BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide

Porquerolles and Port-Cros by boat: the Golden Islands, explained

Renting a boat in Hyères or Porquerolles for Notre-Dame, Plage d'Argent and Port-Cros: National Park rules, moorings and budget.

By Clément Lacaille, editor of Boat-Comparator · updated 7 Aug 2026

Notre-Dame beach, regularly ranked among Europe's finest, has no car park and no beach bar: it is earned by sea. That is the magic of the Golden Islands, a short hop from Hyères and the Giens peninsula.

Porquerolles: the perfect day

Twenty minutes across from Giens, and the north shore of Porquerolles unrolls its beaches: Notre-Dame, Plage d'Argent, Le Langoustier. Anchor on sand in 3-5 metres of turquoise, lunch in the village, swim till evening. The southern cliffs and coves are kept for mistral days (they are then in the lee).

Port-Cros: the sanctuary

Port-Cros is a marine National Park: mandatory mooring buoys in the main bays (Port-Man, La Palud), no fishing or spearfishing, and a buoyed underwater trail at La Palud — the finest snorkelling on the coast, groupers included. Buoys go fast in summer: arrive before 10 am.

The rules to know

Around both islands: speed-limited zones, anchoring banned on posidonia meadows (real fines), and jet-skis excluded from the park's core. Hyères operators hand out the zone map — keep it aboard.

Budget

License-free (fine for Porquerolles in fair weather): €110-220. RIB or motorboat to chain both islands: €250-500 per day, fuel extra. Hyères, Giens and Le Lavandou serve the same waters: compare all three bases, the spreads are real.

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