Practical
Where to stay in Cannes
The centre, if you want the short answer. Here is each quarter, with the case against as well as for.
Practical
The centre, if you want the short answer. Here is each quarter, with the case against as well as for.
Cannes is small enough that the choice of quarter matters more than it should. A difference of four hundred metres decides whether you walk home after dinner or queue for a taxi, whether you shop at the market or at the tabac, and whether you pay a seafront premium for a room you will mostly sleep in. We live here, we have put guests in most of these streets, and this is the version we would give a friend.
Stay in the centre, between the station and Rue d’Antibes. From there the Croisette is eight minutes on foot, the Palais ten, Marché Forville twelve and the train to Nice, Antibes and Monaco five. You will not need a car and you will not need a taxi at the end of the evening, which in a town where parking is a sport and the roads close for every festival is worth more than a sea view.
Everything below is the honest case for and against each quarter, including the ones we would not choose.
The grid of streets behind Rue d’Antibes, running back from the Croisette towards the station. This is where people who live in Cannes actually live. Bakeries, the daily market, the good tabacs, the dry cleaner, and a short flat walk to everything a visitor comes for.
For: central, flat, walkable, well connected by train, and far cheaper per night than the same square metres on the front. Against: it is a working town, so you get scooters in the morning and delivery vans. Rooms facing the street need their windows shut at night.
This is where our own apartment is, so take the recommendation with that in mind. The reason we bought here rather than on the front is the same reason we would tell a guest to stay here: you can walk home.
The seafront boulevard, the grand hotels, the private beaches and the designer windows. Beautiful, and the reason a lot of people come.
For: the view, the morning swim, the promenade at dusk. Against: it is the most expensive address in town by a wide margin, it is noisy during festival weeks, and in the evening you are walking back past closed shopfronts rather than through a lit neighbourhood. Many Croisette apartments are smaller than they photograph.
The hill above the port, with the clock tower, the stepped lanes and the best view in Cannes from the top. Restaurants with terraces the whole way up Rue Saint-Antoine.
For: character, atmosphere, the view, and the market at the bottom of the hill. Against: the hill. Everything is steps, there is no parking to speak of, and the lanes directly above the restaurants are loud until well after midnight in summer. Lovely for two nights, tiring for a week with luggage or children.
The quieter eastern end, past the Palais des Festivals, towards the old casino site and Plage du Midi on the other side. Residential, with a good run of beach restaurants and the Mouré Rouge beach, which locals use and visitors mostly do not.
For: calm, proper beaches, a genuine neighbourhood feel and better value. Against: it is a twenty to thirty minute walk back into town, so you will use the bus or a taxi more than you expect.
West of the centre, past the port of Mandelieu side. Cheaper, with a long sandy beach and a large local population.
For: price, and the beach is wider and sandier than anything in the centre. Against: it is a separate town in feel, the walk into Cannes is not a walk, and the rail line runs between it and the sea in places. Fine if you have a car and a budget. Not where you want to be for the Film Festival.
The hill village above Cannes, with the Bonnard museum and the long view down over the bay.
For: quiet, cooler in August, pretty, and a real village square. Against: you are committed to the bus or a car for everything, and the last bus back is earlier than you want it to be.
Antibes, Juan-les-Pins and Nice are all on the same train line and all tempting on price. The trains are frequent and cheap, but they stop around midnight and they are the first thing to fill or fail during festival weeks. If your trip is built around the Palais, the Croisette or an event, the train is a daily tax on your time.
If the trip is a general Riviera holiday rather than a Cannes one, see Cannes or Nice, which sets the two towns against each other properly.
Anything described as “a few minutes from the Croisette” without an address. In practice that usually means the far side of the Boulevard Carnot, uphill, and the few minutes are fifteen in heat with a case.
Ground floor on a main road during the festival weeks. The Croisette end of Rue d’Antibes during Lions, when the terraces are hired out and the sound systems run late.
Anywhere without air conditioning for July or August. The nights do not cool down on the coast the way they do inland.
The centre, between the train station and Rue d'Antibes. It is flat, walkable, well connected, and much better value than the Croisette. From there the Croisette is about eight minutes on foot and the Palais des Festivals about ten.
Yes. The centre, the Croisette, Le Suquet, the market and the station all sit inside a twenty minute walk of each other. The only hill is Le Suquet, and a car is a liability rather than a help.
Cannes if you want a small walkable town, the beaches of the Lérins islands and an event at the Palais. Nice if you want a city, more museums and a cheaper airport transfer. The two are thirty minutes apart by train.
Only if the view is the point of the trip. You pay a large premium for the address, the apartments are often smaller than they look, and the walk home in the evening is past shuttered shops rather than through a lively neighbourhood.
It is cheaper and the beach is sandier, but it is effectively a separate town. You will need a car or the bus for everything, so it suits a beach holiday with a car more than a trip into Cannes itself.
No, and in the centre it is a disadvantage. Parking is expensive and scarce, the roads close for festivals, and the train reaches Antibes, Nice and Monaco directly. Hire a car for a day in the hinterland if you want Grasse or Mougins.
Walking distance of the Palais, and book a year ahead. During the festival the traffic is immovable, the taxi queues are long and the train is crowded late at night, so the only reliable way to get back is on foot.
Riviera Séjour
Notes from the coast, now and then. Nothing more.
Thank you, you are in.