One Day Out: Pampelonne, Cap Taillat and a Sunset Anchor Off the Old Port
This is the route we set up most for a single premium day on a motor yacht — Nouveau Port at 09:30, tenders in the water by mid-morning, and a sunset anchorage close enough to town that dinner ashore is a five-minute ride, not a production.
From the port outwards
- 01
09:30 — Depart Nouveau Port
Load-out and toy check happen quayside before lines are cast off. Leaving before the Gulf anchor field fills up (it's often packed by 10:00 in July and August) buys a cleaner run down toward Pampelonne and first pick of swim spots.
- 02
10:30 — Anchor off Pampelonne, tender to a beach club
Motor yachts typically hold around 500 m offshore here rather than crowding the sand. If Club 55 or Nikki Beach is on the plan, the table needs booking before departure — the tender landing is effectively your check-in. Otherwise this is open swimming and paddleboard time before lunch.
- 03
13:00 — Lunch on board, drift toward Cap Taillat
Rather than a second tender run, most guests take lunch at anchor and let the boat drift southwest. Cap Taillat and Baie de Briande have no road access, so the water stays clearer and quieter than anything closer to the Nouveau Port quay — worth the extra thirty minutes of passage.
- 04
15:30 — Swim stop at Baie de Briande
This is where the toy locker earns its space — seabobs, paddleboards, an inflatable if the crew has one rigged. No beach clubs, no other tenders jostling for the same stretch of sand, just open water and pine-backed shoreline. Good half-hour margin here before the return leg.
- 05
18:30 — Sunset anchor in the Gulf, tender ashore for dinner
Back into the Gulf of Saint-Tropez in 5–12 m of water off the town side, timed for the light rather than the crowd. Tender across to Quai Jean Jaurès for dinner at a waterfront trattoria in Saint-Tropez, or stay aboard for a slower, on-deck evening — both work equally well from this anchorage.
About Saint-Tropez
The Gulf anchor field off town sits in 5 to 12 metres and suits most motor yachts on a straightforward day out, with the tender running guests to Quai Jean Jaurès. Further south, Cap Taillat and Baie de Briande reward a sailing yacht or a fast day boat that can hold a tighter draft close to the rocks, while an offshore stop at Pampelonne is really a large-motor-yacht exercise, built around tender runs to a beach club rather than swimming off the swim platform. We size the vessel to the route rather than the other way round, so a catamaran booked for a quiet half-day in Briande isn't quietly swapped for a superyacht itinerary it was never built to run.
Multi-day plans usually mean an overnight in the Port Grimaud canal before a passage west, and that changes what the boat needs to offer beyond deck space. Sleeping cabins, not just guest numbers for a lunch cruise, get checked against the vessel at booking stage, since a boat that comfortably hosts twelve for an afternoon on the Gulf may sleep far fewer once bunks, not sun loungers, are the constraint. Departure point matters too — Nouveau Port berths are allocated well ahead of July and August, so vessels based there for a multi-day route are confirmed early, while a start from Sainte-Maxime or Port Grimaud itself can simplify the canal overnight considerably.
Season shapes both the route and the numbers on paper. In July and August the Gulf anchor field fills early, which pushes some charters toward Cap Taillat or an island passage instead of jostling for a mooring spot; June, September and October open up Baie de Briande and calmer runs toward the Îles d'Hyères without the same congestion. Fuel is the other variable worth stating plainly: a day spent anchored in the Gulf burns comparatively little, but an island leg toward Hyères adds roughly 60 to 80 kilometres to the run, and we brief the advance provision allowance (APA) and fuel estimate against the actual route booked, not a generic day-rate figure.