Cap Ferrat villas, a crewed yacht and the legendary light from Saint-Tropez to Menton.
Cap Ferrat villas, a crewed yacht and the legendary light from Saint-Tropez to Menton. Here is French Riviera, arranged privately — browse it by the occasion you're marking, by what moves you, or by the season that suits you best.
What an advisor can open that an algorithm cannot. Each of these is staged on your terms — the access, the timing, the people.
A 1960s mahogany Riva hired from its Antibes owner — the hull cutting the morning sea, lunch anchored in a cove below Villa Kérylos, swimming where the Côte d'Azur was before the motorway was built.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence's extraordinary collection opened before the first visitor — Miró's labyrinth at seven in the morning, the Giacometti courtyard in silence, a scholar who organized the 2019 Calder retrospective as your guide.
A working lavender estate above Grasse with a table set in the herb garden — the perfume house's master distiller explains the harvest and the extraction; a lunch of Provençal lamb that has grazed on these same aromatics.
Not a package — a starting point. Each is a journey we have designed and refined; your advisor reshapes it for the version only you would recognise.
A villa above Cap Ferrat, a vintage Riva along the coast at dawn, cocktails at the Hotel du Cap terrace before the season fills it, and dinner at a hill-village restaurant that has stayed in the same family since 1962.
A crewed motor yacht from Antibes — Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat at anchor with the Villa Rothschild above, the calanques east of Cassis by tender, a lunch prepared from the Antibes fish market as the sea deepens to navy beyond the three-mile line.
A Belle Époque estate above Cap Ferrat — a private pool on the terrace, a cook who shops at the Antibes market each morning, a captain with a tender moored on the coast below, and the view west across the bay to the Esterel mountains that turns red at dusk.
The Côte d'Azur at its most abundant — Cap Antibes by vintage tender, the Cannes Croisette before the festival season, a lunch at a Mougins hillside restaurant, and the Eze village at dusk when the tourists have gone and the sea turns every shade of blue the Riviera was painted in.
Each a starting point — our advisors weave them into a single, seamless journey.
June and September offer warm seas, reliable sun, and a calmer rhythm than the height of summer. May brings the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix, which transform Cannes and Monte-Carlo and drive demand and rates sharply higher, so these dates must be booked far in advance. July and August are the social peak along the coast but also the busiest and hottest months.
Yes. A crewed motor or sailing yacht is the classic way to experience the Riviera, cruising from the Bay of Villefranche and Cap Ferrat toward the Iles de Lerins off Cannes, Saint-Tropez, and into Italian and Monegasque waters. Charters can be arranged by the day or the week, with a chef aboard and tenders for swimming in the calanques. Forest Travel can match the vessel to your group and secure berths during the busy summer season when moorings are scarce.
Cap Ferrat and Cap d'Antibes are the most exclusive enclaves, prized for their privacy and grand seafront properties, while Monte-Carlo suits those drawn to the casino and the harbor scene. Saint-Tropez and the Pampelonne beaches are the summer epicenter of glamour, and Nice offers a more urban, cultured base with excellent air access. Five to seven nights lets you settle in one area while taking day trips along the coast by car or boat.
The Riviera pairs easily with the Italian Riviera and Portofino, a short cruise or drive east past Monaco and Menton. Inland, the perched villages of the arriere-pays such as Eze and Saint-Paul-de-Vence make rewarding excursions, and Provence lies within a couple of hours by car or train to the west. Many clients combine the coast with Paris via a short flight or the TGV from Nice or Avignon.
Most clients arrive into Nice Cote d'Azur airport, with a seven-minute helicopter transfer to Monaco being the established way to reach the Principality. A private car and driver is essential given the narrow coastal roads and limited parking in towns like Saint-Tropez. Your advisor will arrange restaurant and beach-club reservations along Pampelonne and in Monte-Carlo, which are difficult to secure independently in season.
August on Pampelonne needs to be held months ahead: reservations there are generally gone by mid-June. On the water the pressure is similar, because summer moorings along the French Riviera are so scarce that berths, not boats, are the binding constraint. If your dates are fixed in high summer, the earlier planning starts, the smaller the compromise you will have to make.
A vintage Riva day on the French Riviera means a 1960s mahogany Riva hired from its Antibes owner, cutting through the morning sea toward Cap Ferrat. Lunch is taken at anchor in a cove below Villa Kérylos, and there is time to swim where the Côte d'Azur was before the motorway was built. It is one of the experiences staged privately, on your terms of timing and access.
Yes. The Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence can be opened privately before the first visitor arrives. You walk Miró's labyrinth at seven in the morning and stand in the Giacometti courtyard in silence. Your guide is a scholar who organized the 2019 Calder retrospective, which turns the visit into a conversation about one of the Riviera's most extraordinary collections.
Above Grasse, a working lavender estate sets a table in its herb garden for a private lunch. Before you eat, the perfume house's master distiller explains the harvest and the extraction. The meal is Provençal lamb that has grazed on the same aromatics growing around you, a quieter inland counterpoint to the French Riviera coast below.
Yes. Nice, Cannes and Antibes all sit inside the Alpes-Maritimes low-emission perimeter, so the Crit'Air class of the vehicle that collects you is now a fair question to ask. It matters because a private car and driver is a necessity on the French Riviera: the corniches are narrow and parking in Saint-Tropez is effectively nonexistent in season.
A private French Riviera trip starts from US$1,150 per person per night at the level Forest Travel plans, so a seven-day trip of six nights starts from around US$6,900 per person, plus a US$250 planning fee per itinerary. Timing moves the figure: May carries the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix, which push rates sharply higher, and the same budget buys less on this coast in August than anywhere else in France.
One base for five to seven nights, with the coast taken by car or boat rather than by repacking. Stay on Cap Ferrat or Cap d'Antibes, then give one day to a vintage Riva from Antibes to Cap Ferrat, one morning to the Fondation Maeght opened privately before the first visitor, one lunch to a lavender estate above Grasse, and one day to a crewed yacht toward the Îles de Lérins. Monaco is seven minutes from Nice by helicopter.
Neither; they suit different trips. The French Riviera gives villas on Cap Ferrat, crewed yachts, art collections such as the Fondation Maeght and the easiest air access, through Nice. The Amalfi Coast is vertical: Positano and Ravello, boat days to Capri, and steps that make it hard for anyone who struggles with stairs. Both are at their best in June and September, from US$1,150 per person per night on the Riviera and US$1,200 on the Amalfi Coast.
Every journey here is a starting point a private advisor reshapes entirely around you — your pace, your people, the French Riviera only you would recognise.
A real person answers: an in-house luxury travel advisor, in English or Spanish. The first conversation is complimentary.
