Once, long ago, it was a simple fishing village. Now, a top resort on the Mediterranean, a charming city with elegant streets, chic cafes, luxury hotels, and white yachts lined up in the harbor.
Cannes, a kind of Cinderella of the French Riviera, is a destination I’ve had for a long time on my bucket list.
Before arriving there, I thought it was bigger, referring to both the surface and the population.
But I realized that it fits perfectly in the expression vital essences are kept in small bottles, and you can have a fantastic time even if you spend one day in Cannes, France.
That doesn’t mean it’s boring, but for a traveler who wants to see as many places as possible in a short time, one day is a compromise option to taste a little of the flavor of Cannes.
What I use every time I travel:
- To book hotels: Booking.com
- To book tours: GetYourGuide.com
Best options for a last-minute trip to Cannes
If you are on the last hundred meters with planning a vacation in Cannes, then this list is your main help to do it quickly and efficiently:
Best experiences and tours in Cannes:
♦ 2.5 hour e-bike tour – the best way to see the highlights of Cannes
♦ Private Boat Tour to the Lérins Islands – a great choice if you wish to admire the magnificent bay of Cannes from the sea
♦ half-day catamaran cruise with lunch – the perfect escapade if you travel with a group of friends
Best hotels to stay in Cannes:
♦ Hôtel de Provence – good value for money
♦ Villa Garbo – great rooms; it has a lounge bar
♦ Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel – amazing hotel; beachfront location; Belle Epoque façade
The famous Cannes International Film Festival is why tourists worldwide want to discover it. The big event is held every year in May.
Cannes is not very crowded except for that period, although it has much more to offer than the glorious ceremony.
After about two days of exploring it, I’ve made a long list of activities and places I hope you’ll be happy to find, do, or see.
Where to stay in Cannes:
- low-budget: Hôtel La Villa Cannes Croisette– pool, Wi-Fi, good breakfast, bar
- mid-budget: Hotel Verlaine– parking, good breakfast, room service, private beach
- luxury: Five Seas Hotel – pool, delicious breakfast, spa, restaurant
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15 things to do in Cannes
1. Take a walk along Promenade de la Croisette
Let’s begin with one of the top-rated tourist attractions in Cannes, the main boulevard, 3 km long, parallel to the beach with the same name.
The Croisette Promenade has two walking directions, separated by a patch of exotic vegetation.
Ingredients that made me feel like I was walking on Ocean Drive in Miami. However, the difference is given by the architecture of the hotels.
You won’t find Art Deco here, but you’ll be delighted by Art Nouveau.
An excellent example is the Carlton Hotel, famous for its elegance and refinement of its exterior facades, its over 100 years of existence, and for being the number one choice for celebrities who visit Cannes.
The promenade is the perfect place to walk and see the people in Cannes, from young lovers who come here on holiday, to businessmen and street animators to international celebrities and locals.
Most of them are after their first youth, with an exaggerated bronze and accompanied by gorgeous small puppies dressed in luxurious clothes to match their owners.
⇒ Find all: hotels in Cannes
2. Get tanned on the beautiful beaches in Cannes | Best things to do in Cannes
Generally, the beaches in Cannes are private and belong to the hotels or clubs in the area.
The price for a day at the beach, along with the rental of a hammock, starts at 30 euros.
But you don’t have to feel discouraged if you want to visit Cannes on a low budget.
Cannes also has public beaches, but they are a bit more crowded and distant from the central area.
Cannes is a very sought-after destination for perfect tanning spots, and this is because, in the hot summer months, the sun stays up for 12 hours per day.
Time enough to get the desired color for your skin.
Waves in green-blue shades, in combination with the yellow-colored sunbeds and umbrellas, offer a nice vibe, as you can see in the pictures.
Book your favorite tour in Cannes ⇓⇓
3. Walk the stylish streets of Cannes
Like most resorts on the Cote d’Azur, the streets of Cannes are a delight.
Charming balconies filled with flowers, pastel colors, fine architecture of buildings, and the cubic stone form beautiful decors.
The most charming neighborhood is the one that bears the scent of the past, Suquet, the old part of the city, with crooked streets and hutched houses on the hill.
It is where the monks lived starting in the 12th century, later occupied by fishermen when Cannes had nothing to do with luxury.
Here, you can admire two of the oldest and most representative buildings of the city: the Castre Museum, but also the old church Église Notre-Dame d’Espérance.
Moreover, here you can enjoy the most beautiful panorama of Cannes from the top.
4. Visit the best museums in Cannes | Top things to do in Cannes
Even if it’s best known for beautiful beaches and the International Film Festival, Cannes is a rich destination both in culture and history.
Therefore, visiting a museum might be the correct answer if you’re wondering what to do in Cannes.
Cannes’ most appreciated and visited museums are the Museum of Art and History, the Navy Museum, the International Photography Museum, and Villa Domergue.
The most famous one, however, is the Castre Museum and its extensive collection of antiquities, located on the Le Suquet hill.
Even the famous Hotel Carlton has an impressive collection of paintings that can be visited.
They belong to Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, and Chagall. Therefore, museums are part of the top-rated tourist attractions in Cannes.
READ ALSO: Cote d’Azur holiday – French Riviera road trip
5. Attend the Cannes Film Festival
We have established from the beginning the greatness of the event that is being watched by the whole world in May of each year.
For this reason, the building where the festival takes place doesn’t seem to do justice to the event, and that is something Belle Epoque style would be more appropriate than a modernist one. But that’s just my opinion, obviously purely subjective.
If you arrive in Cannes in May, you can step on the famous red carpet on the 22 steps of the main entrance to the Palace.
