We sailed into the Hyeres islands on a flat September morning expecting a quiet Mediterranean backwater and found something closer to a national treasure that half of France visits at once. Porquerolles, the largest of the three, has white-sand beaches that would not look out of place in the Caribbean, vineyards behind them, and a tiny port village that empties of day-trippers every evening when the last ferry leaves. For a cruising boat that timing is everything: the island belongs to the holidaymakers by day and to the anchored fleet by night.
The Iles d'Hyeres, also called the Golden Isles, are three islands strung off the Giens peninsula east of Toulon. Porquerolles is the western and largest, Port-Cros the wild green middle one with its own national park rules, and the Ile du Levant the eastern, half of which is a naval firing range and the other half a famous naturist colony. Most visiting crews split their time between Porquerolles and Port-Cros and treat the Levant as scenery to sail past.
Getting there and the lie of the islands
From the mainland the islands are close. The ferry from the Tour Fondue on the Giens peninsula reaches Porquerolles in about 15 minutes, which tells you the crossing for a yacht is a short hop rather than a passage. Coming from the west you round the Giens peninsula; coming down the coast from Saint-Tropez it is around 25 nautical miles, an easy day sail.
The islands sit in clear, relatively shallow water with extensive seagrass meadows, and that single fact governs almost everything about where you can anchor. Posidonia oceanica grows here between the surface and about 40 metres, and France now protects it hard: vessels over 24 metres are banned from anchoring over the meadows, with fines that have climbed as high as 150,000 euros for the worst breaches. Smaller boats should still anchor on the sand patches between the grass, which on Porquerolles means reading the water colour carefully or using the Donia app that maps the meadows.
The Porquerolles anchorages
The classic anchorage is the broad bay on the north coast around the port, with sand off the beaches of La Courtade and Notre-Dame to the east. The holding in sand is good and the bay is sheltered from anything in the southern half of the compass. The catch is the Mistral: when it blows from the north-west the whole north coast becomes a lee shore, and you must either move to the south of the island or run for the mainland. Our guide to reading the Mistral before it traps you is worth reading before you commit to a night on this coast, because the wind can arrive with very little notice.
In settled southerlies the bays on the south coast, like Plage Blanche, come into their own, though the south side is more exposed to swell and has fewer sand patches. The rule of thumb here is simple: anchor on the side of the island sheltered from the wind that is actually blowing, and be ready to move when it shifts.
The marina, if you want a berth
The port of Porquerolles is bigger than the village around it suggests. It has 689 berths in total, including around 70 buoys, and reserves a substantial number of those for visitors, taking boats up to 45 metres. That is generous by Mediterranean island standards, but in July and August it is not enough. Visitor reservations for the high season open early in the year, typically running from the start of January, and the berths are gone quickly. If you have not booked, treat a berth as a bonus rather than a plan and have an anchoring fallback ready.
Ashore in the port you will find fresh water, dockside electricity at 220 volts in a range of amperages, showers and WCs reserved for crews open from early morning until late, a launderette and a slipway. There is no large supermarket, so provision before you arrive. For the wider picture on what island and coastal marinas charge and how booking works, see our overview of Cote d'Azur marina fees, because the island ports sit at the expensive end.
Reaching the island and getting ashore once you anchor
If you are anchored rather than berthed, the dinghy is your lifeline, and Porquerolles is set up for it. The village quay has a landing area, and the island bans almost all motor traffic, so once ashore you move on foot or by hire bike. Bikes are the way to see it: the rides out to the Cap d'Arme lighthouse, the Plage Notre-Dame and the vineyards behind the beaches are flat enough for anyone and far enough to feel you have left the crowds. The 15-minute ferry from the Tour Fondue keeps the village busy through the day, which is worth knowing because the shops and restaurants are geared to that rhythm and quieten down once the day-trippers leave.
Provisioning on the island is limited to a small village shop and a couple of bakeries, fine for bread and a bottle of the local rose but not for a serious restock. Treat Hyeres or Toulon on the mainland as your supermarket run before you come out, and carry enough water aboard for the stay, because top-ups in the port are easy but anchoring crews have no source ashore.
Port-Cros next door
You cannot write about the Hyeres islands without Port-Cros, but it plays by stricter rules. The whole island is a national park whose marine core bans anchoring for vessels over 30 metres and now requires boats over 12 metres to use a mooring buoy in the Bagaud zone rather than drop their own hook. The park lays 68 ecological mooring buoys across four areas, available roughly from mid-April to mid-October, and anchoring is forbidden outright in the strait between Bagaud and Port-Cros. It is one of the most beautiful and most regulated anchorages in France, and it deserves its own briefing, which is why we wrote up the Port-Cros mooring rules separately. Read that one before you go, not after.
When to come
The islands are at their best either side of the peak. May, June, September and early October give you warm water, settled weather and a fraction of the crowds. July and August bring heat, a packed anchorage and a real scramble for berths, plus the highest chance of an afternoon thunderstorm building over the mainland and rolling out to sea.
Whatever the month, the daily rhythm matters more than the calendar. Day-boats and ferries pour in from late morning and the north bay of Porquerolles fills with rental craft anchoring carelessly. By six in the evening they have gone, the water settles, and the island returns to the cruising fleet. Arrive in the early afternoon to claim your sand patch, ride out the busy hours aboard, and you get the place almost to yourself for sundowners.
A practical island circuit
A good two or three day loop runs like this. Start with a night anchored off La Courtade on Porquerolles to swim and walk into the village. Take the dinghy ashore, hire bikes, and ride out to the lighthouse and the vineyards; the island bans most cars, so a bicycle is how you see it. Next day, sail the short hop to Port-Cros, pick up a park buoy in good time, and snorkel the marked underwater trail that the park maintains. Keep the Ile du Levant for a sail-past, give the firing range a wide berth, and watch for the signals that tell you when it is active.
If you are building a longer cruise of this coast, the islands slot neatly into a wider plan; our one-week Cote d'Azur charter itinerary shows how they connect to Saint-Tropez and the Lerins. Cruised with respect for the seagrass and an eye on the Mistral, the Hyeres islands are the highlight of Provence afloat.
