Cannes: La Croisette & Le Suquet

Cannes was a fishing village until 1834, when the British Lord Brougham, stopped by a cholera quarantine on his way to Italy, fell for the bay and built a villa, and the aristocracy of Europe followed. Today it is the most glamorous name on the coast, thanks to the Cannes Film Festival each May, but outside the festival it is a relaxed, elegant seaside town with a sandy beach, which Nice lacks. The Boulevard de la Croisette is its stage: a two-kilometre seafront promenade lined with palms, flowerbeds and luxury boutiques, with sandy beaches below (many of them private beach clubs) and the great palace hotels above — the Carlton with its twin domes, the Martinez in Art Deco white, the Majestic. At its western end stands the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, the bunker-like home of the festival, where you can climb the famous red-carpeted steps for a photograph (the carpet is laid for events) and look for the handprints of stars set in the pavement of the Allée des Stars nearby. Behind the old port rises Le Suquet, the original fishing quarter, a hill of steep cobbled lanes and pastel houses climbing to a church and the medieval castle tower, where the Musée des Explorations du Monde — the former Musée de la Castre, renamed in 2021 — holds collections from around the world and a square tower of 109 steps with a 360-degree view over the bay and the Lérins Islands. Just below lies the Marché Forville, the covered market, at its best in the morning. Offshore, the Lérins Islands are a short ferry ride away: Sainte-Marguerite with its fort, where the Man in the Iron Mask was held, and Saint-Honorat, where monks still make wine. Tiqets sells a guided Cannes and Antibes afternoon tour from Nice with transport by minibus, the easiest way to see both towns in half a day.

Getting there: Cannes is about thirty-five to forty minutes from Nice by regional train, and the station is in the centre, a few minutes' walk from the Croisette and the Palais. Coastal buses are slower. The Tiqets guided tour leaves Nice in the early afternoon and runs for around five hours by air-conditioned minibus with a live guide in English and French, covering Antibes' ramparts, a drive through Juan-les-Pins and Golfe-Juan, and Cannes' boutiques and historic sites; it does not include hotel pickup or meals. Rail strikes or works can disrupt the line, so check the evening before, especially around the national strike called for 5 November 2026.

A good day in Cannes: start at the Forville market for the morning produce and a coffee, climb the lanes of Le Suquet to the castle and tower for the view, come down to the old port and the Palais des Festivals for the red-carpet steps, then walk the length of the Croisette, browsing or window-shopping, with a drink on a palace-hotel terrace or a lunch at a beach club. In the afternoon, either take the ferry to the Lérins Islands (Sainte-Marguerite for its pine forests, fort and swimming coves; Saint-Honorat for the abbey and vineyards) or stay on the sand. In winter, the islands are quiet and ferries run less often.

When to go: festival time in May transforms Cannes into a fortress of security and accreditation — exciting to watch, impossible for hotel rooms and restaurant tables. Other major events, from the international trade fairs to the fireworks festival in summer, also fill the town. Spring and autumn are lovely; in winter the town is calm, mild and elegant, and the Mimosa season in February lights up the hills behind it. Families appreciate the sandy beaches; couples, the palace terraces and the sunset over the Esterel's red mountains to the west.