La Bastide de Saint-Tropez – a vineyard turned private village

On a stretch of Route des Carles that was once an abandoned vineyard, La Bastide de Saint-Tropez has spent four decades being the opposite of the port: still, green, and deliberately hard to find. Four Provençal mas gather around a heated pool and a stone maison de maître, their shutters painted the particular blue of the Var, a few minutes' drive from Place des Lices and the beaches of Pampelonne. It is a family house rather than a resort, built by a couple who fell for the site in the mid-1980s, later taken on by a second hotel-owning family, and it has kept the intimacy of a private villa through every change of hands. The MICHELIN Guide selects it among its recommended addresses, describing its traditional elegance and calm, while Relais & Châteaux counts it among its members on the Riviera. With 26 rooms and suites, two restaurants under one chef, and a spa built around a French clean-beauty house, it rewards guests who come to Saint-Tropez for the garden, not just the gossip.

01The house

The story begins in 1985, when Janine and Boris-Serge Sidoroff, a couple from Chartres, came across a derelict vineyard a few minutes from the port and decided to build a hotel there. Architect by training, Serge Sidoroff designed the first building as a Provençal maison de maître, with a hall carried by an elaborate timber frame and a broad fireplace, and a south-facing glass veranda that caught the sun and sheltered the restaurant. The house opened to its first guests in May 1986, and three further mas were added around it over the years to house suites and apartments, each roofed in old tile and walled in honey-coloured stone.

In 2021 the property passed to Groupe Hôtel Par Collection, led by Gérard Pariente and his three sons, Gary, Grégory and David — a separate branch of the hotel-owning Pariente family behind Maisons Pariente, whose own properties include Crillon le Brave and Lou Pinet nearby. Interior designer Jessica Berguig was brought in to rework the rooms, stripping out the heavier 1980s marble and baroque furniture in favour of a softer, more contemporary Provence. The hotel remains a member of Relais & Châteaux, the only one carrying that badge in Saint-Tropez itself.

02Rooms and suites

The 26 rooms, suites and apartments are spread across the four mas and the main house, each with its own balcony, terrace or small private garden rather than a corridor view. Categories run from the Superior and Prestige rooms of around 21 to 24 square metres — the Prestige rooms on the first floor look straight down onto the pool — up through Junior Suites and Junior Suite Deluxe rooms of 24 to 33 square metres, to Suites of 37 to 50 square metres with a separate sitting room and sofa bed.

Insider tip

Open seasonally, late April to mid-October; member of Relais & Châteaux.

Bathrooms are finished in Carrara, Brazilian and Chinese marble, some newly laid and some left with the patina of age, paired in several rooms with a separate walk-in shower. Jessica Berguig's redesign leant into natural materials — raw rope detailing on sofas, washed wood, wicker — set against vanilla and ochre tones meant to echo southern light rather than compete with it. Every room carries Diptyque amenities, air conditioning, a safe, minibar and 24-hour room service on request, and the hotel can arrange a baby bed or extra bed for an additional charge.

03Where to eat

Both restaurants now answer to one kitchen, run by chef Luca Binaschi, who arrived from Lake Como by way of some of the coast's grander dining rooms — Cheval Blanc Courchevel under Yannick Alléno, La Réserve Ramatuelle, Les Airelles under Pierre Gagnaire, La Chèvre d'Or in Èze and two years leading the kitchen at Muse in Saint-Tropez. At Le Jardin de la Bastide, the house's gastronomic table, he presents a five- or seven-course tasting menu titled Essenza e Impronta, built around Mediterranean produce and served under the restaurant's glazed roof; it is open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday, from 7.30 to 9.30pm.

La Trattoria takes the more relaxed register, poolside from lunch through to dinner, built on fresh pasta, generous antipasti and the kind of northern Italian cooking Binaschi grew up with, served daily through the season from noon to 3pm and 7.30 to 10pm.

04The bar

Between the garden and the pool sits the hotel's Cocktail & Spirits Bar, open through the day rather than confined to the evening. The list runs to signature cocktails and reworked classics, a curated run of spirits and rare cigars, and a cellar of champagnes and fine wines for guests who would rather watch the light change over the garden than head into town.

05Spa and pool

The hotel's wellbeing space has been rebuilt as the Spa by Holidermie, in partnership with the French clean-beauty house founded by Mélanie Huynh, whose holistic approach favours personalised rituals using clean, antioxidant-led formulas over standardised treatments. A steam room and an outdoor fitness corner complete the offer.

At the centre of the garden, the heated pool — laid in Bali stone — is the hotel's real social hub, ringed by the mas and shaded by the mature planting that gives La Bastide its enclosed, almost domestic feel.

06The neighbourhood

La Bastide sits on Route des Carles, deliberately set back from the centre, between the village of Saint-Tropez and the legendary sweep of Pampelonne beach — close enough to reach Place des Lices and its boules players on foot, far enough to avoid the summer crush at the door. The hotel runs a shuttle service to the town centre, the beaches and parking, and keeps an electric bike for guests who prefer to make the trip themselves.

07Making the most of a stay

La Bastide keeps a strictly seasonal calendar: the 2026 season runs from 30 April to 10 October, after which the hotel takes what it calls a gentle winter break before reopening on 15 April 2027, with bookings for next season already open. Continental breakfast — buffet pastries, seasonal fruit, house-made yoghurts, pressed juices and a hot-dish counter — is served daily from 7.30 to 10.30am and included in the room rate.

An extra bed costs €130 a night and supervised parking €30 a night. For a quieter read of the house, the hotel itself points to September, when the crowds thin but the Mediterranean still holds its summer warmth.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.