There is a version of a Cannes weekend that involves a superyacht, a credit card with no ceiling, and a table at the Carlton. This is not that. This is three nights on a chartered 38-footer, two of them at anchor, one squeezed into a marina, and it cost us less than a single dinner ashore would have. The Cote d'Azur is famously expensive, but if you are willing to anchor and you pick your spots, a long weekend out of Cannes is one of the best-value short cruises in the Mediterranean.
Here is how we used the time.
Friday evening: the Vieux Port and the islands offshore
We picked the boat up at the Vieux Port de Cannes, which calls itself on VHF channel 12 and holds around 635 berths right under the old town. It is not cheap. High-season berthing for a yacht in this part of the world runs well into three figures a night, and the marina notes on Cote d'Azur marina fees lay out just how quickly that adds up. The trick is to use the marina for one night and anchor the rest.
Less than a mile offshore lie the Iles de Lerins, and that is where we headed before the light went. The anchorages between Sainte-Marguerite and Saint-Honorat are the great Cannes secret: a stone's throw from the glitz, but quiet, pine-scented and free. We dropped the hook in the channel between the two islands, swam, and watched the lights of Cannes come on across the water.
Saturday: a day on the Lerins
We gave Saturday entirely to the islands. Saint-Honorat is owned by Cistercian monks who have been there since the fifth century and still make wine you can buy; Sainte-Marguerite has the fort where the Man in the Iron Mask was held. Between them, the holding is good over sand once you are clear of the seagrass, but, and this matters, large areas here are protected Posidonia seagrass meadow where anchoring is banned or restricted.
Get this wrong and you risk a fine and real ecological damage. The rules tightened in recent years and they are enforced. Before you drop the hook anywhere on this coast, read the Cote d'Azur anchoring rules for 2026 and the specific guidance on the Lerins islands anchorage off Cannes, which tells you where the sand is and where the meadow is. We used an app to find a clear sandy patch and a sand-coloured streak on the chart to confirm it.
Sunday: the crossing to Saint-Tropez
Sunday we made the passage west to Saint-Tropez. By sea it is around 23 nautical miles across the bay, not the 40-odd that the road or the crow-flies confusion sometimes suggests, and in the usual summer calm it is a gentle motor-sail of a morning. We rounded Cap Camarat with its lighthouse, one of the most powerful on the French coast, and worked into the gulf.
Saint-Tropez itself is the picture you already have in your head: the old port, the rows of yachts stern-to with their passerelles down, the cafe terraces full of people watching the boats and boats full of people watching the cafes. Getting a berth in the Vieux Port in season without a booking is close to impossible and eye-watering when you do, so we anchored out in the gulf off the Canebiers beach with everyone else and took the tender in. For the view from the water and the practical side of arriving, the Saint-Tropez by sea guide is worth reading before you go.
Monday: the Esterel coast home
For the run back we took the scenic route along the Esterel, the dramatic red volcanic coast between Saint-Raphael and Cannes where the rock glows ochre against the blue. There are little anchorages tucked into the calanques here, perfect for a last swim, and we stopped at one of them for lunch before the final short hop into Cannes.
The wind on this coast is usually light in summer, but the one to respect is any swell from the east or south wrapping into the bays, which can turn a calm anchorage rolly overnight. We checked the forecast every morning and it paid off.
A note on tender discipline and anchoring etiquette
Two things separate a relaxed Riviera weekend from a stressful one, and neither is about sailing skill. The first is your tender. Because so much of this trip is at anchor, the dinghy is your car, and a reliable outboard plus a decent anchor for the dinghy itself matters more than it does anywhere with marina pontoons. We kedged the tender off the beach at the Lerins so it would not surf onto the sand while we walked the island, and watched two other crews lose theirs to the wash of passing boats.
The second is anchoring etiquette in a crowded bay. By midday the channel between the Lerins islands is full, and everyone is swinging on a mixture of chain and rope in light, shifting wind. Anchor with enough scope to hold but not so much that you sit on top of your neighbour, drop where you can see sand, and pick up your snorkel to check the set if you are in any doubt. The piece on Riviera anchoring etiquette is worth a skim before a busy August weekend, because the social rules here are as real as the legal ones.
How we kept the budget sane
The Cote d'Azur has a reputation as a money pit and it earns it, but a weekend like this is genuinely affordable if you decide in advance to anchor. Our single marina night at Cannes was by far the biggest line on the bill. Fuel was modest, because the legs are short and the summer winds, light as they are, still let you sail or motor-sail rather than burn diesel flat out. Provisioning ashore in Cannes before we left, rather than buying in Saint-Tropez where everything carries a premium, saved a noticeable amount.
The wider economics of marina versus anchor on this coast are spelled out in the comparison of anchoring versus marina costs in France, and the short version is that on the Riviera the gap is wider than anywhere else in the country. A night on the hook off the Lerins costs nothing; the same night in the Vieux Port costs more than a good dinner. Multiply that across a season and it is the difference between cruising the Cote d'Azur and not being able to afford to.
The numbers that mattered
- Cannes to Saint-Tropez by sea: around 23 nautical miles
- Iles de Lerins: less than a mile off Cannes
- Vieux Port de Cannes: around 635 berths, VHF channel 12
- Posidonia seagrass: protected, anchoring banned in marked zones
- Cap Camarat lighthouse: rounded on the approach to the Gulf of Saint-Tropez
Honestly, would I do it again
Yes, and exactly the same way: minimum marina, maximum anchorage. The Cote d'Azur punishes you if you try to do it from inside a harbour every night, because the berths are the single biggest cost and the most stressful thing to secure in August. Do it on the hook, off the Lerins and in the gulf of Saint-Tropez, and the same coast becomes affordable, peaceful and genuinely beautiful.
If three nights leaves you wanting more, the obvious next move is to keep going east. The Monaco to Saint-Tropez cruise stitches together the whole stretch of Riviera, and a week lets you reach Cap Ferrat and the bays beyond. But for a first weekend, Cannes, the Lerins and Saint-Tropez are the perfect triangle.
