Luxury hotels in Saint-Tropez: five-star stays across the peninsula

From Torpes to Signac: a port before a resort

The town takes its name from Torpes, a Roman officer beheaded under Nero in the year 68; legend has his body drifting from Pisa in a small boat with a cock and a dog until it reached this shore. After invasions had emptied the village, an agreement signed in 1470 with the Genoese lord Raphaël de Garezzio brought families from Genoa to rebuild it, tax-free in return for defending the coast.

Since 1558 the Bravades have kept that martial past alive: on 16, 17 and 18 May, musketeers and sailors in period uniform parade in honour of the patron saint behind a town captain elected each Easter Monday.

A working port long before it was a resort, Saint-Tropez ranked third among France's Mediterranean ports for ships and sailors at the end of the 18th century, after Marseille and La Ciotat. Paul Signac sailed in aboard his yacht Olympia in 1892 and drew Matisse, Marquet and other painters after him. On 15 August 1944 it was the first town in Provence to be liberated, although German troops had dynamited its quays that morning. In 1956 Roger Vadim filmed And God Created Woman in and around the town, with many outdoor scenes in the La Ponche district; though not her first film, it made Brigitte Bardot an international star and the village internationally known. Bardot, who died on 28 December 2025, is buried in the town's marine cemetery.

Where to stay in Saint-Tropez: town, hills or shore

In September 2026 the Atout France register listed 22 five-star hotels on the peninsula: 13 in Saint-Tropez, four in Gassin, three in Ramatuelle and two in La Croix-Valmer, more than any single French town except Paris and Courchevel. Some carry the town's name without standing in it, such as Kube Hôtel Saint-Tropez in Gassin, so check the commune before judging distances.

Many of the peninsula's hotels are small: half have fewer than 40 rooms, and only four exceed 60, with Hôtel de Paris Saint-Tropez the largest at 90. Three also hold the Palace distinction, reserved for five-star hotels of exceptional character: two in the town and one in Ramatuelle. The choice then comes down to five settings.

Luxury hotels in Saint-Tropez town, from the port to Les Salins

In the village centre, which the tourist office describes as largely pedestrianised, Hôtel Byblos, on Avenue Paul Signac, has an Italian restaurant, Il Giardino, a pool, a Sisley spa and a rooftop Skybar looking over the bay.

East of the centre, the Route des Salins crosses the commune's small peninsula towards its eastern beaches. Hôtel Sezz, on this road, gives every room a private terrace, garden and outdoor shower, about 250 metres from the Plage des Canebiers, and its restaurant, Colette, is open to non-residents. La Tartane Saint-Amour, on the same road, arranges its rooms and suites like a Provençal hamlet, with a heated pool and Gaia, a restaurant of Greek and Mediterranean flavours.

Of the two Palaces in the town, Cheval Blanc Saint-Tropez is registered on the Plage de la Bouillabaisse, the broad beach at the entrance to Saint-Tropez that the tourist office calls the best place to watch the sun set behind the Maures, and Château de La Messardière at 2 Route de Tahiti.

Beyond the town limits: Gassin, Ramatuelle and La Croix-Valmer

In Gassin, Le Domaine de L'Astragale puts itself roughly 800 metres from central Saint-Tropez and 200 metres from the beach, and keeps a pool for its villa guests. Villa Belrose sits on a hill with open views of the Mediterranean, and Kube Hôtel Saint-Tropez, on the heights of the gulf, accepts only guests aged 12 and over and runs a shuttle to Cybele, its beach club in Ramatuelle. The Gassin guide has more.

Above Pampelonne, the suites of Hôtel Villa Marie have balconies facing the bay. La Réserve Ramatuelle, the peninsula's third Palace, overlooks a bay from an estate of Mediterranean scrubland and runs a beach restaurant and bar on Pampelonne itself, while Muse, the smallest of the 22 with 16 rooms, opens some suites onto private gardens and pools.

