Where to Stay in Cannes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

What is Cannes known for?

Cannes is known as the Riviera resort city that hosts the Cannes Film Festival each year. The city climbs from a seafront of grand hotels to the old hill town of Le Suquet, crowned by the Tour du Suquet and the Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Espérance, while the Îles de Lérins lie offshore with the Fort Royal and its museum of the Iron Mask. Stars fill the town each spring.

The bay opens wide below the old quarter.

What are the main landmarks in Cannes?

Cannes gathers its landmarks on Le Suquet and out on the water. The Tour du Suquet and the Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Espérance crown the old hill, the Musée des Explorations du Monde fills the castle beside them, and the Château Vallombrosa and La Malmaison hold art down in the town. Offshore, the Fort Royal keeps the museum of the Iron Mask on the Îles de Lérins.

The bell tower watches the bay.

What is the history of Cannes?

Cannes began as a small fishing village clustered under the hill of Le Suquet on the French Riviera. Monks from the Îles de Lérins held the offshore islands from early medieval times, and the watchtower now called the Tour du Suquet rose over the old quarter to guard the coast of what became the Alpes-Maritimes. Fishermen worked the bay.

The Tour du Suquet still stands above the harbour. The village turned to a fashionable resort in the nineteenth century as visitors built villas along the shore, and the town gathered the grand hotels that still front the sea. In the twentieth century the Cannes Film Festival fixed the city's name across the world, drawing crowds each spring to the seafront below Le Suquet.

The fishing boats gave way to yachts. From a monks' island coast to a Riviera resort, Cannes has kept the sea at the centre of its life.

Where is Cannes?

Cannes lies on the French Riviera coast of the Alpes-Maritimes, on a wide bay of the Mediterranean. The old town climbs the hill of Le Suquet above the harbour, the resort strip runs level along the shore, and the wooded Îles de Lérins lie a short way offshore in the bay. Hills rise close behind the town.

The sea fills the whole southern horizon.

What is the climate of Cannes?

Cannes has the warm Mediterranean climate of the French Riviera. Open to the sea on the sheltered coast of the Alpes-Maritimes, the city sees hot dry summers and mild winters, with long clear spells and only short bursts of rain across the bay through most of the year. Winters stay soft here.

The sun holds the coast for long stretches.

How do you get to Cannes?

Cannes sits on the coastal rail and road line of the French Riviera in the Alpes-Maritimes. Trains run along the shore across the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur network, and the coastal roads follow the bay past the resort towns toward the wider Riviera. Trains stop by the seafront.

Boats cross to the Îles de Lérins from the harbour.