Things to do in Cannes
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Cannes
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Quiet, mimosa in flower, locals' Cannes. Sea too cold for most, hotels at their cheapest. Best for walkers and bargain luxury, worst for swimming.
MIPIM fills every hotel at festival prices for a week. Either side of it, early spring is delightful with first terrace lunches.
The sweet spot begins: warm, everything reopening, beach clubs rebuilding, prices still sane. One of the two best months to come.
Film Festival mid-May plus the best weather of the year. During the festival it is thrilling to witness and terrible as a holiday. The week after is a local secret.
Cannes Lions mirrors festival pricing mid-June. Outside it: long evenings, warm sea and full beach season without August's crush.
Pyrotechnic Festival and peak summer. Sea about 23 to 24 degrees, heat makes midday old town climbs a mistake. Book the fireworks boat early.
The French holiday month: hottest, busiest, most expensive for beaches, full ferries, jellyfish possible late month. Book everything.
The other sweet spot: sea at its warmest, crowds gone after the Yachting Festival price spike, golden light. Late September is the pick if you can choose freely.
What's on
- Mimosa season January to March
Croix des Gardes and the Estérel hills turn yellow with mimosa, a nature festival in all but name.
- MIPIM March
The real-estate congress takes the town at festival prices. Industry only: time around it, not around it as a visitor.
- Cannes Film Festival Usually mid to late May
Held at the Palais. Spectate from outside, do not holiday through it unless being there is the point.
- Cannes Lions mid-June
The advertising festival mirrors Film Festival pricing for a week. Industry only.
- Festival d'Art Pyrotechnique 6 nights across July and August, 10pm, 11pm on 14 July
Competing national teams fire musical displays over the bay, free from shore and categorically better from a boat.
- Plages Électroniques August
Electronic music festival on the Palais beaches, the peak-summer party weekend.
- Cannes Yachting Festival mid-September
Worth timing a trip around if boats are your thing, and another hotel price spike week.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in Cannes
Île Sainte-Marguerite
The larger Lérins island: pine forest paths, rocky coves, clear swimming water and the Fort Royal, 15 minutes by ferry.
Île Saint-Honorat
The smaller Lérins island: a working Cistercian abbey, monks' vineyards and a stillness you cannot buy on the mainland.
Le Suquet
Cannes' medieval old town hill, all narrow lanes and pastel shutters, topped by the town's defining panorama.
Musée de la Castre
An eclectic museum of Mediterranean and world art inside the old castle, worth it for the tower climb and view alone.
Notre-Dame d'Espérance
The old town church crowning Le Suquet, the natural finish to the climb up Rue du Suquet.
Marché Forville
Cannes' Provençal covered market, where chefs shop at 7am for produce, cheese, socca, olives and fish.
Boulevard de la Croisette
The famous 3km promenade of palace hotels and sandy beach, best early before 9am and again at golden hour.
Plage Macé
A free, supervised municipal beach on the Croisette, proof you do not need to pay for Cannes sand.
Where to stay in Cannes
La Croisette / Carré d'Or
first trip, all-round base
Walk to everything: beach, market in 10 minutes, station in 10, Suquet in 15. The Cannes you pictured, at congress prices.
Le Suquet / Old Port
character base, couples and repeat visitors
Small hotels among the old town lanes, dinner on Rue Saint-Antoine on your doorstep, the port below. Steep, and parking is painful.
Rue d'Antibes / station streets (Le Banane)
best value central base
Proper hotels at half the Croisette price, the station for day trips and Forville five minutes away. You lose the sea view, not the town.
La Croix des Gardes / La Californie
quiet and longer stays
Leafy villa hills with gardens, pools and sea views, a 15 to 25 minute walk down to the Croisette. Choose it for a week, not two nights.
La Bocca / Cannes West and Le Cannet
budget and family base, with eyes open
Apartment hotels, family rooms, free parking and local prices along Plage du Midi, but a bus or long walk to the Palais.
