Boulevard de la Croisette, Côte d'Azur
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Every grand hotel on the Croisette lives by the same arrangement: the hotel on one side of the boulevard, the beach on the other. Between them runs the most watched stretch of pavement on the Riviera, and the way to the sea goes straight across it. In Cannes, even a morning swim begins with a short walk in public.
That tells you what kind of place this is. Cannes likes an audience, and the Martinez is a hotel for people who do not mind having one. Behind its white Art Deco façade are 410 rooms and suites, an extraordinary number for a house that received France's official Palace distinction in 2026, the first in Cannes to do so. Its scale is part of its character, not something it can hide behind a marble desk.
Yet the boulevard falls away surprisingly fast once you step inside. Behind the public rooms lies L'Oasis, a garden of palms and greenery with a long, deep-blue heated pool, a Carita spa and a gym. Upstairs the bedrooms range from compact city-facing rooms to generous suites and terraces over the bay; the picture of the sea belongs to selected keys, not all 410. The garden offers another version of Cannes, without a crowd watching the entrance.
The day still invites the crossing. On the far side lies La Plage du Martinez, with striped loungers on the sand, lunch within sight of the water and a pier running out into the bay. From its far end the Croisette becomes a façade again, something to look back at rather than move through. The beach feels unmistakably part of the hotel, although the road between them never disappears.
Breakfast can be taken beside the greenery at Le Sud. Later the Martinez Bar brings back the glamour of the 1930s, and La Palme d'Or makes a more serious occasion of dinner, with the sea as its subject. At festival time the public rooms take on the pace of Cannes itself; on quieter days the pool and garden do a fine job of slowing it down. It is unusual to have both moods at the same address.
A hotel this large has its compromises. Arrivals can feel busy when an event or conference is under way, and a stay can accumulate extras, including a lounger on the beach. Not every room is spacious, and the pool is among the garden buildings rather than beside the waves. The boulevard crossing is real, as are the crowds of the film festival. Palace status does not make any of these things vanish.
In May, people stand behind barriers on the Croisette hoping to catch sight of someone passing through. Guests of the Martinez cross the same boulevard on the way to the sea and back. The pleasure is that, when the day has had enough of an audience, they can disappear into the garden on the other side.
Two names on the top floor
The seventh-floor Penthouse Apartments are dedicated to Isabelle Huppert and Thierry Frémaux.
At 36 m², this is the first of the sea-view categories and the only Premium room sold with a balcony, one of the columned Art Deco loggias that give the façade its rhythm. Inside, lacquered white furniture and sky-blue accents follow the palette used in every room of the house. The bathroom has either a bath or a rainfall shower, depending on the room.
The pool lies in the garden behind the public rooms, framed by the white wings of the hotel. Its blue is edged in gold, which explains the colour in the photographs. Sunbeds line a timber deck, and L'Oasis Bar serves cocktails and light meals beside the water. Pets, accepted at the beach restaurant across the road, are not allowed anywhere in L'Oasis.
The pontoon runs from the sand into the bay, with curtained daybeds at its far end and a gate lettered Hotel Martinez marking the way out. It is part of the beach club, which opens in the summer season. Behind it, the beach restaurant takes its design from the deck of a boat, in warm clay and deep blue.
The Martinez Bar is the work of Rémi Tessier, the designer also credited with La Palme d'Or, and it is the hotel's evening room: open only at night, and not every night of the week. Rare vinyl records and DJ sets set the tone, and the kitchen sends out food as well as cocktails, so a late dinner can be taken at the bar.
At a glance
Where
73 Boulevard de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes, facing the Mediterranean; about 1 km from the Palais des Festivals, 1.3 km from the Old Port, 1.6 km from Le Suquet and 3.4 km from the Lérins Islands; Nice Côte d'Azur Airport about 30 km, Cannes-Mandelieu airport about 8 km
Why this one
Pontoon and beach club.
Pool, spa and gym in L'Oasis.
City, garden or sea.
The Edit Notes
The Martinez sells three different outlooks under one roof, and the category name says which. The entry rooms of 24 m² face the city and sit on lower floors. The Deluxe rooms, 31 m², look down into the garden of L'Oasis. The sea begins with the Premium Sea View categories at 36 and 38 m², and among the suites the same split repeats: the 45 m² Junior Suite exists in a city-view and a sea-view version. The word worth paying for is 'Sea'.
L'Oasis is sheltered from the Croisette but not closed to Cannes. Its gym admits non-residents during the day, the spa sells treatment-and-lunch packages to outside guests, and an Oasis Club offers membership. The pool itself is modest, 20 by 5 metres and 1.35 m deep, heated through the year. The calm is real, but it is shared calm: the garden works as a club as well as a courtyard for the hotel's own guests.
The Oasis Suite and the Oasis Suite Terrace, of 43 and 41 m², sit at the heart of L'Oasis rather than above the bay. Each has a seating area in a winter garden; the Terrace version adds a private terrace of its own. Neither is sold with a sea view. They reverse the usual Croisette logic: instead of buying a picture of the water, the stay is planned around the garden, with the pool and the spa a few steps away.
La Plage du Martinez runs on two calendars. The beach club, with its sunbeds and pontoon, operates in the summer season; the restaurant on the sand keeps serving lunch into the autumn. Sunbed reservations are open to hotel guests only and strongly advised, and the hotel's own answers refer questions about rates to the hotel rather than presenting loungers as part of the room. An exterior lift gives step-free access from the boulevard to the sand.
The price question
The money buys a Croisette address with both halves of a Riviera day attached: a beach club with a pontoon across the road, and a garden with a heated pool and a Carita spa behind the lobby. It does not buy seclusion, a sea view by default or a beach presented as part of the rate. Pay for 'Sea' in the room name, or for an Oasis Suite, and book the sunbeds with the room.
Book it for a summer stay in Cannes that moves between the sand, the garden and the dining room, in a sea-view category or an Oasis Suite. Look elsewhere for a small house, a calm entrance during festivals and congresses, or a beach in winter.
Le Majestic Barrière
At 10 Boulevard de la Croisette, near the Palais des Festivals: 349 rooms including 80 suites, a heated outdoor pool and a private beach with the Ciro's restaurant.
Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel
At 58 La Croisette: opened in 1911 and reopened in 2023 after a renovation, with a private beach and the Carlton Beach Restaurant.
The Extra Edit
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