St. Tropez Recap!

We spent a week in beautiful St. Tropez. Here’s what we did, where we ate, where we stayed, and where we shopped!

Aug 15, 2025

After a five hour train ride from Paris, we got off in St. Raphaël and our rental car (which we arranged through our villa company, Le Collectionist) was there waiting for us. It was dark by this point and we then had a 45 minute drive to get to our villa.

When we woke up, this was our view!

Where did we stay? After a few busy days in Paris with the kids, we knew we would want the space to spread out and allow ourselves to feel more settled. We booked a rental home through Le Collectionist, a luxury vacation rental company that has properties all throughout Europe. Had it just been Brandon and me, we definitely would have gone the hotel route, but with five people, we would’ve needed to book two rooms which would have been more expensive than the house and much less convenient since all of our children are under 10.

I will be up front and share that this house was a big splurge but when I started researching accommodations, we thought we might share this trip with another family and so we were looking at bigger homes. I started worrying about renting a home in Europe from a random company, especially a home that was a little off the grid in an unfamiliar area — Would it feel safe? Would the photos accurately depict the condition of the house? I knew from years of day dreaming and browsing that Le Collectionist heavily vets each of their properties, so booking through them removed these worries. We actually had our travel advisor, Emily West, do the booking for us and it was wonderful to have her as a liaison to do all the communicating with them in preparation of the trip.

Our villa was technically in Grimaud, which looks across the harbor to St. Tropez. (In the photo above, St. Tropez is a little further left and not visible from this angle.) While Grimaud to St. Tropez is only a 7 mile drive, the traffic was very bad while we were there—it’s peak season and there’s really just one or two ways in/out. So some days, that 7 mile drive would take an hour each way! With three kids piled in the car, this got old pretty quickly... I’m not going to sugar coat that. The internal dilemma when trying to decide whether to put up with the traffic or stay back at the house was that we loved our villa and wanted to hang around and enjoy it, but also… we were in St. Tropez!! We could get a beautiful view anywhere, but this was our first time in the South of France and we wanted to explore the town. I feel like we balanced this pretty well. There were two days we didn’t go into St. Tropez at all, and instead opted to hang around the pool and visit closer villages. (Spoiler alert: those days ended up being our favorite parts of the week!)

We absolutely loved our house and I would recommend it totally! With the exception of the traffic getting into St. Tropez, everything about the house was perfect for us.

Where did we eat?

We ate breakfast at the villa each morning and about half of the lunches/dinners out. We did have a much busier food itinerary, but I ended up canceling 3 or 4 reservations and instead cooked at the house.

Les Moulins de Ramatuelle: The most beautiful and charming setting under the olive trees. We loved the cocktails but honestly hated the food. Not one of us liked our dish, but maybe it was an off night because our friends went the night before and absolutely loved the food!

L’Artichaut Barigoule: I know this is random, but this is a random sandwich and ice cream stand in the main square of St. Tropez where we ate hot dogs a couple times for lunch. While it wasn’t phenomenal, it definitely did the job. Here’s the thing… the sit down meals just take forever and we didn’t want to have two sit down meals daily (again, another “traveling with kids” thing) in addition to spending two hours in traffic (daily roundtrip). That said, this little spot was a life saver! We ate there for lunch a couple times while we were in St. Tropez proper. The hot dogs were served on french baguettes, not buns, and had a spicy dijon that I loved. (The kids just went with ketchup, don’t worry!) There’s no seating, so you get your sandwiches in a paper bag and can go sit on a bench nearby. They also have delicious ice cream!

Le Club 55: A classic! We had the most fun on Bastille Day here with our friends. It was very crowded (to be expected) and hot under their covered seating area, but this is the original St. Tropez beach club and is a must!

Cybele Ramatuelle: The most beautiful beach club we went to and the food was amazing! It’s also right on the beach, so you can rent a sun bed after and stay for a while!

Restaurant Saint Joseph: The best pizza we’ve maybe ever had!? This is in old town Grimaud, which is a must visit in itself.

We had reservations at Gigi, Indie Beach, and Lily of the Valley that we canceled in lieu of cooking at our villa, a decision that ended up creating the best moments of our trip!

What were the highlights and favorite activities?

We rented this boat one day with friends who happened to also be in St. Tropez. This was such a fun experience! We took an hour long boat ride to some of the most beautiful blue water I’ve ever seen.

Another day, we went to Grimaud’s Acrobatic Adventure Park because we wanted to do something special just for the kids — they LOVED it.

Another day we went into old town Grimaud and it was truly such a treat. They have a market on Thursday mornings that I’d definitely recommend… then go for pizza at Restaurant Saint Joseph!

We also enjoyed spending one free evening walking around Port Grimaud. I wouldn’t say it’s a “must-go” because this area was built in the 60s and doesn’t have that same authentic historic charm, but it was fun to see! Lots of little souvenir shops and bistros. This is also where I went to a pharmacie to pick up some beauty products—it wasn’t the biggest, but had enough of a selection for me to have some fun browsing!