Five-star hotels in Gassin, above the Gulf of Saint-Tropez

Hotels in Gassin: a hill village and a stretch of gulf shore

Gassin sits at the centre of the Saint-Tropez peninsula, with Saint-Tropez, Cogolin, Ramatuelle and La Croix-Valmer as neighbours and a frontage on the sea. The commune covers about 25 km² and had 2,687 inhabitants in 2023. Its medieval village stands on a rocky spur at about 200 m; the hamlets, the vines and the newer quarters spread across the plain below, and other built-up areas line the La Foux crossroads and the shore leading east to Saint-Tropez.

That geography matters when comparing hotels in Gassin. A room near the old village means height, silence and a view; a property on the lower ground by the gulf means a short walk to the water and to Saint-Tropez. The busy La Foux junction, where the coast road meets the roads from Cogolin and Grimaud, is also within the commune.

Gassin was once far larger. It covered 64 km² until two of its seaside hamlets, grown by tourism, became communes of their own: Cavalaire on 5 August 1929 and La Croix, now La Croix-Valmer, on 6 April 1934. What remained kept its rural character, divided between vines and forest.

Le Domaine de L'Astragale, on the Saint-Tropez side

Le Domaine de L'Astragale is on the Chemin de Gassine, in the low-lying part of the commune rather than the hill village. The hotel gives the two distances that explain its position: about 200 m from the beach and about 800 m from the centre of Saint-Tropez. It has 54 rooms in the Atout France register and was classified five-star on 19 October 2021.

Double Rooms have a terrace or balcony, views over the pool and garden, and a bathroom with both a bathtub and a separate shower. Family Rooms sleep two adults and two children, with a small independent bedroom for children under 13. Ambre Suites open from a private terrace directly onto the swimming pool, Topaze Suites have a large balcony with views, and the villas add a garden, patio and terrace, with a private pool reserved for villa guests.

The restaurant serves refined Mediterranean cooking at lunch and dinner, with a poolside bar alongside and personalised menus on request. Room service runs around the clock, and there is a gym and tennis courts. Drivers will find a secure private car park with video surveillance and charging points for electric vehicles.

The perched village: Place dei Barri, the Androuno and the church

The old village was built on its spur after the Saracens were driven out, to escape the insecurity of the coast. Since 7 May 1994 it has belonged to Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, and the town hall presents it as the only member of the association on the Mediterranean shore between Spain and Italy. Its own slogan is 'la plus belle vue du Golfe', the finest view of the gulf.

The view is the reason to climb. From Place dei Barri, the Plus Beaux Villages association lists the Mediterranean, the Îles d'Or and the Massif des Maures, and the wider panorama runs across the Gulf of Saint-Tropez to the Bay of Cannes and the Alps.

Inside the walls, lanes decked with bougainvillea and jasmine lead to the Androuno, a passage just 29 cm wide at its narrowest, which the association bills as the narrowest street in the world. The tourist office dates the church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption to 1558; it has been altered several times, and its square bell tower is probably older than the rest. Scenes from the Gendarme de Saint-Tropez films of the 1960s were shot in the village.

The tourist office stands at the village entrance on Place Léon Martel, at about 205 m, with a panoramic terrace over the gulf, and runs guided walks through the village's history. The village extension, built from 1989 to 1998 to designs by François Spoerry, the architect of Port Grimaud, won the Philippe Rotthier European architecture prize.

On the plain: vineyards, polo and golf

Most of the commune below the village is given over to vines and woodland. Château Minuty, in Gassin, was among the 23 Provence estates named crus classés in 1955; its vineyard now covers about 170 ha across several communes. It is one of seven producers that the Gulf of Saint-Tropez community's wine-tourism pages list in Gassin, a list that includes the peninsula's cooperative cellar.

In the Bourrian quarter, a few hundred metres from La Foux, the Polo Club de Saint-Tropez occupies more than 100 ha. Its stud, the Haras de Gassin, dates from 1980 and the club from 1998; in 2010 it hosted about 150 matches in the season. The commune also has a golf course with 9-hole and 18-hole layouts, on land that partly overlooks Saint-Tropez.

This is the working side of the peninsula, and it explains the traffic. The La Foux quarter holds a shopping centre and the Gulf of Saint-Tropez hospital as well as the main road junction, while the hill village keeps its view above it all.

Reaching Gassin and Saint-Tropez by air, rail, road and sea

Gassin has no railway. The coastal line of the Chemins de fer de Provence, opened between La Foux and Hyères in 1890, served the area for more than fifty years; today every arrival ends by road, and the choice of airport sets the length of the transfer.

From the A8 motorway, the usual route is exit 36 at Le Muy, then the RD 25 to Sainte-Maxime and the RD 559 along the gulf. From the west, the A57 exit 13 at Le Cannet-des-Maures leads by the RD 558 to Grimaud and then the RD 61 to La Foux. The alternative for the last stretch is the sea: Les Bateaux Verts run regular shuttles into Saint-Tropez from several ports around the gulf.

Summer traffic and the La Foux crossroads

The La Foux crossroads makes Gassin a key through-point for the whole gulf, and it is frequently saturated, particularly in the direction of Saint-Tropez. Jams build at commuting times and throughout the summer, and Tuesday is particularly heavy because it is a market day in Saint-Tropez. The other is Saturday; both markets fill the Place des Lices in the morning.

Saint-Tropez's tourist office names the port and the beaches of Saint-Tropez and Ramatuelle as the most crowded areas in summer, and advises setting out early in the morning or late in the day. Its other advice suits a Gassin base: take the boat from Sainte-Maxime or Port-Grimaud rather than the car, and walk, cycle or use a scooter for short trips.

Two cycle paths help, one of about 13.6 km between Cavalaire and Gassin and one of about 12.2 km between Saint-Tropez and Sainte-Maxime. For airport transfers in July and August, allow extra time and avoid timing a drive through La Foux for a Tuesday or Saturday morning.

Using Gassin as a base for the peninsula

Gassin's central position puts the peninsula's other listed communes within a short drive. Ramatuelle, reached over the ridge by the RD 61 or the road past the Moulins de Paillas, is the place for Pampelonne beach and Cap Camarat. La Croix-Valmer turns towards the Bay of Cavalaire, Gigaro and the protected Cap Lardier.

Further afield, the coast road continues beyond La Croix-Valmer to Le Lavandou, while on the gulf the boats run to and from Les Issambres, the seaside quarter of Roquebrune-sur-Argens. Our French Riviera hotel selection covers the rest of the Var and Alpes-Maritimes coast.

Travellers weighing 5-star hotels in Saint-Tropez against a base just outside the town should compare access, parking and walking distances before booking. Our guide to checking a hotel's location and transport sets out the questions to ask.