Think twice about
- Cannes station perimeter late at night
The issue is petty crime, not danger: pickpocketing and bag-snatching in crowds. Keep bags in front and nothing valuable visible in a parked car.
- Far-western edge of La Bocca and unlit stretches toward Mandelieu
Scruffier and emptier after dark, and charmless late at night. Check whether a cheap listing is really in central La Bocca or out by the motorway fringe.
- Listings sold as Cannes in far north Le Cannet, Vallauris or Mandelieu outskirts
A common booking trap. The stay will be fine, but the 40-minute bus to the beach will not match the photos you were sold.
Best restaurants in Cannes
La Table du Chef
Twenty covers, no à la carte, one surprise menu written that morning from Marché Forville: Cannes' best-value serious dinner.
La Villa Archange
Bruno Oger's two-star table in an 18th-century Provençal house, Cannes' highest gastronomic address.
La Palme d'Or
The Martinez's glamorous one-star, cinema-themed tasting menu with the best dining-room view in Cannes.
Astoux et Brun
A port institution since 1953 for oysters, shellfish platters and Dover sole, served at pace on a big terrace.
Table 22 by Noël Mantel
The best address on Rue Saint-Antoine, refined Provençal-Mediterranean cooking, famed for risotto and lobster ravioli.
Le Bistrot Gourmand
Cosy, unshowy, market-driven cooking a few streets from the Croisette gloss, the Tuesday-night dinner done right.
Bobo Bistro
The cheap-to-mid hero: homemade pizza and pasta, truffle gnocchi, and a lunch formule that keeps the bill honest.
La Guérite
Ferry over for a barefoot-elegant island lunch of whole grilled fish, a swim between courses, and the sunset boat home.
Outdoor things to do in Cannes
Écomusée sous-marin de Cannes
Six submerged Jason deCaires Taylor statues off Sainte-Marguerite's south shore, free to snorkel with your own mask.
Kayak and paddle to the Lérins Islands
Rent a kayak or SUP and paddle about 30 minutes to the islands' wild coastlines and footpath-free swim coves.
RIB boat trip to the Estérel calanques
A 12-seat RIB runs west to the red volcanic Estérel cliffs, sea caves and turquoise coves toward Cap Roux.
Festival d'Art Pyrotechnique fireworks cruise
Watch the summer pyrotechnic festival's musical displays from a boat in the bay, away from the Croisette crush.
Golf Old Course, Cannes-Mandelieu
One of France's oldest courses, flat and walkable under umbrella pines, with a mid-round ferry across the Siagne.
Golf Country Club de Cannes-Mougins
A former European Tour host course, parkland, demanding and immaculate, about 20 minutes from Cannes.
Royal Mougins Golf Club
A Robert von Hagge design through hills, lakes and waterfalls, members-first with limited visitor rounds.
Golf de Saint-Donat
The value alternative locals name, toward Grasse, with the coast's more honest green fees.
Best hotels in Cannes
Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel
The domed Croisette icon, reopened as a Regent and the highest-rated address in Cannes if money is no object.
Hôtel Martinez
The 1929 Art Deco palace on the eastern Croisette, livelier and more sceney than the Carlton, with its own beach.
Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic Cannes
The festival's working palace, steps from the Palais, with Fouquet's brasserie and a private beach.
Five Seas Hotel Cannes
The boutique-luxury alternative just off the Croisette: small, design-led, with a rooftop pool.
Château de la Tour
The seclusion pick for La Croix des Gardes, a quiet villa-style base away from the Croisette crowds.
Hôtel Le Canberra
A 4-star in a tropical garden with a pool, two streets from the sea, stately but relaxed.
Hotel Verlaine Cannes
The highest-rated 4-star in the Expedia Cannes list, small and family-run in feel near the station.
