Visiting Antibes, France in one day
Sandy beaches are a major attraction in Antibes. Photos by John O’Boyle / The Empty Nest Explorers
Antibes is a beautiful seaside city in southeastern France, situated on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice. Antibes, with its famous cape, Cap d'Antibes, has long been a playground for the rich and is home to some of the most expensive properties in Europe. But it also feels relaxed and easy - compared to the more bustling cities around it, Antibes is decidedly “beachy”.
Best of all, you really don’t have to be a jetsetter to enjoy the beautiful sandy beaches, perfectly pristine cobbled streets and just plain gorgeous scenery of Antibes for a day while exploring the south of France.
Why visit Antibes?
Antibes is particularly picturesque with its highly recognizable 16th century ramparts that tower high above the brilliant blue sea, capped by a medieval fortress Le Fort Carré.
The white stone of the ramparts reflect Antibes’ classical Greek and Roman past. You can stroll along this ancient wall as it curves around an astounding superyacht port and overlooks white sandy beaches. The beaches here are actually soft sand, unlike in Nice, where the beaches are pebbly. (Having both been raised in New Jersey, we have a preference toward soft sand on our beaches!)
The “commune of Antibes-Juan-les-pins” is basically composed of two areas:
Old Town Antibes (Vieille Ville) is the more charming side with lots of little streets, alleys, walkable squares, and of course cute shops and a wide selection of restaurants. There is also a particularly nice Provençal Market.
The other side of town, Juan-les-pins is the more modern side - the “new city”. It’s not as “cute” in that charming old town way, but still is a very high-end resort area.
We motored into Antibes for only a short lunchtime stop while exploring the greater French Riviera so Old Town and the harbor were our aim. But considering the amount of nice restaurants and easy access to such great beaches, you could definitely justify staying a night here or longer, or use it as a base for your French Riviera trip.
We were very glad we stopped in Antibes! Larger than expected, it feels quite metropolitan and sophisticated while still maintaining the feel of a smallish seashore town.
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The narrow streets of Antibes Old Town are a visual treat.
Exploring Old town Antibes and Port Vauban
It was a pretty busy Sunday when we visited Antibes, and since it was a very beautiful day we opted to grab a sandwich and have a picnic instead of sitting down at one of the many good-looking restaurants. It was just the right choice!
We bought our tasty pesto sandwich from a street vendor who happily gave us a few suggestions for great picnic spots. We chose to go down to the port and found ourselves a bench and do a little yacht-watching.
The port of Antibes, Port Vauban, is quite a sight! It is packed with luxury mega yachts, and next to them is a helipad. Unlike other port towns, these big yachts can actually dock there. So if you have the cash you could chopper from nearby Nice airport and walk onto your docked superyacht. (Well perhaps in our next life! 😂)
We walked along the ramparts for a stretch and it was really enjoyable.There are nice little touches of interest along the way: scattered sculptures and small windows in the stone for peering onto the beaches on the other side. You don’t have to walk out too far to look back for sweet views of the port and the town.
With the dazzling port on one side and gorgeous Mediterranean beaches on the other, you can totally appreciate from this vantage point how Antibes has long attracted people from all over. (A girl queued up behind us on the sandwich line had just arrived from Barcelona, which, incidentally, sounds like a great trip!) It is said that 90% of buyers of the luxury properties of Cap d'Antibes are foreigners, mostly from Northern or Eastern Europe.
Old Town Antibes is just so pretty and clean, with lots of artistic touches and little lanes to explore. It is a little hilly, but nowhere near like some of its neighbors!
So we suggest you really take some time to just explore the town on foot and maybe stop for a glass of rosé!
Cycling is also popular in Antibes, as it is in most of the French Riviera. This is pretty hilly terrain, so unless you stick to the coastline it can be a little challenging. Here are some routes in and around Antibes as suggested by their tourism office.
What to do in Antibes
Marché Provençal - Antibes Provençal Market
We really enjoyed visiting Antibes’ lively daily produce market. You will experience lots of markets while visiting the south of France - they are a way of life! - but there was something just so special about this one.
It was definitely one of the busiest markets we’ve seen with both tourists and locals. There was no “junk” being sold. It was mostly produce, spices, cheese, meats and flowers. It felt more like a serious market than a tourist attraction. And it’s nice that it is open every day - so you don’t miss it if you don’t happen to be there on the right day of the week.
Antibes Provençal Market is open daily till about 1pm. The covered market is set up in what seemed to be a semi-permanent tent at the Place Nationale Cours Massena, right in the center of the town. It’s quite a large space and just wonderful to wander around in.
