The top beach hotels in France, as chosen by our experts, including the best for luxury, infinity pools, beach access and sea views, in locations including the Cote d'Azur, Cannes, St Tropez, Brittany and Normandy.
Sitting on the water’s edge, betwixt Cap d’Antibes and Juan-les-Pins, this unique Art Deco hotel is chock-full of original features, a stylish living monument to it’s former residents the Scott Fitzgeralds, and the glamour of The Roaring Twenties jazz age. Two beaches: one rocky, one of gentle sand which slopes into a natural seawater bay. Beach staff helpfully procure the best sun loungers: pole position is front row of the jetty, from which you can water-ski across Golfe Juan Bay, the birthplace of water-skiing. Book Marco’s informative boat tour around Cap d’Antibes to swim in the crystal waters of Millionaire’s Bay. Masseuse Patricia provides excellent Swedish deep-tissue massages in her cabana on the beach. Read expert review From £ 138This ravishing boutique getaway is the height of seaside sophistication. Philippe Starck’s bold white interior evokes local oyster farming, and Europe’s highest sand dune looms large as next-door neighbour. Outstanding seafood dining and sea-and-sand views at every turn are the icing on the cake. This hotel has story. It languishes in a traditional Basque, 1930s hunting lodge that gazes dreamily out onto the big blue seas of the Atlantic Ocean. The public beach is a short walk – if you can drag yourself away from the impossibly stylish infinity pool with cushioned sun loungers and incredible sea views that is. Staff can arrange boat taxis, seafaring picnics, visits to local oyster farms, bike rental and all sorts. Read expert review From £ 507• The best hotels in Acquitaine
Since 1967, the Byblos has come on like the Med's poshest sea-side village. A series of what look like fisherman's houses - all ochre and harmonious - unwind round the pool, and are themselves inundated with Med greenery. the hotel's focus of attention is the heated outdoor pool. Somewhere nearby is France's first Sisley spa, whose Salon Libanais - all 17th-century wooden marquetry and wondrously carved panels - hosted at least part of Mick and Bianca's wedding night. You'll maybe need it after a night in the Caves-du-Roy, France's most celeb-filled night-club. The nearest beaches are a 10-minute walk, the more famous Pampelonne stretch 15 minutes by car. Read expert review From £ 461• The best hotels in St Tropez
Old World elegance and grace in an unmatched, seaside setting. The Hotel du Palais – a true Biarritz icon – dominates the seafront from its elevated perch above sandy Grande Plage. It was originally built by Emperor Napoleon III as a summer retreat for Eugénie, his bride, and retains its regal grandeur to this day. An indoor pool and Guerlain spa occupy an annexe, and there’s a second pool outside with expansive terrace and unbroken sea views. The helpful concierge can arrange surfing lessons, rounds of golf or daytrips to Bayonne or Basque villages. It’s well worth upgrading to a sea-facing room for the sheer joy of waking to the sound of the waves. Read expert review From £ 260• The best beach hotels on the French Riviera
A throwback to the F.Scott Fitzgerald era, this grand 19th-century mansion on the Cote d’Azur is set among nine hectares of landscaped gardens, with a guest list that reads like the credits of a Hollywood movie. There is a heated infinity pool, five clay tennis courts, 33 cabanas and a boutique. The Sisley spa has four treatment rooms, as well as a sauna, steam room, gym and beauty salon. There are also jet skis, kayaks, stand-up paddle boards and parasailing equipment. Have a drink at the Eden-Roc Champagne Lounge on the Mediterranean. he gastronomic Eden-Roc Restaurant serves classics like roasted sea bass and lobster with tarragon; the Grill offers Provençal-style gambas at the seafront pavilion. Read expert review From £ 614• The best family hotels in France
The seafront Hotel La Perouse has startling sea views, top-class beds and a good restaurant. Though minutes from the centre, La Pérouse seems slightly withdrawn, in a private stretch of Provence where comfort, politeness and flowers hold sway. Le Patio restaurant is on the hotel’s splendid terrace, just down from the swimming pool. Eating here, underneath the lemon trees, it is as if one were dining on a little Provençal square privatised for the privileged. Food is good, simple Med fare with no aspirations to Michelin stars. In this setting, it doesn’t need them. Read expert review From £ 182The five-star Grand Hôtel in Cabourg is ideally located on the seaside resort’s beach, and offers a delightful gastronomic experience as well as an inspired travel through time. Dating from 1861, the Grand Hôtel was rebuilt in a Belle Epoque style at the beginning of the 20th century after completely burning down. Entering is like diving into a bygone era. The sumptuous hall with high ceilings and an impressive chandelier has inviting Epoque armchairs and sofas on which to read, relax and have a drink. One can also choose the hotel’s elegant bar, or the terrace on the beach. Read expert review From £ 212• The best beach hotels in Normandy
