belle époque architecture exploration, Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Plage de la Fosse swimming, Lunch ashore at La Réserve, Sunset dinner onboard
Day 3: Nice
Sailing around exclusive Cap Ferrat reveals billionaire villas stacked up hillsides before the full sweep of the Baie des Anges opens ahead. Nice appears different from Monaco, bigger, rougher around the edges, more real. The Côte d'Azur's capital offers authentic urban energy where Monaco provides polished exclusivity. Vieux Nice's medieval lanes preserve their Italian-influenced character, laundry hanging between ochre buildings, markets selling socca and pissaladière to locals who speak French with Italian vowels. The Cours Saleya market has operated since the 18th century. Provençal abundance on display. Nice's artistic heritage runs deeper than most realize. Matisse lived here 37 years, Chagall 35, both obsessed with capturing the Mediterranean light that bounces off sea and stone. The Promenade des Anglais stretches seven kilometers along pebble beaches, built by English aristocrats in the 1820s who recognized what locals already knew. Grand hotels line the sweep. Modern Nice balances this heritage with contemporary vitality that Monaco lacks: world-class opera, rooftop bars commanding panoramic views, neighborhoods where normal life continues alongside tourism.
Sailing: 1 hours (5 nautical miles)
Mooring Options: Port de Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer anchorage
Recommended Beach: Plage de la Gavinette
Dining: Jan by Jan Hendrik
Activities: Sail around Cap Ferrat peninsula, Mooring at Port de Nice, Vieux Nice exploration, Cours Saleya market visit, Matisse or Modern Art Museum, Promenade des Anglais walk, Michelin-star dinner or opera
Day 4: Cap d'Antibes
Sailing along the Baie des Anges reveals Cap d'Antibes rising from azure waters, its pine-covered peninsula separating Antibes from Juan-les-Pins. Old Riviera glamour concentrates here, centered on Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc. Opened 1870. Marlene Dietrich and Winston Churchill once sought privacy within its walls, drawn to a location remote enough for discretion yet accessible enough for convenience. The Sentier Tirepoil coastal trail winds through forests past monumental villas, each competing to outdo its neighbor in architectural ambition. Spectacular vistas at every turn. Villa Eilenroc, built 1867, showcases belle époque elegance with 11 hectares of gardens displaying Mediterranean flora in arrangements that look effortless but require constant maintenance. Plage de la Garoupe provides the Riviera's finest swimming, white sand shelving into crystalline water that stays warm well into October. Port Vauban ranks among Europe's premier superyacht marinas, regularly hosting vessels exceeding 100 meters that dwarf neighboring boats. Antibes itself predates all this luxury, founded by Greeks in the 4th century BC, it preserves authentic character behind 16th-century ramparts. The Picasso Museum occupies Château Grimaldi. Provençal market stalls. Lanes fragrant with pizza and perfume, tourists and locals negotiating the same cobblestones.
Sailing: 2 hours (10 nautical miles)
Mooring Options: Port Vauban, Antibes, Cap d'Antibes anchorage, Garoupe Bay mooring
Recommended Beach: Plage de la Garoupe
Dining: Les Pêcheurs at Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel
Activities: Sail along Baie des Anges, Hike Sentier Tirepoil trail, Villa Eilenroc gardens visit, Plage de la Garoupe swimming, Eden-Roc exploration, Antibes old town, Sunset cocktails onboard
Day 5: Cannes
Approaching Cannes reveals white buildings climbing behind a crescent bay, the Palais des Festivals dominating the harbor where film stars ascend red carpets each May. A fishing village discovered by Lord Brougham in 1834. The British Lord Chancellor fell in love with the place and built a villa, attracting aristocratic friends who did the same. The film festival, established 1946, completed the transformation into a synonym for glamour. La Croisette stretches two kilometers, connecting iconic grand hotels. The Carlton with its distinctive twin cupolas. The Martinez. The Majestic, where million-euro deals close over lunch served on terraces overlooking the Mediterranean. Yet accessibility survives. Le Suquet atop the hill preserves authentic Provençal character, cobbled lanes climbing to a church that predates the hotels by centuries. Forville Market sells regional produce daily except Monday, when it transforms into an antique market where locals hunt for bargains. Private beaches provide structured European relaxation, impeccable service and exceptional people-watching included in the day rate. Port Canto and Vieux Port host hundreds of yachts, creating floating exhibitions of wealth and design that change with the seasons.
