11 Cannes and Antibes Hotels, and the Calendar to Check First

Cannes has a population of about 74,000 and hosts something in the order of fifty major congresses and festivals a year. The film festival in May is the famous one, but MIPIM in March fills the town with property developers, Cannes Lions in June fills it with advertising, and there is a trade fair of some description running most weeks from February to November.

During those weeks room rates multiply, minimum stays appear, and the entire Croisette books out months ahead. Outside them, the same hotels are a fraction of the price and the town is pleasant and half-empty.

Check the Palais des Festivals calendar before you book anything. It is a single web page and it is the most valuable five minutes of planning you can do for this stretch of coast. A week either side of a major event is usually fine; the week itself is a different town at a different price.

The Croisette, the Cap and the cheaper alternative

Cannes itself is the Croisette — a two-kilometre curved seafront of grand hotels facing private beach concessions, with the old Suquet quarter climbing a hill behind it and the Palais at one end.

Cap d'Antibes, twenty minutes east, is a wooded peninsula of walled estates with almost nothing commercial on it. This is where the very expensive hotels are, and where the Riviera summer season was effectively invented in the 1920s when an American couple persuaded a hotel to stay open through July.

Juan-les-Pins, on the other side of the same cape, has the sandy beaches, the jazz festival and rates well below the Cap.

Antibes old town is a working town with ramparts, a covered market and the Picasso museum in the château where he worked in 1946.

Mougins, in the hills fifteen minutes inland, is a restored hill village with restaurants and no beach, which is the option if the coast in August feels like too much.

The eleven below are grouped that way.

Cap d'Antibes

The wooded peninsula, and the most expensive addresses in France.

Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc occupies a nineteenth-century mansion in nine hectares at the tip of the cape, with a saltwater pool blasted out of the rock in 1914 and a pavilion at the water's edge reached down through pines. It is the most exclusive hotel on the Mediterranean and it is closed in winter.

Hôtel Belles Rives sits on the Juan-les-Pins side in an art deco villa where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote part of Tender Is the Night, with a jetty, a pontoon and a terrace over the bay.

Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel occupies a beachfront position on the cape with a pool, a spa and a design-led interior at a lower rate than its neighbours.

Cannes and the Croisette

The seafront, the festivals and the private beaches.

Hôtel Martinez occupies a 1929 art deco landmark at the eastern end of the Croisette with a rooftop restaurant that has held two stars, a private beach and the largest suites in town.

InterContinental Carlton Cannes sits in a belle époque building with twin cupolas at the centre of the seafront, restored recently, with a beach club and the most photographed facade in Cannes.

Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic Cannes occupies a position near the Palais with a large beach concession, a pool and the shortest walk to the festival entrance.

Five Seas Hotel sits a street back from the Croisette with a rooftop pool, a contemporary interior and considerably better value than the seafront.

Hôtel Belle Plage occupies a position on the Croisette at the quieter western end, near the Suquet, with a beach and a lower rate.

Juan-les-Pins and Antibes

The sandy side and the working town.

Hôtel Juana occupies a building in Juan-les-Pins with a pool, a garden and the pine grove where the jazz festival is held.

Canopy by Hilton Cannes sits near the Antibes port with contemporary rooms and the old town on foot.

Mougins

Fifteen minutes inland, in the hills.

Le Mas Candille occupies a hillside estate above the village with two pools, a spa and views to the Alps, which is the answer when the coast is full.

What we have left off

The apartment rentals along the Croisette are excluded, and during festival weeks they are a very large parallel market at extraordinary rates. They are apartments rather than hotels.

What to do

Walk the Sentier du Littoral around Cap d'Antibes, a coastal path running below the walled estates that is public by law and gives you the peninsula from the water side.

Take the boat to the Îles de Lérins, fifteen minutes offshore, where one island holds a working Cistercian monastery that makes wine and the other holds the fort where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned.

See the Picasso Museum in Antibes, in the château where he was given studio space in 1946 and left the work behind when he moved out.

Go up to the Suquet in Cannes for the old town and the view back along the Croisette, and eat in the lanes rather than on the seafront.

Drive inland to Grasse for the perfume houses, or to Saint-Paul-de-Vence and the Fondation Maeght.

Practical notes

Nice airport is twenty-five minutes from Cannes and fifteen from Antibes. The coastal train runs frequently between Cannes, Juan-les-Pins, Antibes and Nice and is faster than driving in summer.

May to September is the season. July and August are at capacity. The film festival in May and the big trade fairs are the weeks to plan around. Winter is mild and quiet, and several of the best hotels close entirely.

Private beach concessions charge for a lounger and most are open to non-residents.

Questions people actually ask

Why do rates jump so much?

Fifty-odd congresses and festivals a year in a town of 74,000. Check the Palais calendar before booking.

Cannes or Cap d'Antibes?

Cannes for the Croisette, the restaurants and the festivals. Cap d'Antibes for privacy and the sea, with nothing commercial around you.

Are the beaches sandy?

At Cannes and Juan-les-Pins, yes. Much of the cape is rock and platforms.

How many nights?

Four. Three on the coast and a day inland or on the islands.

If you only book one