The Riviera in summer. Sixty miles of coast, one motorway.
Between May and September the Cote d'Azur runs at capacity. One airport takes almost every private aircraft, one motorway carries almost every car, and the harbours are full of boats whose guests all want to land at the same quay at seven in the evening. None of it is a problem. All of it is a planning question, and the answers are easier in March than in August.
How the coast works
One airport, and then a choice of three
Almost every private arrival on this coast comes through Nice Cote d'Azur. It is the only field on the Riviera that takes every size of business jet, it has a dedicated business aviation terminal beside Terminal 2 with its own customs and security, and since 2015 it has had a helicopter terminal on the field as well. From the ramp there are three genuine ways onward, and choosing between them is the single decision that shapes the rest of the trip.
By car, which is comfortable and predictable for anywhere between Cannes and Menton outside the peaks. By helicopter, which turns the slow run to Monaco into about seven minutes over the water and the run to Cannes into seven to ten. Or by tender, if the destination is a yacht, because the harbours at Antibes, Cannes and Monaco are all within an easy run of the airport. Most good Riviera itineraries use two of the three on the same day, and the people who find August exhausting are usually the ones who tried to do everything by road.
One thing to say plainly before the detail. Our own cars and our own chauffeurs are in London and Manchester. On the Riviera the cars are arranged through operators we know, briefed the way our chauffeurs are briefed, and the aircraft, the helicopter and the yacht are arranged too. What you get from us is one contact holding the whole movement together rather than four suppliers who have never spoken to each other.
The airfields
Where a private aircraft can actually land
| Field | What it gives you | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Nice Cote d'Azur (NCE / LFMN) | Every aircraft type, a business aviation terminal of about 1,500 square metres with its own customs and security, a helicopter terminal with fourteen stands, and the whole coast within reach by car, air or water | A fully coordinated airport: slots and prior permission all year for business aviation, and aircraft parking that is often not confirmed until around a week before arrival. In peak weeks parking is the first thing to run out, so your operator may drop you and reposition |
| Cannes Mandelieu (CEQ / LFMD) | Ten to twenty minutes from the Croisette instead of an hour on the A8, which in the middle of May is worth a great deal | A 35 tonne limit for jets and 22 tonnes for turboprops, a main runway of about 1,610 metres, no night operation at all, and slots and prior permission for arrival, departure and parking through the high season. A Global or a large Gulfstream simply cannot come here |
| Monaco Heliport (MCM / LNMC) | The last five miles of the Principality in about seven minutes from Nice, landing in Fontvieille with a covered set down and eight pads, two of them out over the water | It is a heliport, not an airport: Nice is its only scheduled destination and everything else is a charter movement. Flights are routed over the sea for noise, so they are genuinely weather dependent, and helicopters are not generous with luggage |
| Saint-Tropez La Mole (LTT / LFTZ) | About fifteen kilometres from the village, which is the only way to reach the Gulf without the drive round it | A runway of 1,180 by 30 metres with no lighting, so daylight only, roughly 07:00 to 19:00 and extendable to sunset on request. Types and crews have to be approved for the field, and international arrivals want about a day's notice for customs |
Airfield facts are carried over from our own airport pages, where they are sourced and dated, so the two cannot disagree. Every one of them is a question for your operator rather than for us, and the honest answer sometimes comes back as a different airfield.
The roads
The A8, and the three roads underneath it
There is one continuous fast road on this coast. The A8 runs from Aix-en-Provence to the Italian frontier, and between Cannes and Menton it is carrying commuters, holidaymakers, delivery traffic and you, on a carriageway hemmed in by mountains with nowhere to widen. It slows from the middle of the afternoon on an ordinary day. In July and August, and in the May and September event weeks, it can double any journey time you have been quoted, and there is no clever alternative that a local driver knows about, because the alternative is the old coast road and that is full too.
Between Nice and Monaco those alternatives have names worth knowing, because a driver who offers to take the Basse Corniche is telling you something real. The Basse Corniche, the D6098, runs at sea level through Villefranche, Beaulieu, Eze-sur-Mer and Cap d'Ail: beautiful, slow, and the one that fills first. The Moyenne Corniche, the D6007, is the middle road through Eze village and comes into Monaco from above, near the Exotic Garden. The Grande Corniche, the D2564, is the highest, running over La Turbie before dropping into the Principality. In free-flowing conditions they are all slower than the motorway. In a jam they are sometimes the only thing moving, and only a driver who works this coast every week can tell you which.
Two calendar realities are worth building into any August plan. The first is the change-over weekend at the end of July and the beginning of August, when the July holidaymakers go home and the August ones arrive on the same roads; the French government's own traffic service, Bison Fute, publishes the forecast for it and colours the worst days black. The second is that Saturday and Sunday are the bad days all summer, not Friday. If you can move on a Tuesday, move on a Tuesday.