Sailing: 1.5 hours (6 nautical miles)
Mooring Options: Vieux Port de Cannes, Port Pierre Canto, Bay of Cannes anchorage
Recommended Beach: Croisette Beach Cannes
Dining: La Palme d'Or at Hôtel Martinez
Activities: Morning sail to Cannes, La Croisette promenade, Le Suquet old town, Forville Market exploration, Beach club lunch, Film festival venues, Evening cocktails and dining
Day 6: Îles de Lérins
Just offshore from Cannes lie the Îles de Lérins, two islands belonging to another era entirely. Sainte-Marguerite covers 152 hectares of protected forest and coastline accessible only by boat. Eucalyptus and Aleppo pine forests. Deserted coves with transparent water. Birdsong replacing traffic noise. Fort Royal, built by Richelieu and expanded by Vauban, imprisoned the Man in the Iron Mask, though historians still debate his identity centuries after his death there in 1703. Swimming reveals why these waters enjoy protected status: seagrass meadows shelter abundant fish, visibility reaches 20 meters on calm days, the Mediterranean showing itself at its clearest. Saint-Honorat belongs entirely to Cistercian monks who have maintained their monastery since 410 AD, among Christianity's oldest continuously active monasteries. They produce wine from seven hectares of vines, liqueur from island botanicals, maintaining contemplative simplicity impossibly close to Cannes' excess. La Guérite, built directly over the water at Sainte-Marguerite's southern tip, serves exceptional seafood in a setting that defines summer on the Côte d'Azur. The short sail back to the yacht feels like emerging from meditation into the world you temporarily forgot.
Sailing: 0.5 hours (2 nautical miles)
Mooring Options: Sainte-Marguerite anchorage, Saint-Honorat monastery buoys, Private coves around islands
Recommended Beach: Secret coves on Sainte-Marguerite
Dining: La Guérite beach restaurant
Activities: Short sail to islands, Swimming in marine reserve, Sainte-Marguerite trails, Fort Royal visit, La Guérite lunch, Saint-Honorat monastery, Monk-made wine tasting
Day 7: St Tropez
Your longest passage sails west past the dramatic red cliffs of the Esterel Massif, volcanic rock glowing crimson against blue Mediterranean, before crossing the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. St Tropez occupies unique status in Riviera mythology. Artists discovered it in the 1920s—Matisse, Signac, Bonnard drawn to light and isolation. Brigitte Bardot's 1956 film "And God Created Woman" transformed it into international obsession overnight. The port presents extraordinary concentration of wealth: superyachts moored stern-to, their crews polishing chrome while passengers browse boutiques catering to clientele for whom expense means nothing. Yet authentic Provençal character survives in La Ponche's narrow lanes, pastel houses and fishing boats coexisting with luxury in ways that feel increasingly rare. Your afternoon belongs to Pampelonne Beach, the five-kilometer sweep of sand that established luxury beach club culture. Club 55, originally the film crew's catering tent in 1955, now serves champagne-soaked lunches to guests paying €100 for a lounger. The experience defines modern Riviera lifestyle. White loungers arranged in perfect rows. Rosé delivered tableside in ice buckets. Crystalline swimming between courses. Endless people-watching that becomes its own entertainment. Evening finds the harbor transformed, restaurants filling, music drifting across water, superyachts illuminated like floating palaces.
Sailing: 5 hours (30 nautical miles)
Mooring Options: Port de Saint-Tropez, Baie de Canebiers, Golfe of St Tropez anchorage
Recommended Beach: Pampelonne Beach
Dining: Club 55 at Pampelonne Beach
Activities: Early departure for St Tropez, Sailing along Esterel coast, Pampelonne Beach visit, Lunch at Club 55, Swimming and water sports, Evening cocktails at port
Day 8: St Tropez
Your final day offers unhurried appreciation of this singular destination. Morning brings last swims from the yacht, coffee on deck watching the harbor awaken. Fishing boats departing past superyachts. Crews hosing decks, preparing for another day of impossible luxury. La Ponche retains authentic character that elsewhere has disappeared: narrow lanes where laundry hangs between pastel houses, locals conversing in thick meridional accents, fishermen mending nets steps from million-dollar vessels. The Sentier du Littoral coastal path winds along rocky shoreline offering views back to town and forward to open Mediterranean, unchanged despite everything that has changed around it. Place des Lices, the plane tree-shaded square where locals play pétanque under dappled shade, hosts Provence's finest market Tuesday and Saturday mornings, if your timing aligns, it provides perfect final immersion in Provençal life. La Vague d'Or, three Michelin stars at La Résidence de la Pinède, transforms Mediterranean ingredients into art. Your farewell lunch celebrates the week's journey. From Monaco's vertical glamour through belle époque elegance, island solitude, and Riviera excess. St Tropez provides fitting finale, embracing authenticity and excess simultaneously without apparent contradiction. Disembarkation feels premature, the week somehow both endless and too short.
Mooring Options: Port de Saint-Tropez, Vieux Port
Recommended Beach: Bouillabaisse Beach
Dining: La Vague d'Or at La Résidence de la Pinède
Activities: Final morning swim, La Ponche exploration, Place des Lices market (if Tuesday/Saturday), Sentier du Littoral coastal walk, Final lunch celebration, Disembarkation and transfers