Antibes also has other markets - interestingly flea markets are popular! I don’t know why that strikes me as funny in this affluent environment, but hey, reuse and recycle, right?
A wide variety of spice is available at the market.
Beaching it in Antibes
There are many beaches in and around Antibes, and although we only took advantage of the views of them and not a full on “beach day”, many people come to Antibes to enjoy a day on one of the many spectacular beaches.
Antibes sits at the end of the magnificent Nice’s Bay of Angels, at the point where the pebbled beaches end and soft white sand begins. This makes Antibes-Juan les Pins a very popular beach destination, and with that comes beach clubs, restaurants, and watersports.
Antibes beaches are almost entirely public, while Juan-les-Pins has some public beaches and quite a lot of fancy private beach clubs.
Cap d’Antibes can be pretty exclusive, and is known for its rocky coves that are only accessible if you're walking the route known as the Sentier Littoral around the coastline. It’s not really a realistic choice for a day of sunbathing and surf splashing..
If only passing through for a day, it seems best to stick with the “open beaches” of Antibes. Although they can get packed in the height of the summer, when we were there in May, they didn’t look too crowded. Here are the two most popular choices:
Plage de la Salis Beach encompasses a long stretch of white sandy beach, close to the town of Antibes. It gets pretty crowded, but it’s totally public, which can be rare in the French Riviera. It also has the added benefit of free public toilets on the far side of the Sailing Club building, as well as open-air showers on the edge of the water. And of course, it offers stunning views back over the Old Town and the Alps.
Plage du Ponteil Beach is the neighboring beach to Salis and is equally beautiful and equally free! It also boasts a promenade with shady trees and park benches and is the choice of locals when going to the beach. It can also get very crowded so go early if you want to get a spot if you are coming in the height of the season. Like Salis, there is access to the free public toilets on the far side of the Sailing Club building and some coin-operated toilets midway along the beach in the carpark, and showers on the edge of the water.
Antibes beaches feature soft sand instead of the usual stone beaches found nearby.
Museums of Antibes
Ok, so if you land in this beach town and are somehow not interested in the beach or the port, or just have extra time to spend, Antibes has some interesting - and somewhat unusual - museums. Here are a few:
The Picasso Museum contains one of the world's greatest Picasso collections, including 24 paintings, 44 drawings, 32 lithographs, and is housed in what used to be Chateau Grimaldi.
Naval Museum of Napoleon - If Napoleon is your interest, this one's for you. Housed in a 17th-century stone fort and tower, this museum presents a collection of Napoleonic memorabilia, paintings and naval models. There are also pieces of his clothing including one of his hats!
The Absinthe Museum is located in a basement in the Roman foundations of Old Antibes. It is dedicated to the manufacture and appreciation of the absinthe, an herbaceous green liquor which has a somewhat controversial reputation but also an enthusiastic following.
La Tour Museum is a small museum in the center of town that exhibits the contemporary history of Antibes through costumes, tools, photographs and other objects used by the local people.
A sculpture from the Picasso Museum on display in the port area.
How to get to Antibes
The breezy warm Mediterranean climate, the beautiful beaches, and the preponderance of pleasure boats gives Antibes the feeling of being an island - but of course, it isn’t! It’s a coastal town that is easily accessed by road and train.
Driving:. The drive to Antibes from St. Paul de Vence took about 30 minutes and was easy.
It is also about a 40-minute drive from Nice.
We parked in a very modern Q-Park garage close to Old Town. One of the most surprising aspects of driving through these small towns of the French Riviera is how generally easy parking was and how modern the facilities usually were. As these places tend to get a greater number of visitors than they were designed to accommodate, we really expected parking to be a nightmare but that really wasn’t the case.
Looking for info on driving in France? Check out our post: Tips for driving while visiting France
By Train: The Antibes station is right in the center of Old Town, offering connections to Nice, Cannes, Marseille, Grasse, St Raphael, Les Arcs, Milan, Ventimiglia, Paris and several other destinations.
There is also another railway station, at Juan-les-Pins.
The nearest airports are Nice Côte d'Azur Airport and Cannes Airport.
Walking from the port into the walled city of Antibes.
This post was researched and written by Debbie of the Empty Nest Explorers. You can learn more about the Empty Nest Explorers here
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Note - This blog post contains affiliate links. This means that if we recommend a product, activity, or hotel, we might receive a small commission if you buy or book from these links. This is done at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products we have personally used or have thoroughly researched.
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