The season
The weeks that fill the coast
| When | What is on | What it does to the travel |
|---|---|---|
| 11 to 22 May 2027 | Cannes Film Festival, twelve days | Berths off the Croisette are committed long before the programme is announced, many yachts sit at anchor and tender in, and the streets around the Palais are controlled with drop off points that can change from day to day. Cannes Mandelieu is in its high season slot regime by the middle of the month |
| 3 to 6 June 2027 | Monaco Grand Prix | The circuit runs along Quai Albert 1er and Quai Antoine 1er, so Port Hercule is inside the track. Restrictions build through the second half of May and from the Friday unaccredited private vehicles cannot enter the restricted zone at all. Plan the drop off point, not the address |
| 21 to 25 June 2027 | Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity | The Palais des Festivals again, a week after the film crowd have gone and a fortnight after Monaco. Hotels along the Croisette, cars and Nice aircraft parking all tighten at once, and the pattern of the week is as-directed hire rather than transfers |
| July and August | The peak | All of it, with Saturdays and Sundays worst. Nice to Saint-Tropez can be ninety minutes in May and three hours on an August Saturday. Aircraft parking at Nice is scarce, helicopter seats go early, and villa lanes above Ramatuelle and Saint-Paul decide the vehicle size |
| 7 to 12 September 2027 | Cannes Yachting Festival, the fiftieth edition | Both the Vieux Port and Port Canto become an exhibition site, visiting berths in that window effectively disappear, and pedestrian and vehicle routes around the Palais are laid out for the show rather than for the town |
| September | Monaco Yacht Show, four days at Port Hercule | Quai Antoine 1er is the show's own address. Berths, cars, hotel rooms and crew accommodation across the entire coast are committed months ahead, and this is the hardest week of the autumn on the whole Riviera |
| Late September into early October | Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez | The Gulf fills and the road round it does too. La Mole is daylight only, so an evening arrival becomes a long drive from Nice whatever was planned |
Dates are taken from our own event pages, where each one is sourced and dated, and are reviewed every January. Where an organiser has not published the next edition we give the month only rather than a date we would have to correct. Check the event page before you commit to anything.
Joining a boat
The tender quay is the address that matters
Most summer trips here end at a passerelle rather than a front door, and the commonest failure is a car sent to a port rather than to a point.
- Give us the harbour and the berth, not just the town. At Port Hercule the quays are a full circuit of the water apart on foot, and at Cannes the Vieux Port and Port Canto are a mile and a different journey apart
- If the yacht is at anchor, which is normal off the Croisette in May and September and common in August, the fixed point is the tender quay. In Cannes that is the Quai Max Laubeuf on the western side of the Vieux Port. That is where the car waits and where the evening ends
- Confirm the tender landing point with the captain the night before and again on the morning. It moves, particularly in show weeks when pontoon space inside the harbour is allocated to exhibitors
- Every quay on this coast is also a public road. A car sets down at the head of it, crew meet the bags and carry them the last stretch, and the driver then goes to park rather than waiting. On a long quay that walk can be a hundred metres or more, so say early if anyone in the party finds walking difficult
- Embarkation is usually around midday, so the aircraft and the cars are planned backwards from the passerelle rather than forwards from home
- Coming ashore for dinner, hold the car for the evening rather than calling for one. Repositioning through Monaco's tunnels and ramps, or along the Croisette in season, takes far longer than waiting does. See yacht charter and day charter
The timeline
When to do what
- 01
Winter, for a summer week
The week and the numbers. For the May and September event weeks and for the whole of August, this is when aircraft, helicopters and cars are held together rather than assembled from what is left. Nothing needs to be final, but the request needs to exist.
- 02
Four to six weeks out
The detail. The villa or hotel address with a pin, the harbour and berth if a yacht is involved, passenger and luggage counts, and the decision on whether the last leg is a helicopter or a car.
- 03
The week before
The plan on paper. Which airfield and which alternative, the drop off point rather than the address for anywhere inside a closure, an honest drive time for that day of that week, and who meets whom.
- 04
The day
One number. Aircraft parking at Nice moves, tenders move, the A8 does what it does. The desk watches the flight and moves the cars rather than asking you to.
Place by place
Every town on this coast has its own page, with its own road
The destination pages set out the local realities: the Croisette in season, the Corniches into Monaco, the lanes above Ramatuelle, and the caps at Antibes and Ferrat where the address is often narrower than the car.
Questions people ask
About a Riviera summer
Nice or Cannes Mandelieu?
Mandelieu if your aircraft is inside the 35 tonne jet limit and you are staying in or near Cannes, because it saves the A8. Nice for anything larger, for a late arrival, or when Mandelieu's daylight-only hours will not fit the day. We quote the Nice alternative alongside it so a change of airfield is not a change of plan.
Is the helicopter to Monaco worth it?
In May, in August and on almost any weekend afternoon, yes. The flight is about seven minutes and door to door you should allow thirty to forty five minutes including the walk to the helicopter terminal and the short run at the Monaco end. It is also the only thing that recovers a late aircraft: a car on the Basse Corniche cannot make up an hour.
Can we get to Saint-Tropez quickly from Nice?
Not by road. The coast road round the Gulf is beautiful and slow and the motorway route still lands you in the traffic at Sainte-Maxime, so allow ninety minutes to two hours in May and considerably more on an August Saturday. The alternatives are a helicopter of about twenty minutes, La Mole if the aircraft and the daylight allow, or a boat.
How far ahead should we ask?
For the May and September event weeks and for August, months rather than weeks. Ask us for your dates rather than reading a policy here: we would rather tell you honestly what is available for your week than publish a promise.
Are the cars on the Riviera yours?
No. Our own cars and chauffeurs are in London and Manchester. On the coast, cars are arranged through operators we know, to the same brief, and one person at Odyssey holds the itinerary from your front door to the passerelle.
Can you arrange the aircraft and the boat as well?
Yes. See private jet charter and yacht charter. Most of the value on this coast comes from the three being planned together rather than separately.
Request a proposal
Tell us the week and the address
Dates, how many of you, where you are staying, and the harbour and berth if there is a boat. We reply with the airfield we would use and why, the alternative behind it, honest drive times for those days rather than for an empty road, and where the car can physically stop. Nothing is booked or charged online.
Prefer to talk? +44 2030 048300 or WhatsApp, at any hour.
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