Opened in 1908, the Grand-Hôtel is a real jewel in the south of France's crown and since a Four Seasons takeover, benefits from the group's exceptional service standards. Club Dauphin is the hotel’s pièce de résistance; a once Olympic-sized heated infinity seawater pool so blue it seems almost to blend into the horizon when viewed from above, accessed via a funicular in luscious gardens. Once there you can enjoy spectacular views of the Mediterranean, complimentary refreshments plus free sun cream. If you want to improve your technique in the pool, book a lesson with Pierre Gruneberg, the club’s famous swimming instructor, whose pupils have included everyone from Charlie Chaplin’s children to Robin Williams. Read expert review From £ 535• The best hotels on the Cote d'Azur
A no-expense-spared villa hotel, in waterfront gardens just above the beach in little Ste-Marine. The light, substantial rooms in the villa proper, all gleaming wooden floors and white-painted tongue-and-groove walls, echo the inns of New England. Several have sea-facing balconies on two separate sides, and there are larger clapboard cottages in the grounds. Excellent seafood menus in the villa’s elegant dining room, open for dinner only, and for that matter also in summer only, start at €39; the owners also run a cheaper, less formal year-round bistro in the port immediately below. Read expert review From £ 141• The best beach hotels in Brittany
When you win the film festival’s Best Actor or Actress award, I’ll expect you to be staying at the Carlton. Liz Taylor brought all seven of her husbands here. Faye Dunaway allegedly ordered gallons of goats' milk for her bath. Today, it remains the spot which says: “You’ve arrived” when you walk through the door. Prestige suites on the seventh floor have outstanding sea-view terraces – but not all the rooms actually oversee the Med. Giving onto the Croisette, the outdoor Terrace in particular, is a fine place for a drink, if only because passers-by will wonder whether you’re famous or not. There’s no pool, but the Carlton’s private beach is just across the road. Read expert review From £ 292Few hotels are wedged between the sky and the sea. Five-star Château de la Chèvre d’Or is. Up high in the eagle nest village of Èze on the French Riviera, this luxury address is paradise on earth. The coastal panorama from the heated outdoor pool is other-worldly and the terraced grounds cocoon hidden terraces and sundecks for guests to lap up the extraordinary luminosity and colours of the French Riviera in total Adam and Eve privacy. Dining is gastronomic and Michelin-starred, with vertiginous views of the sea. For talented young chef Roman Kerverrac, local seasonal products of exceptional quality are at the heart of his light Mediterranean gastronomy, married with a staggering wine list. Read expert review From £ 519• The world's best hotel pools
Michelin-starred dining, sea views and a wealth of antique furniture make this a popular choice among European royalty and holidaying celebrities, bang on the Med in Nice, close to Place Masséna. Everyone from Khrushchev to Richard Burton has enjoyed a drink in its Le Relais bar. No other luxury hotel in France delivers a similar cultural charge. ven bad boys try to behave well in what is the last independent palace hotel on the Riviera. Almost impossible not to, in the Royal Salon with a vast portrait of Louis XIV looking on. Or in the exceptional, glass-ceilinged rotunda. Go for a room at the front for sea views. Read expert review From £ 286You'll find simple elegance, charming service and spacious rooms with views over the town or sea at La Ponche, tucked into one of the older, quieter districts of St Tropez, five minutes from the port and the central Place des Lices. Picasso and Sartre were once regulars at the bar. It’s a higgeldy-piggeldy sort of building, so many rooms have unexpected terraces with views over the town or out to sea. Room number 8 was, incidentally, Romy Schneider’s favourite. And, whichever room you take, you are but yards from the little Ponche beach. You might very well wander out there in your dressing gown for a dip before breakfast. Read expert review From £ 304ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbHLnp6rmaCde6S7ja6iaKyilsOmuI6dnKysmaOutbXOp6ponaWnvLGxjp%2BpmqaTmnyivtOimqWdo2TBqbGMm5ysrF2XsqKvx2afqKyVocButc1mnauZnpiybrLOq2SsrZ2isrN7