Cannes travel guide, in your ear
The glamorous resort of the French Riviera, host of the Cannes Film Festival each May: a palm-lined seafront of grand hotels, a medieval old town on its hill, and two monastery islands lying offshore in the bay.
- 13 narrated stops
- ~39 minutes of stories
- 6 languages
- Offline ready
What is the Gingerguide Cannes tour?
Cannes has 13 narrated sights on Gingerguide's self-guided audio walking tour. Plan about a full day to walk them all. The app is free to download, every city has a free preview, and the tour works offline in six languages.
It is a self-guided audio walking tour of Cannes, France, inside the Gingerguide travel guide app. The tour maps 13 sights and tells the story of each one in a two to three minute narration with a lifelike AI voice. When the story is not enough, ask the built-in AI guide about the place and keep the conversation going. Everything is available in six languages and works fully offline after a one-time download.
Which audio guide app is best for Cannes?
It depends on the trip. For Cannes, Gingerguide gives you all 13 sights on one offline map, narrated in six languages, with an AI guide to ask. Other apps are better for a single human-narrated walk, for museum guides, or for driving. We compared the main options honestly, with sources.
About Cannes
Welcome to Cannes, the most glamorous name on the French Riviera, spread along a sunlit bay between the red hills of the Estérel and the open sea. For eleven days each May the eyes of the world turn here for the Cannes Film Festival, but there is far more to the town than its red carpet: a medieval old town on a hill, a palm-lined promenade of grand hotels, a working fishing port and two quiet monastery islands lying just offshore.
Cannes began as a fishing village clustered on the hill of Le Suquet, under the watch of the monks of the Lérins islands, who held this land from the Middle Ages. For centuries it was a modest place of boats and nets. Its fortunes changed in 1834, when a British lord, Henry Brougham, was stopped here by a cholera quarantine on the road to Nice, fell for the little town, and built a villa. Where he led, the aristocracy of Europe followed, and Cannes became a fashionable winter resort.
From that beginning grew the seafront town you see today. Along the bay runs the Croisette, a little over two kilometres of palms, beaches and Belle Époque hotels like the twin-domed Carlton, where the film stars stay each May. Behind it the Rue d'Antibes bustles with shops, and near the old port the Allées de la Liberté shade a flower market and a bandstand. Rising over it all is the great Palais des Festivals, the home of the film festival since the 1980s.
For all the glamour, the oldest and loveliest Cannes is up the hill. Climb the cobbled lanes of Le Suquet to the church and the museum in the monks' old castle, and from the watchtower the whole bay opens below you, the harbour, the Croisette and the islands beyond. Down at the old port, traditional wooden fishing boats still moor among the yachts, and ferries set out across the water to the Lérins.
Those islands are the perfect escape. Wooded Sainte-Marguerite holds the fortress where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned, his identity a mystery to this day; smaller Saint-Honorat has been home to monks for sixteen centuries, who to this day make wine from its vineyards. Between the film-star Cannes of the Croisette and the ancient calm of the islands, this one small bay holds more than its share of the Riviera's magic.
One day in Cannes
A simple way to walk the highlights, following the route order in the app. Swap anything; Cannes rewards detours.
Midday
Afternoon and evening
Have more than a day? Cannes in 2 days →
What to see in Cannes: all 13 stops
Every place below has its own narrated story in the app, and its own answers when you want more. Walk them in any order; the map shows what is around you.
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Palais des Festivals et des Congrès
The angular waterfront palace that hosts the Cannes Film Festival each May, with its famous red-carpet staircase and the star handprints of the Chemin des Étoiles set around it.
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Boulevard de la Croisette
The grand seafront promenade of Cannes, a little over two kilometres of palms, beaches and Belle Époque hotels curving along the bay from the Palais to the Pointe Croisette.
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Le Suquet
The old town of Cannes: a steep hill of narrow cobbled lanes and ochre houses above the old port, crowned by a medieval watchtower, where the fishing village began.
