Where to rent a villa in Saint-Tropez: five areas, and who each one suits
Saint-Tropez is small, but the difference between one address and another is the difference between two holidays. After twenty-five years of placing guests on this peninsula, this is how we think about it.
Les Parcs de Saint-Tropez — The gated domain on the eastern edge of the village, with its own private beach and security at the gate. Estates here sit on large, mature grounds, and it is the only part of the peninsula where a property of that scale is still a few minutes from the port. Families who come back year after year tend to settle here.
Pampelonne — If the point of the trip is the beach clubs, stay within reach of them. Villas around Pampelonne trade a degree of seclusion for the ability to walk home after a long lunch rather than negotiate the Route des Plages in August.
Ramatuelle — Hillside, noticeably cooler after dark, with views running down over the vineyards to the bay. Twelve to twenty minutes from the village. This is where we send guests who want the peninsula without the crowd.
Gassin — The hilltop village behind the gulf, quieter still, and a favourite with families travelling with young children or in a larger group. You generally get more space here for the same budget.
La Croix-Valmer — The far side of the gulf, facing west towards the Îles d'Hyères. Long, uncrowded beaches and the best sunsets on this stretch of coast. Twenty-five minutes to Saint-Tropez, and worth it if quiet matters more to you than proximity.
What a week actually costs
Rates on the peninsula are quoted per week and move sharply with the calendar. The same house can differ by a factor of two between June and the first fortnight of August. Broadly, this is what the bands look like across our portfolio.
€14,000 – €25,000 per week. Four to five bedrooms, pool and garden, usually in Gassin, Ramatuelle or La Croix-Valmer, ten to twenty minutes from the village. In June or September this range buys a noticeably larger house than it does in August.
€25,000 – €50,000 per week. Six to eight bedrooms on larger grounds, often with staff, and either closer to the water or inside one of the domains. This is the range most of our returning guests book.
€50,000 – €90,000 per week. The estates: Les Parcs and the Pampelonne beachfront, full household staff, pool house, and in a handful of cases tennis or a padel court. These houses are let to a small number of families each season and are almost always reserved well ahead.
What is and is not included differs from house to house — staff, linen changes, the pool and garden service, sometimes a car. We set all of it out in writing before you commit to anything, so there is nothing to discover on arrival.
When to book, and why the house you want goes early
For July and the first two weeks of August, the better houses are usually gone six to nine months ahead. If your dates are fixed and the group is large, treat the autumn before as the moment to decide rather than the spring after.
Outside those weeks there is more room to move, and considerably more value. June and September give you warm sea, open restaurants and roughly half the traffic; May and October are quieter again and the village returns to something like its own pace. We have written a month-by-month account of what to expect: when to visit Saint-Tropez.
What comes with the house
A villa here is not a booking, it is a week that has to run smoothly. Every stay we arrange includes a contact who lives on the peninsula and answers the phone, which in high season is worth more than any list of amenities.
Around that we organise what the week needs: a private chef or a cook for a single dinner, daily housekeeping, a driver and airport transfers from Nice or Toulon, tables at the beach clubs on days when they are supposedly full, a boat with or without a skipper, a nanny, a masseuse, a tennis coach. Some houses come staffed; for the others we bring the people in. Tell us what the week should look like and we will put it together before you arrive.
The houses that are not on this page
A meaningful part of what we let is never advertised. Owners of the larger estates on this peninsula generally do not want their house on a public website, and several of the properties we place each season are known to a handful of agents at most.
So if nothing here is quite right, that is not the end of the list. Tell us the dates, the number of bedrooms and roughly where you want to be, and there is a fair chance we know a house that is not on this page. Send us the details and we will come back with two or three that fit.
Renting in Saint-Tropez: what guests ask us
How far in advance should we book?
For July and August, six to nine months. For June and September, three to four is usually comfortable. Late availability does appear — houses come back on the market when plans change — but it is not something to count on if your dates cannot move.
Which area should we choose for a first visit?
If it is your first time and you want to see what the fuss is about, stay close: Les Parcs or the Pampelonne side. If you have been before and remember the August traffic, go up the hill to Ramatuelle or Gassin. You lose ten minutes and gain a great deal of calm.
Is staff included?
It depends on the house. The larger estates generally come with their own team; smaller villas usually do not, and we arrange housekeeping, a chef or a driver separately. Either way you will know exactly what is included before you book.
Can we stay for less than a week?
In July and August, houses here let by the week, Saturday to Saturday. Outside those months shorter stays are often possible — it is worth asking rather than assuming.
Can you arrange a boat, a chef or a table at a beach club?
Yes, and this is the part of the job that twenty-five years on the peninsula actually buys you. Ask early for August; most of it can still be arranged late, but not all of it.