On the Bay of Cavalaire, Lily of the Valley, open all year in the Domaine du Cap Lardier, centres its stays on slimming cuisine, sport and personalised treatments, and Hôtel Château de Valmer pairs a Spa by Clarins with breakfast facing its palm grove, as the La Croix-Valmer guide describes. Further west, Le Lavandou is the next coastal town with five-star hotels, and the five-star hotels of the French Riviera run east as far as Menton.

Saint-Tropez beaches and the coastal path

The commune has about 12 km of coast and six public beaches. La Bouillabaisse, at the entrance to the town and shared with Gassin, has fine sand and shallow water suited to families. La Ponche and La Fontanette adjoin each other in the old town, between the Portalet tower and the Tour Vieille, and beyond the marine cemetery the Graniers cove, at the foot of the Citadel, has kept a wild character. The long Canebiers beach, near La Madrague, the waterfront house Brigitte Bardot bought in 1958, looks out on sunsets over the Maures, and La Moutte and Les Salins lie at the eastern tip.

Pampelonne, whose beaches are often described as Saint-Tropez's, belongs to Ramatuelle, and the coastal path links the two: from the Portalet tower it passes the Canebiers bay and Les Salins, and the walk to Tahiti beach covers some 12.5 km in about three and a half hours. On the eastern shore, the park of the Château de la Moutte, once owned by Émile Ollivier, Napoleon III's last head of government, and now by the Conservatoire du littoral, opens free of charge in the afternoons from February to early November, except during its closure from 20 July to 31 August.

The port, the Place des Lices and the museums

The harbour, in the heart of the village, has more than 700 berths in two basins. Close by, the Place des Lices is the village square under centuries-old plane trees, where more than 100 stallholders set up the Provençal market on Tuesday and Saturday mornings, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.; the tourist office advises arriving before 8.30 a.m.

The Citadel's hexagonal keep, built between 1602 and 1608, holds a maritime history museum, open since 2013, that follows Tropezian sailors across the world's seas, with a panorama over the gulf from the ramparts. The Annonciade, in a chapel built around 1510 by the White Penitents, holds paintings from 1890 to 1950, mainly Pointillist, Nabi and Fauve, by Signac, Matisse, Derain, Bonnard and others; ahead of a planned renovation, several works are away for study and restoration, and the display is concentrated on the upper floor. The Gendarmerie and Cinema Museum, in the former gendarmerie, recalls the many films shot in and around the town. The hilltop Chapelle Sainte-Anne, built in the early 17th century in thanks for the town being spared by the plague, looks over the bay and Pampelonne.

The Saint-Tropez year: Bravades, regattas and quieter months

July and August bring heavy traffic, car parks that fill quickly and crowds at the port and in the old town. The tourist office suggests spring instead, April especially, or September and October, when the sea is often still warm; in high summer the old town is quieter before 8.30 a.m. and between 1.30 and 5 p.m., when many visitors are on the beaches.

The Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, founded in 1862, runs at least fifteen nautical events a year. The best known, Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, is the heir to the Nioulargue, first raced in 1981 and ended after a fatal collision in 1995; first held in 1999, it brings together about 250 classic and modern yachts.

Nice to Saint-Tropez and other routes: air, rail, road and sea

With no railway station and no motorway, Saint-Tropez is reached by road, by boat or by helicopter. Nice Côte d'Azur Airport serves many international destinations, and Toulon-Hyères, nearer, mainly domestic and some European ones. La Môle's Golfe de Saint-Tropez airport, about 15 km away, takes private and commercial flights by plane and helicopter all year.

The nearest railway station is Saint-Raphaël-Valescure, with TER regional trains from Nice, Marseille and Toulon and high-speed trains from Paris; from April to October, Les Bateaux Bleus also sail from Saint-Raphaël. In summer the tourist office suggests the boat rather than the car, and Les Bateaux Verts cross the gulf from Sainte-Maxime, Port-Grimaud, Les Marines de Cogolin and Les Issambres, in Roquebrune-sur-Argens. Drivers can leave the car at the Nouveau Port car park, with 1,400 spaces; in summer (1 June to 30 September in 2026), free shuttle buses link the Place des Lices with beaches such as Les Salins and Les Graniers, except on Sundays and public holidays.