4-Day Hyères Islands Sailing Itinerary: Porquerolles, Port-Cros & Le Levant

Before You Slip the Lines

Most crews sail this loop out of Hyères, Toulon or Le Lavandou, but the tidiest jumping-off point for the islands themselves is La Tour Fondue, the little ferry port at the tip of the Giens peninsula — it is barely 4 nm of open water from there to Porquerolles. Two things shape every day out here. The first is the Mistral: a cold, dry NW wind that funnels down the Rhône valley and arrives with little warning, routinely blowing 30–40 knots and sometimes over 50. It turns the pretty south-facing bays dangerous in an hour, so your anchorage choice is really a wind choice. The second is Posidonia — the protected seagrass that carpets much of the seabed here. Anchoring on it is both poor holding and illegal, with fines up to €150,000, so the DONIA app (which maps sand versus seagrass in real time) is effectively part of your ground tackle in these waters.

The third habit worth forming on day one: these bays are busy, and a boat that drags 30 m in Notre-Dame at peak season doesn't find open water — it finds a neighbour's topsides. Drop the hook, back down to set it, then start your anchor alarm before you dive in. Each anchorage below links to its full guide with a recommended alarm radius.

Day 1: La Tour Fondue → Plage Notre-Dame (4 nm)

A deliberately short first leg. Slip out of La Tour Fondue, cross the Petite Passe, and round the north-east coast of Porquerolles to Plage Notre-Dame, consistently rated among the most beautiful beaches in France: a kilometre of pristine white sand backed by pine forest, with water of an almost tropical clarity. It is also one of the few large bays on the islands with clean sand and no Posidonia in the main anchoring area, so holding is excellent in 3–7 m, and it is well sheltered from N through W — good Mistral cover from the island itself. Note the bay is open to the SE, and that mooring buoys operate here from June 15 to September 15, with no free anchoring inside the marked zone during that window. It gets genuinely crowded in July and August; arrive before 07:30 for a free spot. Free-swinging on clean sand, set the alarm radius around 80 m. The village of Porquerolles — with the best bakery and provisions on the islands, and the famous eucalyptus-lined bike paths — is a 2 nm hop west by sea.

Day 2: Porquerolles → Baie de Port-Man (9 nm)

Spend the morning on Porquerolles — hire bikes in the village, or anchor briefly off Plage d'Argent on the south-west coast for a lunchtime swim (good holding on sand patches, but keep it to daytime — it is open to the afternoon westerly). Then sail east across the Rade to Port-Cros, the oldest marine national park in France, established in 1963.

Baie de Port-Man on the north-east corner of Port-Cros is one of the most beautiful — and best-sheltered — bays in the whole French Mediterranean. It is a near-enclosed horseshoe of clean sand with excellent holding in 4–10 m and outstanding Mistral protection, which makes it the natural overnight anchorage of the trip. Eco-mooring buoys operate mid-June to mid-September; outside that window you anchor free on the sand. Two rules matter here: there is no anchoring year-round in the Port-Cros / Bagaud channel just to the west (one of the strictest no-anchor zones in France, patrolled daily), and the whole island is a no-fishing reserve. Free-swinging on sand, set the alarm radius around 80 m. Snorkel the bay before dinner — grouper, octopus and moray eels are all visible in the protected water.

Day 3: Port-Cros → La Palud → Le Levant (5 nm)

Almost a rest day. Before you leave Port-Cros, motor round to the south coast for a morning at Anse de la Palud, home to France's only marked underwater snorkelling trail (the Sentier Sous-Marin): a guided route at 5–10 m past Posidonia meadows and reef fish, with information boards on the seabed. Anchor on clean sand in 3–7 m — excellent holding — but treat this strictly as a daytime stop: the bay faces south and is fully exposed, so plan to be away by mid- afternoon before the sea breeze builds. Do not anchor over the marked trail.

A short hop east brings you to Anse du Bon Renaud on the north-west coast of Le Levant — the wildest and quietest of the three islands. Le Levant is a curiosity: its eastern end is a French Navy testing station (strictly prohibited — stay 500 m clear of the red buoys), while the western end is Héliopolis, one of Europe's oldest naturist villages, founded in 1931. The anchorage gives good Mistral shelter from the island and good holding in 4–8 m on sand patches — DONIA essential, as Posidonia is widespread — and is open to the SE. Fewer boats reach here than Porquerolles or Port-Cros, so it is a peaceful last night. Set the alarm radius around 80 m.

Day 4: Le Levant → La Tour Fondue (13 nm)

The longest leg of the trip, and an easy downwind or reaching sail back west along the north side of the islands. Leave in the morning to carry the calm before the afternoon breeze, and time it for your charter check-in. If you have an hour to spare, drop the hook for a farewell swim at Grand Langoustier at the wild western tip of Porquerolles — magnificent rock formations, a restored 16th-century tower, and far fewer boats than Notre-Dame — before the final short crossing back to La Tour Fondue. Four days, roughly 30 nm, three islands, and (if the alarm stayed quiet) four full nights of sleep.

Variations: 3 Days or 7 Days

• 3-day weekend: La Tour Fondue → Plage Notre-Dame (overnight) → Baie de Port-Man (overnight) → back to La Tour Fondue. Drop Le Levant entirely — it is the easternmost and most out-of-the-way island — and you have a relaxed ~25 nm round trip that still takes in the two headline bays.
• 7-day loop: add nights on the Giens peninsula anchorages at the start, work in the small south-coast Calanque de Port-Fay and the quieter Anse des Salettes on the east of Port-Cros as settled-weather day stops, and give Porquerolles a full day for the vineyards and the Fort du Grand Langoustier. In a stable forecast you could also day-sail down to the mainland Calanques near Cassis — but only with the Mistral firmly out of the picture.

Why an Anchor Alarm Matters on This Route

The Hyères Islands look benign — turquoise water, short hops, sand bottoms — but they have two teeth. The first is crowding: Notre-Dame and Port-Man pack hundreds of boats into a single bay in August, and once boats are swinging a couple of lengths apart, an anchor that felt set at sunset dragging at 2 a.m. is a collision, not an inconvenience. The second is the Mistral, which can come up overnight and turn a calm bay into a lee shore in the time it takes to boil a kettle. This is exactly the situation a GPS anchor alarm is built for: it watches your position all night, even with the phone locked, and wakes you the moment you leave your safe radius — while the problem is still a winch job, not a fender drill.

Radius matters as much as the alarm itself: too tight and GPS drift gives you false alarms, too loose and you are alongside a neighbour before it fires. Work it out from your scope with our anchor scope calculator, and read how GPS accuracy affects anchor alarms to tune it. Every anchorage page linked above carries its own recommended radius.

The Bottom Line

The Îles d'Hyères are the French Mediterranean at its most generous: short, easy legs; water that looks tropical; a genuine national park; and a different anchorage character every night — busy and glamorous at Porquerolles, wild and protected at Port-Cros, quiet and curious at Le Levant. Sail the mornings, respect the Mistral and the Posidonia, keep the DONIA app open, and run your anchor alarm every night. The rest is swimming, snorkelling and pine-shaded lunches ashore.