Juan-les-Pins Beaches
Côte d'Azur, France

 

 

One of Juan-les-Pins' many beaches, this one in front of the superb Les Pirates restaurant.
Lunch with your feet in the sand!

The Juan-Les-Pins and Antibes area (the former is embedded inside the latter) has been a sun, sand and sea destination since the 1920's, much favoured by the likes of Picasso, F Scott Fitzgerald and Coco Chanel.
These days the beaches are overstuffed with pay-loungers and restaurants expanding seawards but, nevertheless, the sand is still soft and white, the sea is azure in the right season and space can always be found for a warm body. But isolated it is not, nor is it low cost.
This is fundamentally a pricey place to eat, drink and be merry - day and night (more especially at night), not the spot to bring the family for a picnic on the beach, Cannes' sandy west side or Nice's stony beaches are more spacious and child-friendly.

 

Cap d'Antibes, the notoriously exclusive Antibes peninsula. The town and beaches of of Antibes are out of the picture to the right, Juan-les-Pins beaches are visible in the centre and Vallauris marina is on the left.
Cannes is further to the left, out of the photo.

 

Typical Juan-Les-Pins habitués in their natural environment

The urban part of Juan-Les-Pins consists mainly of tree-lined, apartment-packed streets that offers the tourist almost nothing to see or do, whereas greater Antibes encompasses both the not-very-interesting walled old town, the famously expensive and lush Cap d'Antibes peninsula (which has a terrific 1/2 hour coastal walk)and quite a few kid-friendly amusements such as Marineland theme park, the most popular kid's attraction on the Côte d'Azur. Museums include a Picasso, a Naval, a Napoleon and best of all an Absinthe Museum.

 

 

Juan-Les-Pins apartment life will be no more tranquil in the summer season than the beach life, though out of season things go dead pretty quickly.

 

A distant view of the joys of Juan-Les-Pins.

 

 

Getting there
Rail: Both Antibes and Juan les Pins have train stations on the main Nice-Cannes railway line. Trains from Nice to Juans-les-Pins take less than half an hour and run frequently. ie. two or three per hour.
Road: Take the A8 and exit at the Antibes exit (junction 44) and then taking the winding road down to Antibes. It is possible to approach Antibes along the coastal roads (RN98 and RN7) from Cannes and Nice/Cagnes sur Mer. In the summer all these roads will be a drop-dead crawl as thousands of puzzled tourists and maddened French delivery people try to find parking spaces, so go early or very late.
Bus:
There is a regular Côte d'Azur bus service (# 200) from Cannes to Nice via Antibes' Place Charles de Gaulle. Buses also go to Nice Airport, Cagnes-sur-Mer and to Cap 3000, a large shopping centre between Nice airport and Cagnes-sur-Mer.

 

 

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Other Côte d'Azur beaches: St Tropez | Cannes | Menton | Nice