Porquerolles

⚠️ Entry rules and local regulations change without notice. Before booking, check entry requirements and local rules — visas, access, nature reserves, visitor quotas — with the official authorities.

Porquerolles, the largest and best-known of the Îles d'Hyères, is a preserved jewel of the Var coastline. Largely protected as part of Port-Cros National Park, it offers fine sandy beaches with turquoise waters that rival the Caribbean — notably Plage Notre-Dame, considered one of the most beautiful in France. The island, reachable only by ferry from La Tour Fondue (20 min), is best explored by bike along its paths shaded by parasol pines and eucalyptus. At the heart of the island, AOC vineyards produce exceptional rosé wines. The village, with its century-old plane trees and colourful façades, feels like a Provence suspended out of time.

A protected island ten minutes from the mainland

Porquerolles is the largest of the three Îles d'Or off Hyères — seven kilometres by three, 12.5 km² — and it is an island the French state bought to save. In 1971 it acquired most of it to stop it being developed, and since 2012 it has been part of the Port-Cros National Park, Europe's first marine national park. The result is a place of pine forest, vineyards, eucalyptus and a single village around a square, with beaches of fine white sand and water that is, on a still day, as clear as anywhere in the Mediterranean.

The north coast holds the beaches — Notre-Dame, often ranked among the finest in Europe, the Plage d'Argent, the Courtade — sheltered and shallow; the south is cliffs and calanques with no safe swimming. Three vineyards make the island's rosé; the national botanical conservatory keeps ancient varieties of fig, olive and mulberry; and since 2018 the Fondation Carmignac has shown contemporary art in an underground villa with a glass ceiling of water, open April to October and visited barefoot.

The island is also a lesson in over-tourism handled. On the worst days of the 2010s it received more than 10,000 visitors; since 2021 a charter with the boat companies caps arrivals at 6,000 a day in high season, and the difference is visible.

May, June, September — and watch the fire risk

The beaches are at their best from June to September, and the island at its best in late May, June and September, when the water is warm and the boats are not full. July and August are regulated, hot and busy by midday; come on the first boat. ⚠️ On days of high fire danger — frequent in July and August — the interior trails and the forest are closed by prefectoral order and only the village and the nearest beaches remain open. Smoking is forbidden everywhere outside the village, all year.

Tour Fondue, then a bicycle

Boats leave the Tour Fondue at the tip of the Giens peninsula and take ten minutes, all year, every half hour or so in summer; seasonal services also run from Toulon, Le Lavandou and Cavalaire. Book online in July and August — the daily cap applies. Porquerolles is France: no formality, euro. Parking at the Tour Fondue is paid and fills by nine in summer; the shuttle from Hyères is the better option.

No visitor cars: hire a bike at the port — the island is flat on the north side and the beaches are 20–40 minutes' ride from the village — or walk. Stay overnight if you can: a handful of hotels and rentals, and the island after the last boat is another place. Eat the rosé of the three domaines, the fish at the port, and carry your rubbish back to the mainland: there are very few bins, by design.

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