Antibes

Currency budget France

Cards everywhere, including the market. Antibes is cheaper to sleep in than Cannes or Nice for the same coast, and the yacht crews have kept a run of ordinary-priced bars and cafés going around the port. Refuse the conversion when a terminal offers to charge you in your own currency.

ATMs & cards

Bank machines around the Place du Général-de-Gaulle and in the old town. Avoid the independent machines near the port and the Juan-les-Pins seafront that offer to convert.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety all of France

Calm and residential outside the summer. The thefts are the coastal kind: bags from the beach at Juan-les-Pins and the Plage de la Gravette, and cars broken into at beach car parks round the cape. The path itself is rocky and uneven, with drops to the sea and no shade — walk it in shoes, not sandals, and not at midday in high summer.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa France visa rules

Health & emergencies all of France

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

The covered Marché Provençal runs every morning in season and is the cheapest good lunch on this stretch of coast — socca, olives, cheese and fruit. Restaurants on the ramparts charge for the sea; the lanes behind the market do not. Biot, ten minutes inland, is the place for glass, not for lunch.

Nightlife

Two evenings five minutes apart: yacht-crew bars and old-town restaurants in Antibes, and a summer resort with jazz and clubs in Juan-les-Pins.

• Port Vauban — the bars along the quay where the yacht crews drink, and where English is the language at the bar
• the old town — restaurants and wine bars in the lanes behind the market
• the Pinède Gould — the pine grove where Jazz à Juan plays in July
• Juan-les-Pins — the summer clubs and beach bars along the seafront

Closing: Antibes around 01:00 to 02:00. Juan-les-Pins’ clubs run to about 05:00 in high summer and many close for the winter.

Getting around

• On foot — the old town, the port and the ramparts are all within ten minutes of each other
• Train — the coastal line to Nice in about twenty minutes and Cannes in about fifteen, from Antibes or Juan-les-Pins station
• Bus — round the Cap d’Antibes, and up to Biot and Valbonne
• Bicycle — the seafront path along the cape to Juan-les-Pins is flat and quick
• Airport: Nice Côte d’Azur (NCE), about 25 minutes by road

eSIM

A data eSIM for France, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:Works hereWorks hereRevolutIn the app

Must-see

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

French

• HelloBonjourbon-ZHOOR
• PleaseS'il vous plaîtseel voo PLEH
• Thank youMercimer-SEE
• Yes / NoOui / Nonwee / non

Open with bonjour before anything else. Launching straight into a question without it reads as rude, and explains a lot of reputed French coldness.

Religion

Catholic, and strictly secular

Laïcité is a constitutional principle: religion is kept out of public institutions, and conspicuous religious symbols are banned in state schools. Cover shoulders in cathedrals.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Say bonjour before anything else, every single time you enter a shop
• Keep your voice down in restaurants and on public transport
• Keep both hands visible on the table while eating, wrists on the edge
• Dress a notch smarter than you would at home — it changes how you are treated

Don't

• Do not ask for a doggy bag or substitutions; the dish arrives as the kitchen intends
• Do not start with English without at least attempting bonjour, parlez-vous anglais
• Do not tip more than rounding up — service is included by law
• Do not eat while walking; it reads as slightly uncivilised