South of France with young adults

We could also stay in Juan Les Pins at Terenga hotel. ideally I think we would park ourselves in a central place near a good beach an. Please let me know if you are familiar with any of the 3 hotels or have other suggestions for our visit. Thanks so much!
Annette

you can go to the Casino with your kids,, they make you pay to enter and look around, so tacky, we did not bother.. its just fun to look at outside and enter into the foyer ( before the pay section). .. or better yet if there in the evening stand on stairs and stare at stupid eurorich who dump their money there,, I can suggest maybe visiting the Jacque Couteau museum and the palace though,, that would be fun. Don't need a car , you can get a train from Cannes ( where the sandy beaches are not Nice) to tons of places, we took a bus from Nice to Monaco for one euro each...

Thanks for the great suggestions Victoria! Annette

Smuggling is against the law, and the law dislikes being broken in Monaco just as much as it does in Big D. When you arrive at Monaco you will possibly be surprised at the number of uniformed police and guards that you will see, and there will be many officers not in uniform that you probably won't notice. But if they are called they are very close. Monaco likes to protect their residents and visitors - the crime rate there is extremely low. I, a regular visitor to the Principality, have never seen children turned away at the border so it unlikely smuggling will be needed. If you are talking about the Casino, they will have seen every possible dodge. If you want to participate in the action you need to give them your passport. I'm bowled over that an upright citizen of Dallas, or even of Texas, would even contemplate breaking a law. The beach at Villefranche sur Mer looks lovely from the train, especially after the hard pebbles of Nice, but when you get down to the beach let me assure you that you will need your beach shoes on because it is very large, very sharp gravel. It is most definitely not sand. There are two beaches that I can think of on Cap Ferrat which are both sand. They both are underwater some of the time but when they are exposed they are somewhat small but lovely and sandy. Both have refreshment stands. Do you require a "family" beach?

I kind of think she was just joking Nigel( about smuggling). I also think there isn't half the toplessness in south of France that there used to be.. in fact fewer and fewer young women were topless but the older and middleaged ladies were more likely to be topless.I think its a great idea for boys and young men that age to see what real boobies look like as opposed to the ones in Playboy.. let they see the saggy brown ones I say. lol !

Don't know the particular hotels but can tell you both areas are big beach, restaurant, happening places in the summer. With family in Roquebrun (RBCM), we are there every summer. When my boys were that age they spent many evenings out on te beach with other young people from all over Europe until late. Neither beach is sand. It's rare on te coast.

Thanks all. I really did think we could take he boys into a casino in Monte Carlo. My youngest son is 17. So normal protocol is to check passports on every person that enters? In other words would it be a bad idea or futile for the 5 of us to go to the casino together? We do not need a family beach. We do need an umbrella, lounge chairs, Place where water is accessible . Also prefer not to spend lots of time driving. All that said - does Roquebrun seem like a good choice? Do we need to worry about Congestion and traffic jams? Happy to hear that kids were off by themselves - mine would enjoy being in area with teens and twenty something's . So is the consensus to stick w VBQ , or Villefranche sur mer Or try and book in somewhere like St Tropez or Juan les Pins. Maybe I am over thinking this ( probably) but it is so rare for us to all get away together so I really want everyone to enjoy it and make the most of it. Thanks for your help!
Annette

St. Tropez is so crowded and I remember it more of a harbor with lots of boats, not necessarily a swimming beach (might be one there, but didn't see it). My favorite beach town is between Nice and St. Tropez and that is Ste. Maxime's. It's a medium size town with lots of restaurants, shopping, and a nice beach. They did have chairs and umbrellas, and from what I remember it is a sand beach. They also had a nice market.

That close to the beach the driving will be congested no matter what. It's a few minutes to get up to the ifferent corniche driving routes that go along the coast and a few more to get up to the autoroute. You are right next to the Carnoles train station in Roquebrun which will take you anywhere from Italy to Marseille, though it's mainly a commuter station for people going to work or shopping.

Hi Annette - If you choose to stay in Villefranche sur Mer, there is a nice public beach in Cap Ferrat as Nigel says. We spent an afternoon at Plage de Passable. We rented chairs and ordered snacks and beverages from the waiters and swam in the Med. My friend's three teenagers enjoyed it too. It was fun and relaxing and a very nice beach. It's mentioned in Rick's Provence book if you want more info.

Nigel and Grier are giving first hand info on te beaches. I never go to the beach for the day the way they do. To really decide, why don't you go to Google Earth and zero in on the settings. In Roquebrun, when you are in the flat area next to the water you'll have Cap Martin jutting out immediately to the west instead a wide vista.

In Monaco, in addition to the aquarium, I enjoyed the gardens and the Prince's car collection (they are emphatic that it's not a "car museum"). In general, I liked Monaco more, and the rest of the Riviera less, than most others seem to. The most appealing of the beach towns to me was Juan Les Pins, but I didn't actually go on the sand, so I don't know if it's any better than elsewhere in the area.