South of France Luxury Holiday Guide

Few places on the Côte d'Azur wear their reputation as naturally as Cannes. Beyond the famous film festival, this is a town of long golden beaches, animated café terraces, and an old quarter called Le Suquet that rewards an unhurried afternoon's exploration. The Croisette stretches elegantly along the seafront, lined with the grand facades of hotels that have been hosting discerning guests for generations, like the Carlton Cannes, A Regent Hotel, and renowned fine dining like the two-Michelin-starred La Palme.

Three or four nights here feels just right, giving you enough time to find your favourite beach club, discover the covered market at the Marché Forville, and still linger over a long lunch.

The rhythm of Nice is made up history and cafes, while you lounge over a café crème on a sun-warmed terrace and spend a week experiencing baroque architecture, a rich cuisine, and welcoming coastline.

The old town is a maze of ochre and terracotta façades, covered markets fragrant with herbs and flowers, and trattorias spilling onto cobbled lanes. Beyond the city, the surrounding region unfolds beautifully. The perched village of Èze, the perfume capital of Grasse, and the art-filled streets of Saint-Paul-de-Vence all sit within easy reach, as do the quieter coves and buzzing beach clubs that punctuate the coast. For ultimate luxury, head to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat for a stay at the Grand Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, where chic beach clubs meet elite views. The Promenade des Anglais remains one of Europe's great seafront walks, best experienced early in the morning before the day fully wakes up.

Brigitte Bardot put Saint Tropez on the map in the fifties, and the town has never quite shaken — nor tried to — that air of effortless glamour. In summer, the harbour fills with yachts and the beach clubs along Pampelonne come alive; out of season, the same coastline belongs almost entirely to you, with quiet sandy coves, long coastal walks, and a pace that feels genuinely restorative. The old port is as pretty as ever at any time of year and best explored on foot in the early morning, before the day gathers momentum. Inland, the Provençal countryside rolls out in lavender and pine, a reminder that beyond the glamour, this is still a corner of rural France of rare natural beauty.

There is a particular kind of slowness to Provence that takes a day or two to fully settle into, and it’s the exact thing that makes it difficult to leave. This is a landscape of ancient hilltop villages, sun-bleached markets, vineyards stretching to the horizon, and lavender fields that colour entire valleys violet in summer. Aix-en-Provence rewards days spent wandering its grand boulevards and fountain-lined squares, while the Luberon offers a succession of perched villages, each with its own character and a terrace café with views worth lingering over. The food and wine alone justify the journey, with some of the finest produce in France that’s best encountered in the places it comes from.

One of the world's most storied addresses, Monaco occupies a tiny stretch of Mediterranean coastline with an outsized sense of occasion. The principality moves from fast paced with Formula 1 engines echoing through harbour streets one week, to lazy luxury with superyachts berthed quietly the next. The casino squares of Monte Carlo, the grand Belle Époque facades of the Hôtel de Paris and the Hotel Hermitage, and the circuit that winds through the city streets all carry genuine fascination. Monaco also sits at a natural crossroads, with the Italian Riviera is barely an hour away, making it an effortless starting point for wider exploration along one of Europe's most celebrated coastlines.