There is a moment, sailing east from the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, when the coast suddenly turns red. The grey-green hills of the Maures give way to the deep porphyry of the Esterel massif, and for the next stretch of coast the cliffs are the colour of rust and brick, plunging into water so clear you can pick out the bottom at ten metres. The Corniche d'Or, the gold corniche, runs along the top of it, but the only way to see the best of the Esterel is from the water, because the prettiest coves have no road to them. This is, for my money, the most underrated cruising on the Cote d'Azur, overshadowed by Saint-Tropez to the west and Cannes to the east, and all the better for it.
The lie of the land
The Esterel coast proper runs roughly from Saint-Raphael to La Napoule near Cannes, about 30 km of red rock with the Corniche d'Or threading the bays of Agay, Anthcor and Le Trayas between them. Behind it the Esterel massif throws up the bare volcanic summit of Mont Vinaigre. West of Saint-Raphael, the Var coast continues to the big gulf where Saint-Tropez sits; east, the rock softens again towards Cannes and the Lerins islands. The whole run is studded with small calanques and red islets, the most famous being the Ile d'Or off Cap Dramont, the little tower-topped island that inspired Herge's Black Island in the Tintin books.
If you are arriving from the west, the natural starting point is the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, and the run along here is part of the classic cruise from Monaco to Saint-Tropez by sea. From the east, you drop down past the Lerins islands anchorage off Cannes, which makes a perfect pairing with an Esterel day.
The harbours
You are spoilt for berths along here, which makes the Esterel an easy coast to cruise even at the height of season. Saint-Raphael alone has several harbours; the big modern one, Port Santa-Lucia, is one of the largest marinas on the Cote d'Azur with a capacity around 1,600 berths, full facilities, fuel and water, and a good launching point for Corsica or Italy. The older Vieux-Port of Saint-Raphael is smaller and prettier but tighter. Just west, Port-Frejus is another large, well-found marina, and to the east you have the small ports of Agay, Le Trayas, La Figueirette and then Port La Galere and La Napoule as you close on Cannes. Berthing here is not cheap in summer, but it is no worse than the rest of the Riviera; for a sense of the going rate, my notes on Cote d'Azur marina fees give the benchmark.
In peak season the difficulty is not finding a marina but finding a free berth in it. August on this coast is brutal for availability, and the advice in my piece on getting a French Riviera berth in August applies in full to Santa-Lucia and Port-Frejus: book ahead or anchor.
The anchorages and the marine reserve
The whole point of the Esterel, though, is the anchoring. The bays cut into the red rock are sheltered from the west and north and offer some of the prettiest lunch stops on the coast. The Baie d'Agay is the big, easy one, a broad horseshoe with good holding on sand and room to swing, and it makes a comfortable overnight in anything but a southerly. Smaller coves dot the cliffs all the way to Le Trayas, including the calanque of Saint-Barthelemy and the anchorage off the Ile d'Or, but holding is patchy over rock and weed, so dive the anchor and watch the forecast.
One stretch you must read carefully is Cap Roux. The waters off the cape are a no-take marine reserve, closed to fishing for over 20 years, and the fish stocks have recovered spectacularly as a result. Anchoring rules apply, and as everywhere on this coast the posidonia seagrass is protected, so check the chart and the buoyage before you drop. The same national picture I keep flagging applies here: read the posidonia anchoring ban in France so you understand why a sandy patch is fine and a weed bed is not. The reward at Cap Roux is the snorkelling, which rivals anything on the Provence coast.
Wind and weather
The Esterel sits at the eastern end of the zone the mistral reaches, and while the worst of that wind exhausts itself before it gets here, you still feel it, and an easterly or southerly is the real threat to these west-facing bays. The mistral is a cold, dry northwesterly that can blow gale force under a clear sky; it tends to ease as it tracks east of Toulon, but it can still funnel down off the Esterel heights and surprise you in the more exposed anchorages. Equally, a Mediterranean thunderstorm building over the warm sea in late summer can bring vicious local squalls. My piece on reading the mistral before it traps you covers the dominant wind; the short version on this coast is that your sheltered Agay anchorage becomes a lee shore the moment the wind backs into the east or south, so keep an escape to a marina in mind.
Provisioning, fuel and getting ashore
This is an easy coast to keep the boat fed and watered, which is part of what makes it such a relaxed cruise. Saint-Raphael and Frejus between them have everything: fuel quays at Port Santa-Lucia and Port-Frejus, supermarkets within walking distance of both, chandlery, repair yards and a busy railway station if you need to swap crew, since the main coastal line runs right behind the harbours. Agay has a smaller harbour and a beach village with enough shops for a top-up but not a major provision run. My habit is to do the big shop and fill the tanks at Saint-Raphael, then head east into the quieter anchorages knowing I am self-sufficient for a few days.
Getting ashore from the anchorages is half the pleasure here. The red-rock coves of the Esterel back onto the coastal footpath, the sentier du littoral, so you can land the tender on a pocket beach and walk the cliffs through the maquis and the umbrella pines. The Dramont peninsula and the path round Cap Roux are particularly good, and there is a poignant history to the coast too: the Dramont beach was one of the Allied landing points in the August 1944 invasion of southern France, marked by a memorial above the anchorage off the Ile d'Or. Anchor off Dramont for an afternoon, walk up to the memorial, then swim back to the boat in water the colour of the Caribbean, and you have the Esterel in a nutshell.
One small caution on the tender: the red porphyry is hard, sharp rock, and a careless landing or a dragged painter will take chunks out of an inflatable. Use a sandy patch where you can find one, carry a kedge anchor for the dinghy so it does not surge onto the rocks while you walk, and reckon on the swell wrapping round the headlands even when the main anchorage feels calm.
A two or three day plan
The Esterel works beautifully as a short cruise slotted between bigger destinations. My suggested shape: start from the Gulf of Saint-Tropez or Saint-Raphael, spend a day working east along the Corniche d'Or, anchoring for lunch and a swim off Cap Dramont and the Ile d'Or, then take a buoy or berth at one of the small harbours. Day two, snorkel the Cap Roux reserve, anchor overnight in the Baie d'Agay, and on day three close on Cannes and the Lerins for a complete contrast. If you have a fourth day, the islands off Hyeres to the west are a natural extension, covered in my guide to the Hyeres islands cruising.
Go in June or September if you can. The water is warm, the light on the red rock is at its best morning and evening, and you avoid both the August berth crush and the worst of the thunderstorm season. The Esterel is a short coast, and most people blast past it on the way somewhere glamorous. Slow down for a couple of days and it gives you the most striking scenery on the whole Cote d'Azur.
