Is La Croisette free?

The boulevard, the pavements, the gardens and the Allée des Étoiles du Cinéma are public and free, day and night. What you pay for is what backs onto them: the concession beaches, the terraces with a view and the hotels. Confusing the two is where most budget surprises come from.

How long does it take to walk La Croisette?

About thirty minutes one way on foot, from the Palais des Festivals to the Pointe Croisette, without stopping. Allow an hour there and back, more if you go into the gardens or stop at the handprints around the Palais.

Can you swim for free on La Croisette?

Partly. There are public sections on the central seafront, notably around Plage Macé, but the large free stretches in Cannes are mostly west of the Old Port, towards Plage du Midi, and east towards the Pointe Croisette. Along the central stretch most of the frontage is taken up by concession beaches.

What does a day on a Croisette beach cost?

On the central seafront, the addresses recorded in our notebook run above 100 euros per person for a day with a meal, sunlounger included. For comparison, a beach on the La Bocca seafront to the west sits in a 30 to 70 euro bracket. The gap comes from the location, not from the quality of the cooking.

What is the best time of day for La Croisette?

Early morning and the end of the day. At midday in summer the boulevard is hot, crowded and without shade on the sea side. In late afternoon the light rakes across the bay and the view towards Le Suquet and the Estérel becomes far more interesting, photography included.

La Croisette in Cannes: what is free and what you pay for

La Croisette is the most photographed boulevard on the French Riviera, and one of the least well understood. People arrive expecting a place and find a line: about two kilometres of seafront between the Palais des Festivals to the west and the Pointe Croisette with Port Canto to the east. You can walk it in half an hour without hurrying, and that walk costs nothing.

Everything else costs. And that is where the confusion sets in: many visitors mistake the boulevard, which is public, for what backs onto it, which is not. Between the two lies a price gap running from zero to over a hundred euros a day, for the same sea and the same horizon.

This article sorts them out. What La Croisette gives away, what it charges for, what you look at without knowing what you are looking at, and what time of day makes the walk worth it.

La Croisette, item by item

N° 01

Free

The boulevard, the gardens, the view: the best of what it offers

The promenade itself is public along its full length, day and night, and it is objectively the finest thing La Croisette has. You walk on the sea side, on a wide planted pavement, with the bay on your right and the façades on your left. The flowerbeds and planted walks along the boulevard are open, and so are the benches. Set into the ground around the Palais des Festivals, the Allée des Étoiles du Cinéma lines up handprints left by film personalities: free, outdoors, and the only part of the Festival you can actually touch all year round.

N° 02

Paid, and expensive

The sunlounger, the table with a view, the room

The central seafront is largely taken up by concession beaches, where the towel, the parasol and the service are paid for by the day. The addresses recorded in our notebook along that stretch show brackets above 100 euros per person for a day with a meal, Miramar Plage and Carlton Beach Club in particular. A table with a view follows the same logic: on La Croisette you are not paying for the cooking first, you are paying for the position. For comparison, Le Cabanon on the La Bocca seafront to the west holds a 4.4 rating over nearly 1,700 reviews in a 30 to 70 euro bracket. Both are beaches in Cannes. They do not cost the same.

N° 03

Swimming without paying

Possible, but not anywhere along the line

There are free public stretches of beach in Cannes, and some of them sit on the central seafront, around Plage Macé. But the large open stretches are mostly elsewhere: west of the Old Port, towards Plage du Midi, and east towards the Pointe Croisette. In other words, if your aim is to lay down a towel for nothing, the central Croisette is not the best spot in town: it is the most prestigious, and the most constrained. Our page on <a href="/beaches/">the beaches of Cannes</a> lists what each address offers.

N° 04

What you look at without knowing

The Palais, three grand hotels, a marina

From west to east the line reads easily. The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès opens the boulevard: it is the building of the famous steps, and for the rest of the year it works as a convention centre, which explains a good share of the town's economy. Then come the great hotel façades that give La Croisette its silhouette, the Majestic, the Carlton and the Martinez, whose architecture belongs to different periods and can be dated by eye. At the eastern end, the Pointe Croisette and Port Canto close the line, in a noticeably calmer atmosphere than the centre. Our page on <a href="/hotels/carlton/">the Carlton</a> looks at what that row of hotels represents.

N° 05

What time

Early morning, or after sunset

La Croisette at midday in July is a mediocre experience: hot, crowded and without shade on the seaward pavement. The two good windows are early morning, when the boulevard still belongs to residents and runners, and the end of the day, when the light rakes across the bay and the façades light up. For photography, late afternoon from the eastern end, looking back towards Le Suquet and the Estérel, gives by far the best result. The full walk there and back takes about an hour without stopping.

What we avoid

What we avoid: reducing Cannes to this boulevard. La Croisette is seen in an hour, and once you have walked it, the essence of what it says is said. Devoting three days to it means paying top price for the narrowest slice of the town. Le Suquet, the Forville market and the islands are minutes away and tell a different story.

What we also avoid: settling on the first beach you come to without asking the day rate. Along this stretch the gap between two neighbouring establishments can be more than double, and prices are not always posted where you can see them. Asking before you sit down is not rude, it is normal practice.

Finally, we do not turn up in mid-May without knowing. During the Festival, part of La Croisette is privatised, traffic is rerouted, terraces are full and prices follow. It is not a bad time, it is a different time, and it should be chosen deliberately.

When to go

The season changes the walk. In July and August the boulevard is dense all day and the beaches run at full capacity. In June and September the light is the same, the sea is good and the crowd is far more bearable: that is the best compromise. Out of season La Croisette is quiet, often beautiful, and some beaches close. In May the Festival occupies the centre for around ten days and reshapes the whole town.

And if Cannes is only one stage? This notebook is independent: we list, we sell nothing and we take no commission. But if your plan runs beyond a weekend, taking in the Riviera, Italy next door or a longer route, this stops being a walk to slot in and becomes a trip to build. In that case have a look at allovoyages, our partner travel magazine, whose advisers put together exactly that kind of tailored proposal. Our editorial line does not depend on it: nothing on this site is chosen because a partner asked for it.

La Croisette: what is free, what you pay for.

A public boulevard, a seafront that is not