---
node: dest_cannes
type: destination
slug: cannes
title: "Cannes"
lead: "Cannes is the glamorous French Riviera resort best known for its May film festival and the palm-lined seafront of La Croisette. Beyond the red carpet it is a sunny Mediterranean town of beaches, yachts and an old hilltop quarter."
published: 2026-08-10
updated: 2026-08-10
image_file: cannes.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Croisette-Cannes-France.JPG"
image_author: "Gilbert Bochenek"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

Once a small fishing port, Cannes became a fashionable winter resort in the nineteenth century and is now a byword for Riviera glamour, its bay filled with yachts and its promenade with luxury hotels. For most of the year it is simply a pleasant seaside town with good beaches and a genuine old quarter above the port, busiest and most star-studded during the film festival each May. The islands offshore and the hill villages behind add quieter days to the resort.

## Highlights

La Croisette runs along the seafront past the grand hotels, the beaches and the festival hall with its handprints of the stars. The old town of Le Suquet climbs to a castle and church with a view over the bay, and the market and port fill the mornings. A short boat trip reaches the Lérins Islands, where Sainte-Marguerite keeps forests, coves and the fort of the Man in the Iron Mask.