Where to Stay in Marseille, the Rooms That Face the Sea
Our five favorite places to stay in and around Marseille, from a family hotel above the sea at the Anse de Maldormé to a former diving club at the end of the road in Les Goudes, and two addresses just outside of the city in Cassis.
A suite over the sea at Le Petit Nice. Photo: Le Petit Nice
In a seaside city like Marseille the best rooms face the water, and Marseille is a city where you want to stay by the sea. Three of the five addresses here are in the city, with the sea right outside of your window, a five-star hotel on the Anse de Maldormé, a 1930s hotel on the corniche, and a former diving club at the end of the road in Les Goudes. The other two are in Cassis, forty minutes away on the far side of the Calanques, for a stay that takes in the calanques and the vineyards as well as the city. These are the five worth knowing. For where to eat, drink, and shop around them, see our Marseille city guide.
Le Petit Nice
The top address in the city, on the Anse de Maldormé along the corniche, a family hotel since 1917, when Germain Passedat bought the villa and gave it its name. Today it has sixteen rooms and two villas above the water and a pool on the rocks, and it is the only Relais & Châteaux in Marseille, with a Michelin Key as well. Downstairs, Gérald Passedat, Germain’s grandson and the third generation in the kitchen, runs the restaurant, which has held three Michelin stars since 2008 and cooks around sixty species of Mediterranean fish over the year in a dining room that looks directly over the sea. There is a second, more casual restaurant on the site, Le 1917. For more on the restaurant, see The Best Restaurants to Book in Marseille.
A suite over the sea at Le Petit Nice. Photo: Le Petit Nice
Les Bords de Mer
A 1930s hotel on the Corniche Kennedy above the Plage des Catalans, reopened by the Fontenille group with nineteen rooms, every one of them facing the sea. There is a small rooftop pool looking out over the water, a heated indoor lap pool and a hammam below, and a seafood restaurant with a terrace over the waves. The rooftop bar is a good place for a drink even for those staying elsewhere.
A junior suite facing the sea at Les Bords de Mer. Photo: Les Bords de Mer
Tuba Club
At the entrance to Les Goudes, where the road out of Marseille nearly ends and the Calanques National Park begins, is a former diving club that reopened in 2020 as a small hotel. There are five cabin-style rooms above the restaurant, minimal in the way of Le Corbusier’s Cabanon, and three larger rooms in a villa above. Each room comes with a mask, snorkel and flippers instead of slippers, and the sea is only a ladder away. In high summer the tables on the rocks are kept for hotel guests. To read more about the rooms and the building’s past as a diving club, see A Look Inside Tuba Club.
Forty minutes from Marseille, on the far side of the Calanques, is an 1887 mansion on the cliff above the port of Cassis, with 45 rooms and suites, two heated infinity pools facing the sea, a Sisley spa, and gardens that step down to the water by a private staircase. The hotel opens from early April to the start of November. It is our favorite on this stretch of coast, and the perfect base for a trip that divides its days between the calanques, the vineyards and the city. For more on the rooms, the pools and the gardens, see our profile of Les Roches Blanches.
For a group, or a splurge, a nineteenth-century villa on a private estate of 150 acres below the cliffs of Cap Canaille, inside the Calanques National Park, with twelve bedrooms for up to 24 guests, a heated saltwater pool, and a private path down to the beach. A private chef will cook your meals with fresh, local produce from the market, and the calanques are a short drive away. It is the private house to know in Cassis. For more on the house and the estate, see our profile of Le Domaine de Canaille.
Le Domaine de Canaille from above. Photo: Le Domaine de Canaille
From the Anse de Maldormé to the cliffs of Cap Canaille, these are the five addresses worth knowing in and around Marseille.
You can find all of our recommendations in our Marseille city guide, from the city’s restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, bars, and shops to the day trips worth making just outside the city, as well as a private villa by the sea with interiors by the designer behind Tuba Club. Every address is pinned on a map.
