Port Vauban Antibes: Inside the Largest Yacht Harbour

Stand on the ramparts of Fort Carré at 07:00 any morning in June and you'll see two entirely different worlds sharing the same rectangle of water. To the south, white-uniformed crew polish teak on 60-metre superyachts while tenders the size of your charter boat shuttle owners ashore. To the north, barefoot families load bags from Marché Provençal onto 12-metre Jeanneaus, kids trailing baguette crumbs along the pontoon. Same harbour, same Vauban-era stone walls, different universes.

Port Vauban is Europe's largest pleasure harbour. It is also the operational heart of the global superyacht industry. For anyone chartering on the French Riviera, it is the logical starting point: messy, expensive, occasionally chaotic, and genuinely useful.

The harbour by the numbers

Port Vauban covers 19 hectares of sheltered water inside a breakwater completed in its modern form during the 2014 reconstruction. The facility holds 1,642 berths: roughly 1,500 for yachts under 25 metres, and 74 dedicated superyacht berths handling vessels from 24 to 100 metres LOA. In peak season, another 100-plus boats raft or anchor in the outer road.

History: from fortress to floating city

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban fortified the harbour in 1680 under Louis XIV. For three centuries the stone bastions served military and fishing fleets. The modern marina dates to the 1960s, expanded repeatedly until the harbour operator Vauban 21, a public-private concession, undertook a €200-million redevelopment starting in 2012. The project replaced ageing pontoons, installed new services infrastructure, dredged to 4.5 metres in the superyacht basin, and added a 13,000 m² public esplanade. Works were largely completed by 2016, though smaller improvements continue.

Today Vauban 21 manages the port under a 30-year concession from the commune of Antibes Juan-les-Pins. The concession runs until 2032, with renewal discussions already underway.

Getting a berth

Between October and May, transient berths are generally available on arrival. Between June and September, book ahead. The harbour office responds to email within 48 hours during the season, though phoning (+33 4 92 91 60 00) is faster.

On approach, call Port Vauban on VHF Channel 9. You'll be directed to a pontoon and assigned a spot. Mooring is stern-to with lazy lines, standard Med mooring, with marineros on the quay to catch lines. Wind funnels from the northwest in the afternoons, which can make the final 50 metres interesting with a crosswind on the beam. Motor in slowly. The marineros have seen worse.

Services at the pontoon

• Electricity: 220V and 380V available at every pontoon. Metered separately.
• Water: included in the berth fee.
• Wi-Fi: free, functional for email, inadequate for streaming.
• Shower and WC blocks: access via card from the harbour office. Clean, recently renovated. Hot water 24 hours.
• Laundry: coin-operated machines at the Quai de la Grande Plaisance. €5 wash, €4 dry.
• Fuel: diesel and petrol dock inside the harbour, east side. Open 07:00–20:00 in season.
• Pump-out: at the fuel dock. Free for berth holders.

What it costs

Port Vauban is not cheap. It is, however, roughly 20% less expensive than Port Canto in Cannes and 40% less than the Vieux Port in Saint-Tropez during July and August. Approximate nightly rates for transient berths in 2024/2025 are below. Prices vary slightly year to year.

Electricity is metered at roughly €0.30/kWh. Running air conditioning on a 40-footer will add €15–25 per night. For a full week's comparison with other Riviera costs, see our honest budget breakdown.

The superyacht quay: Quai des Milliardaires

The south quay, officially Quai des Milliardaires, is where the scale shifts. Seventy-four berths accommodate vessels from 24 to 100 metres. Walk along here on a September afternoon during the Cannes Yachting Festival overflow period and you'll pass €50 million in hull value every hundred steps.

Antibes is the winter capital of the superyacht world. Between October and April, 300-plus superyachts sit in refit along the quays and at nearby yards. Antibes Yacht Services, the main refit facility, handles paint, mechanical, and interior work on yachts up to 65 metres. Monaco Marine and Villefranche Shipyard absorb the overflow.

The crew economy

An estimated 50% of the world's superyacht crew passes through Antibes annually. Agencies like YachtCrewLink, Crew4Yachts, and the long-running Dockwalk (now part of Boat International) maintain offices or representatives in the old town. The Stars 'n' Bars bar on Quai des États-Unis has been the unofficial crew hang-out since the 1990s, though it's become more tourist-oriented in recent years. For actual job networking, crew head to The Blue Lady on Rue Lacan or the more discreet agency offices on Avenue du 11 Novembre.

This crew economy is real and visible. Every chandlery, laundry service, and provisioning company in Antibes exists at least partly because of the superyacht fleet. When you buy a shackle at Accastillage Diffusion on Avenue de Verdun, you're shopping alongside bosuns from 70-metre motor yachts.

The charter quay: where your week starts

Most charter companies berth their fleets on the north side of Port Vauban, along Quai Henri Rambaud and the inner pontoons. Companies operating from Antibes include Dream Yacht Charter, Navigare, and several local operators. A typical 40-foot monohull, something like a Beneteau Oceanis 40.1 or Dufour 41, charters from roughly €2,200–3,800 per week in high season out of Antibes.