OKKO Hotels Cannes Centre
Smart small rooms by the station, a club floor with free drinks and snacks all day, and a rooftop terrace.
Is Cannes expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €110 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €245 a person |
| Splurge | €600 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Île Sainte-Marguerite: a few days ahead
- Île Saint-Honorat: a few days ahead
- Plage Goéland: a few days ahead
- Carlton Beach Club: weeks ahead
- La Plage, Hôtel Martinez: weeks ahead
- Kayak and paddle to the Lérins Islands: a few days ahead
- RIB boat trip to the Estérel calanques: a few days ahead
- Festival d'Art Pyrotechnique fireworks cruise: weeks ahead
- Festival and congress blackouts multiply hotel prices: Film Festival in mid-May, MIPIM in March, Cannes Lions in June, Yachting Festival in September. Book accommodation the day you book flights.
- La Table du Chef, Villa Archange, La Palme d'Or, Table 22 and La Guérite need reservations days to weeks ahead in season. La Guérite also needs the ferry aligned.
- Book beach club loungers for the specific day in July and August, or walk-ins get the worst row at the highest price, or get turned away.
- Royal Mougins and Cannes-Mougins tee times in season go first to members and hotels, so book through your hotel concierge where possible.
- Many serious restaurants close Sunday and Monday and take August or winter breaks. Beach clubs are dismantled roughly October to April, so verify each pick is open.
Is Cannes safe?
- Cannes is generally safe, including the centre and Suquet at night. Documented risks are petty: pickpockets in festival crowds, at the station and in Forville, bag theft from café chairs, and theft from cars.
- Watch for distraction scams reported across the Riviera: petitions, the found ring, and fake officials. Keep your bag zipped and in front, your phone off café tables, and nothing visible in a parked car.
- Use supervised beaches with lifeguards from June to September if you are not a strong swimmer, respect jellyfish flags in late summer, and treat heat as a risk on shadeless climbs: mornings, water, hat.
Cannes travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Croisette beach restaurants for dinner: you pay triple for a view that is free from the promenade bench opposite. Have the sunset drink, eat one street inland.
- Paying palace beach club prices every day: one splurge day is a pleasure, four is a 1,000 euro towel. Public Macé, Zamenhof and Midi sand is the same sea.
- Paid Cannes Film Festival experiences in May: no ticket buys entry to competition screenings. The free nightly Cinéma de la Plage screenings on Macé Beach are the real public pleasure.
- The first three terraces on Rue Saint-Antoine: kitchens improve as you climb. Table 22 and Da Bouttau earned their listings, the anonymous tourist menu at the bottom did not.
- A private-driver Riviera day at 900 dollars plus when the TER does it for about 12 to 20 euros, centre to centre.
- Shopping the Croisette flagships: same stock as Paris, no price advantage. Rue d'Antibes is the better hour.
- Staying in Cannes to do the whole Riviera: for Èze, Monaco and Menton as a focus, base in Nice instead and day-trip west.
Getting around Cannes: public transport and more
- Walk. Central Cannes is flat except Le Suquet and tiny: the Croisette is about 3km end to end and the station to the beach is 10 minutes.
- Arrive by train from Nice Airport: TER from Nice to Cannes takes about 35 to 50 minutes total, frequent, and beats the A8 motorway and an 80 to 120 euro taxi.
- The TER is your excursion system: Antibes about 12 minutes, Nice 37, Monaco 65, Grasse 25 plus the uphill connection. Buy on SNCF Connect.
- Lérins ferries leave from Quai Laubeuf at the Old Port. Go early or pre-book in season, and photograph the last ferry timetable at the dock.
- Palm Bus covers town routes to La Bocca, Le Cannet and Palm Beach for the price of a coffee. A car in central Cannes in season is a liability.
- If you must drive, use the big underground Croisette and Palais car parks and pay. Illegal parking is towed enthusiastically during events.
Who Cannes suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make Cannes your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
Get Swearby on the App Store