The 10 Best Beach Clubs on the Côte d'Azur (2026)

A plage privée is a concession, not a nightclub. An operator leases a strip of shoreline, puts out mattresses and parasols, runs a kitchen behind them and sells you the day. Some have been at it a long time. Rado opened on the Croisette in 1958 and still claims, credibly, to be the first private beach there. L'Esquinade has been a family beach at Pampelonne for more than forty years.

The ground changes as you move along the coast. Nice is pebble, which is why the mattress matters more than the view there. Pampelonne, the five kilometre bay south of Saint-Tropez, is fine pale sand. Cannes rakes its sand flat every morning. Prices move just as much. A lounger at Castel Plage in Nice starts at EUR 30. A double bed at Moorea on Pampelonne reaches EUR 150. Several of these beaches publish no rates at all, and we say so plainly where that is the case. Every price in this piece is one the beach itself publishes.

1. Castel Plage, Nice

Castel Plage takes the far eastern end of the Baie des Anges, at 8 Quai des Etats-Unis, under the wooded Colline du Chateau. The position is the point. It is the quietest corner of the city seafront and it sits out of the wind that runs along the Promenade des Anglais. This is Nice, so the beach is pebble, not sand. The kitchen is built around seafood and serves from 12:00 to 16:00, then again from 19:30 to 21:30. The beach itself runs daily from 09:00 to 18:00. A sunbed with parasol costs EUR 30 for a half day and EUR 35 for a full one. Towels are EUR 7. That is the cheapest and the clearest pricing on this list, which is why it opens it.

2. Carlton Beach Club, Cannes

The Carlton's own beach sits across the Croisette from the hotel at number 58. It is one of the most exposed positions in Cannes, looking straight out over the bay towards the red rock of the Esterel, and the club uses it, with a pontoon running out over the water to swim from. The pricing is unusually specific. Back rows are EUR 66 for a full day, the first row EUR 77, a place on the pontoon EUR 81, and from 15:00 rates start at EUR 38, which is the cheapest way onto this stretch of sand. The beach runs 10:00 to 18:00 daily. Lunch is 12:00 to 16:00, dinner 17:00 to 22:30. It closes 28 to 30 September 2026.

3. Moorea Plage, Ramatuelle

Moorea holds a stretch of the pale sand that runs the length of Pampelonne, and it is one of the more level-headed operations on a beach better known for the opposite. The water shelves gently and stays clear. There is boat access, so you can arrive from the water rather than the road. It suits families, and anyone who wants Pampelonne at a lower volume. Sunbeds are EUR 40 to EUR 60 a day depending on the row, parasols EUR 8, and a double bed runs EUR 100 to EUR 150. Open daily 10:00 to 21:00, kitchen 12:00 to 17:00, from 28 March to 4 October 2026. Publishing the whole grid rather than a from-price is rarer here than it should be.

4. Rado Plage, Cannes

Rado opened in 1958 and claims, credibly, to be the first private beach ever set up on the Croisette. It holds the sand between the Carlton and the Martinez, which is the most fought-over hundred metres of seafront in Cannes, and after more than sixty-five years it is still run with a family feel rather than a brand manager's. Come for the continuity, not the novelty. The beach opens daily from 10:00 to 21:00, with the kitchen serving from 12:00 to 20:00, which makes it one of the later closers on the Croisette. Rado publishes no sunbed rates. Prices are on request, so ask before you commit to a row.

5. Les Pecheurs, Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel

Les Pecheurs is the fine-dining restaurant of the Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel, a five-star Relais et Chateaux property on the Baie de la Garoupe, on the eastern side of Cap d'Antibes. What makes it unusual for this coast is that the hotel has its own stretch of real sand. The pairing is the draw: a day on the beach, then a serious dinner without moving. Sunbeds are EUR 40, or EUR 60 for the front row and the sensory basin, from June to September. The beach opens 14 April to 30 September 2026, daily 10:00 to 18:30. BABA, the beach restaurant, serves 12:00 to 16:00. Les Pecheurs serves 19:30 to 22:00. For that combination, EUR 40 is a low entry price.

6. Miramar Plage, Cannes

Miramar sits at the eastern end of the Croisette, on sand Cannes rakes flat every morning, with the Lerins islands low on the horizon and the Esterel going pink behind the bay at the end of the afternoon. The water is calm and shallow a good way out. What you are really paying for is the private pontoon: EUR 97 a day for a place on it in 2026. The other distinction is the hours. Miramar runs 10:00 to midnight and stays open all year. Dinner is served only from May to the end of September. From October to the end of April it operates during the day only. Useful if you are on the coast out of season.

7. La Plage du Martinez, Cannes

The Hotel Martinez's beach faces the hotel at 73 Boulevard de la Croisette, on one of the most photographed stretches of the Cannes seafront. The look is deliberately nautical, terracotta and navy, closer to a yacht deck than a nightclub. Water sports are the reason to pick it over the hotel beaches either side. The season is short and precise: 29 June to 31 August 2026, daily 09:00 to 18:00, at EUR 74 per sunbed per day. The restaurant serves lunch daily through the season and adds dinner from 1 July. It is closed 17 to 28 June and 18 to 27 September 2026. Check those dates before you build a trip around it.

8. Le Galet, Nice

Le Galet is named after the thing every visitor to Nice complains about, the pebble. It stands at 3 Promenade des Anglais, at the point where the Promenade meets the Quai des Etats-Unis, which makes it the closest private beach to the old town and the Cours Saleya. Location is the argument for it. You can walk off the market and be on a lounger a few minutes later. It is also open daily all year, roughly 09:30 to 22:30, which almost nothing else on this coast manages. Le Galet publishes no rates, so prices are on request. Ask when you book, and expect pebbles under the mattress.

9. L'Esquinade Plage, Ramatuelle

L'Esquinade has been on Chemin Garonne at Pampelonne for more than forty years, run as a family beach, and it is one of the few addresses on this sand that has not been rebuilt as a lifestyle brand. The offer is plain: mattresses on fine sand, lifeguard cover, showers and changing cabins. That is the appeal for anyone travelling with children, or with no appetite for a scene. It opens daily from 10:00 to 23:00, and regional listings put the season from early April to early October. No rates are published here either, so prices are on request. Given the neighbours, it is worth asking.

10. Chacha La Plage, Juan-les-Pins

Chacha holds a piece of the sandy town beach at Juan-les-Pins, on Boulevard Edouard Baudoin, close enough to the resort's bars that you can walk to dinner and back without moving the car. Rust-coloured parasols over the mattresses, a shaded terrace behind them. Tapas and cocktails run from morning to midnight, and so does the beach: 10:00 to 00:00, seven days a week. Sunbeds in the second and third lines are EUR 30 a day, the front row from EUR 40. That is the same entry price as Castel Plage, on sand instead of pebble, with a much longer day attached.

Before you go

Book ahead for July and August. The best rows go first and several of these beaches are small. Check season dates rather than assuming: Martinez runs only from 29 June to 31 August 2026, Les Pecheurs closes on 30 September and Moorea on 4 October, while Miramar and Le Galet stay open all year. Three of the ten publish no sunbed rates at all, so ask for a quote before you travel rather than on arrival. A direct message, by phone or WhatsApp where the beach lists one, usually gets an answer faster than a booking form.