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Musée des Explorations du Monde (Musée de la Castre)
The museum in the medieval castle of the Lérins monks atop Le Suquet, holding world art and antiquities, with a square watchtower whose viewpoint takes in the whole Bay of Cannes.
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Notre-Dame-de-l'Espérance
The Gothic parish church crowning Le Suquet, begun in 1521 and built over more than a century, with a Renaissance porch, a square bell tower and a view over the old town.
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Marché Forville
The covered Provençal market at the foot of Le Suquet, built in 1929 to 1932, where the market gardeners and fishermen of the Cannes bay bring their produce and the day's catch.
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Le Vieux Port
The old harbour of Cannes below Le Suquet, where traditional wooden fishing boats moor among the yachts, and ferries set out across the bay to the Lérins islands.
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Île Sainte-Marguerite
The larger Lérins island off Cannes: pine and eucalyptus forest, the clifftop Fort Royal where the Man in the Iron Mask was held, and a museum of the sea in its old prison.
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Île Saint-Honorat
The smaller Lérins island, home to a working Cistercian monastery founded around AD 410, a fortified sea-tower monastery, and vineyards where the monks make their own wine.
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Allées de la Liberté
A plane-shaded square facing the old port, with a cast-iron 1880 bandstand, a statue of Lord Brougham, pétanque players, and a daily flower market under the trees.
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Carlton Cannes
The twin-domed Belle Époque grand hotel on the Croisette, opened in 1911 and a byword for film-festival glamour, reopened in 2023 after a full restoration as a Regent hotel.
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Villa Rothschild
A neo-classical villa built in 1881 for Baroness Betty de Rothschild, set in a large Mediterranean park on the La Croix-des-Gardes hill, now the city's public library and garden.
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Rue d'Antibes
The lively main shopping street of Cannes, running parallel to the Croisette through the town centre, lined with Belle Époque buildings and hundreds of shops from chains to local names.
Three things most visitors miss
Palais des Festivals et des Congrès
The present Palais opened at the end of 1982 and the Film Festival moved in for the 1983 edition; its blunt concrete shape earned it the local nickname of the Bunker.
Boulevard de la Croisette
The name Croisette comes from the Provençal crouseto, meaning little cross, after a small cross that once stood on the cape and was venerated by locals and by pilgrims bound for the Lérins islands.
Le Suquet
Le Suquet is the original site of Cannes, settled by a Ligurian people on a hill of about 66 metres; it was the fishermen's quarter long before the town became a resort.
Cannes tour: questions and answers
How many days do you need in Cannes?
To see Gingerguide's 13 narrated highlights of Cannes on foot, plan about a full day. The tour is self-guided, so you set the pace: cover the whole route in a day or spread it across a trip. Each sight has a two to three minute story, roughly 39 minutes of audio in total.
What are the top things to see in Cannes?
Gingerguide narrates 13 sights in Cannes, starting with Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Boulevard de la Croisette, Le Suquet, Musée des Explorations du Monde (Musée de la Castre). Each one has its own audio story on a live map, and you can ask the built-in AI guide anything the story leaves open.
Do I need a tour guide in Cannes?
Not a human one. Gingerguide covers Cannes with 13 narrated sights, so you get the stories a guide would tell, at your own pace and on your own route. And if a story leaves you with a question, you can ask the built-in AI guide and discuss the place right there, the way you would with a guide.
How many stops does the Cannes audio tour have?
The Cannes guide covers 13 sights. Each one has a researched story of roughly three minutes, about 39 minutes of listening in total. You choose the order and the pace; the tour is self-guided.
Does the Cannes tour work offline?
Yes. You can download Cannes in the app, audio, photos, and offline map tiles included. After the download, the full tour works without an internet connection.
Which languages does the Cannes guide support?
Every Cannes narration is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, and Chinese. You can switch the language in the app at any time.
Is the Cannes audio guide free?
The Gingerguide app is free to download, and Cannes includes a free preview: you can see all 13 sights on the map at no cost. A premium subscription unlocks the full stories, audio narration, and the offline download.
Hear Cannes tell its own story.
Preview all 13 Cannes stops free in the Gingerguide app.
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