Provisioning

This is where Port Vauban pulls ahead of most Riviera harbours. Marché Provençal, the covered market on Cours Masséna, is a 10-minute walk from the north pontoons. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 06:00–13:00, daily in summer. Expect to spend €80–120 on enough fruit, cheese, olives, charcuterie, and bread for a few days. For bulk provisioning, Carrefour City on Boulevard d'Aguillon is 300 metres from the port gate. A full Intermarché supermarket sits 1.5 km north on Route de Grasse. Take a taxi or the free Envibus navette.

Ship chandlery is immediate. Accastillage Diffusion is 50 metres from the port office. Uship is on Avenue de la Libération. Both stock everything from flares to impellers, though prices run 10–15% above online.

Beyond the harbour: Antibes old town

Port Vauban sits inside the old town walls. Step through the port gate and you're on cobblestones, 200 metres from a Picasso museum.

The essentials

• Musée Picasso: housed in Château Grimaldi on the ramparts above the harbour. Picasso worked here in 1946; the museum holds 245 of his works. Entry €8. Closed Mondays.
• Cours Masséna: the market street. Mornings only. After the stalls close, the restaurants set tables where the crates were.
• Rue de la République: the main restaurant strip. Le Zinc on the corner does a €16 plat du jour that changes daily, solid brasserie cooking. Chez Lulu at number 5 does the best soupe de poissons in Antibes at €14. Avoid the places with laminated photo menus.
• Place Nationale: evening aperitif spot. A pastis at Café Clémenceau costs €5.50 and comes with olives.
• Plage de la Gravette: the small public beach 200 metres from the port, inside the old town walls. Sandy, shallow, free. Gets packed by 11:00 in July.
• Cap d'Antibes walk: the Sentier du Littoral runs around Cap d'Antibes, starting from Plage de la Garoupe. Allow 3 hours for the full circuit. Rocky paths, proper shoes advised.

For dining that justifies the postcode, Restaurant Le Figuier de Saint-Esprit on Rue Saint-Esprit holds a Michelin star. Tasting menu at €95. Book a week ahead in summer. For something less formal but equally good, La Taille de Guêpe on Rue des Palmiers does modern Provençal small plates at €35–45 per person with wine.

Port Vauban as a Riviera sailing base

If you're starting a week's charter along the Riviera, Antibes makes practical sense in ways that Cannes and Nice don't. Nice airport (NCE) is 20 minutes east by taxi (€35–45) or 30 minutes by bus line 250. Antibes SNCF station is a 10-minute walk from the harbour, with direct trains to Cannes (12 min, €3.10) and Nice (25 min, €5.30). Provisioning is walkable. Charter fleet density means you have choices if your first-pick boat has a problem.

From Port Vauban, the sailing options fan out in both directions. West toward Cannes is 10 NM to Port Canto. East to Villefranche-sur-Mer is 12 NM. Corsica lies 95 NM due south, an overnight passage that many crews tackle from here.

The trade-offs are real. Port Vauban is a working harbour, not a scenic village port. You won't get the romantic dinner-on-the-quay experience you'd find at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat or Villefranche. In July and August the harbour is noisy, tenders buzz past at all hours, and the water in the inner basin has that marina sheen. The nearest decent swimming is Plage de la Gravette or, better, once you've motored out past the breakwater.

Comparing with other Med bases

If you're weighing Antibes against other starting points, the maths look like this: a week at a Croatian marina like ACI Split will cost roughly 40% less in berthing fees. A comparable berth in Alimos, Athens runs about 50% less. But neither puts you 10 NM from the Îles de Lérins, 20 NM from Saint-Tropez, or within taxi range of the densest concentration of restaurants in the Mediterranean.

Practical notes: making it work

A few things they don't put in the brochure.

• Parking: if you're driving to the boat, the underground car park beneath Port Vauban charges €25/day in summer. Cheaper to park at the Intermarché lot, free for 2 hours, and taxi in.
• Security: the port is gated with card access after 22:00. Bike theft on the quays is common. Lock anything you leave on deck.
• Mistral: Port Vauban is sheltered from the Mistral (NW), but a strong easterly creates an uncomfortable surge in the outer berths. If a 25-knot east wind is forecast, request a berth on the inner pontoons.
• Handover timing: most Antibes charter handovers start at 17:00 Saturday. Plan to arrive by 15:00. You'll want time to provision at the market before it closes at 13:00 the following day, so hit Carrefour City on arrival evening.
• Crew tip: the free Envibus Line 1 runs from the port along the coast to Juan-les-Pins every 15 minutes. Useful for beach access without the walk back.

Port Vauban is not the prettiest harbour on the Riviera. Not the cheapest, the quietest, or the most romantic. It is the most functional: the place where superyacht captains, charter skippers, and day-sailors converge because the infrastructure works, the market is 10 minutes away, and the airport is 20 minutes behind you. You don't come here to admire the harbour. You come here to leave it, provisioned and ready, with 50 NM of the best coastline in Europe ahead.