BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide
The Estérel by boat: the red calanques of Agay and Cap Dramont
Renting a boat in Saint-Raphaël or Agay: porphyry-red inlets, the Île d'Or, Cap Dramont — the most colourful waters on the coast.
Blood-red cliffs plunging into emerald water: the Estérel seen from the sea looks like nothing else in France. This volcanic massif is best discovered from Saint-Raphaël, Agay or Mandelieu.
The red calanques run
From Saint-Raphaël harbour, head east: Cap Dramont and its signal station, the Île d'Or and its tower (the island behind Hergé's 'Black Island'), the perfectly sheltered bay of Agay, then the narrow red inlets of Anthéor and Le Trayas. Ten miles of pure scenery to Théoule.
Moorings
Agay bay (sand, 3-6 m) is the safe anchorage in almost any weather; the Trayas inlets are calm-sea-only, over rock — watch the anchor. The water is often the clearest on the coast: snorkelling around the Île d'Or rivals Port-Cros.
Which boat
The RIB rules here: coves come fast and the rocky bottoms demand agility (€250-450 per day). License-free works inside Agay bay. Saint-Raphaël, Agay and Mandelieu bracket the massif: compare all three.
The right hour
End of day: the porphyry ignites at sunset, and the run home with the Estérel ablaze in your wake is one of the images that stays. In an easterly, fall back towards Fréjus; in a mistral the Estérel shelters — it is the Cannes crowd's perfect plan B.