A fun fact worth mentioning is that during the festival, the 60-meter-long carpet is changed three times a day to look impeccable.
READ ALSO: From Nice to Eze Village – French Riviera’s hidden gems
6. Shopping sessions on Rue d’Antibes
The second most transited artery of the city after the Croisette Promenade is Rue d’Antibes, the commercial street of the city.
Here, the architecture of the buildings is so beautiful and well-preserved that you feel you are on a movie set.
The discordant note is made by cars and shops. Another difference is that here, you can find more accessible brands like H&M and Zara.
In contrast with Promenade de la Croisette, Rue d’Antibes used to be the former road connecting Toulon and Antibes.
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7. Take a walk on Chemin des Etoiles, the alley of cinema stars
No, we are not on the Walk of Fame, the famous passage on which the Hollywood stars have their names graven next to a lead in Los Angeles.
We are on Chemin des Etoiles, the place near the Palace where the International Film Festival.
Over 150 best-known movie stars have left their mark as some signature.
I thought you might want to add it to the list of things to see in Cannes.
8. Visit Vieux Port or the Old Port
Also, nearby the Palace, you can find Vieux Port or the Old Port in translation.
Here, you will want to come and admire the exciting mix of small boats for fishing and luxury yachts. Here is also where the Cannes Yachting Festival takes place every year in September.
Many yachts are departed far into the sea to host luxurious parties with champagne and caviar.
Also, here you should come if you wish to go on a trip of a few hours to the nearby islands.
Thanks to the proximity to the Palace, where the International Film Festival takes place and tourists and locals very much transit the Le Suquet neighborhood, the port. Therefore, it is part of the list of the main attractions of Cannes.
⇒ Book a trip to Calanques of the Esterel
⇒ Take a ferry to Ste. Marguerite Island
9. Visit the markets full of flavors and colors | Best things to do in Cannes
For an authentic gastronomic journey, you cannot visit Cannes without visiting one of the markets.
If you walk through the city, it will be challenging to distinguish locals from tourists.
But here you will definitely have the opportunity to do that.
The most famous market is Marché Forville. However, there are others just as charming.
Prices are higher than those you’re used to when buying vegetables in general. You’ll see some examples in the photos below.
10. Admire the fascinating architecture of the buildings
Lovers of beauty and especially of architecture will enjoy the charming ornamented facades, wrought-iron balconies wrought and decorated with intricate patterns, the perfect symmetry, the pastel colors, the elegance, and the refinement that make up every house, villa, or hotel.
While la Croisette is lined with Belle Epoque-style buildings, once you are away from the boulevard and head to the neighborhoods of the houses and the sumptuous villas of the locals, you will notice a mix of baroque, rococo, art-deco, and even exotic and modern, sometimes even neoclassical, with its imposing columns.
⇒ Find all: hotels in Cannes
⇒ Explore Cannes on a 2.5 hour E-bike tour
11. The nearby islands
The continental portion of the city does not delimit the entertainment. Just 15 minutes by boat, you can discover a group of 4 emerald islands, Îles de Lérins. Two of them are not inhabited, but the other two definitely are.
The largest is Île Sainte-Marguerite which hosts spectacular beaches, the Maritime Museum, pedestrianized circuits, and a very aromatic eucalyptus forest.
The waters around the island are crystalline and shelter numerous marine life. Therefore, it is suitable for snorkeling lovers and other water sports.
The smallest, St. Honorat Island was occupied in the 5th century by the monks, so this island is less modernized.
The religious past is also noticeable by a large number of such edifices located on its territory.
If you get to St. Honorat Island, don’t forget to taste the local liquor produced from herbs, but also wine, lavender oil, and honey. A roundtrip ferry ticket to St. Honored costs about 14 €.
12. Watch sensational sunsets | Best Cannes attractions
What would be a seaside resort without some gorgeous sunsets?
Even though I spent only two nights in Cannes, I could enjoy an almost entirely clear sky and some very colorful and romantic sunsets.
13. Admire the lush vegetation and flowers that give life to the city
In addition to the city’s bohemian architecture and relaxing atmosphere, Cannes receives another plus for its many flowers that embellish the entire landscape.
But also for the exotic plants, palm trees, and citrus, you can admire everywhere in the city.
On each street, pink lawns and purple glycines bring exactly the needed color tones, especially during the warm season.
14. Find the atatuettes and monuments full of significance
While strolling the streets of Cannes, you will see various monuments dedicated to the critical events in the cultural and historical life of the city. Of these, two of them got my attention.
The first one is dedicated to the pioneer responsible for today’s flourishing tourism in Cannes.
It’s Lord Brougham, the former Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, who had been in Cannes by chance in 1834 when he couldn’t go to Italy.
The place where he had planned to spend his vacation because of cholera going on there.
On an unforgettable vacation in Cannes, he fell in love with the charming fishing village.
So, he decided to build a villa here, Villa Eleonore. Thus, several British Aristocrats were influenced to do the same, gradually leading to the total transformation of the settlement near the Mediterranean.
The second is a sculpture of an angel carrying a palm tree, a symbol of peace the Russian people gave to the French in 2014.
The statue is located in front of the Carlton Hotel on Promenade de la Croisette.
15. The unforgettable holiday atmosphere
The last reason is the highly positive vibe of the city that I felt from the first moments.
Everything seems like an endless holiday in which the world is joyful.
The terraces are full of people having fun, eating delicious food, and simply enjoying life.
Undoubtedly, there are many places where to go out in Cannes.
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Hey Bella 🙂 I just wanted to say your blog is absolutely beautiful <3 I loved this article on Cannes (I'm french) it made me remember how incredibly chill life is in the South of France…. Thank you for making me go back with your amazing pictures