Villa with a Pool near Marseille

Planning a trip to Marseille? The perfect hideaway is less than an hour away on the French Riviera.

The villa-with-a-pool problem around Marseille

Marseille is hemmed in by protected coast. The Calanques National Park guards the shoreline to the south, which is wonderful for a hike and unhelpful if you want a private villa with a pool near the water. Add a city whose popularity has climbed every year, and summer rentals with a pool inside the metropolitan area are both rare and expensive. Plenty of holidays start here and quietly stall, caught between a city flat with no outdoor space and a country house too far from the sea.

Closer than the map makes it look

The Var coast around Toulon sits under an hour from Marseille, by road or by rail. By car it is about 65 kilometres on the A50, roughly fifty minutes outside the rush. By train it is quicker still: the fastest run is around forty-five minutes, and dozens leave every day from early morning to late evening, which makes a day in the city an easy decision and parking somebody else's problem. Marseille Provence, the region's main international airport, is an easy drive to the west, so guests flying in can be at the villa the same afternoon. You keep Marseille within reach, and you base yourself somewhere calmer, greener and far better value.

A day in Marseille, an evening by the pool

This is the rhythm guests fall into. Spend the day in the city: the Vieux-Port at breakfast, the steep lanes of Le Panier, the bold lines of the MuCEM, the long climb to Notre-Dame de la Garde for the view back over the rooftops, and a proper bouillabaisse before the train home. Then come back to the Var, to a quiet hillside and a pool that is yours, with the aperitif on the terrace as the heat lifts. The city gives you its energy for an afternoon, and the villa gives you the evening back.

The calanques, from the quieter side

The calanques are the real draw between Marseille and the Var, and you do not need to fight the city to reach them. Cassis is the natural gateway, and a morning at the Bestouan in Cassis puts you in clear water beneath the cliffs, steps from the most famous coves. Closer to the villa, the Var has calanques of its own: the Calanque de Port d'Alon, between Bandol and Saint-Cyr, gives you pines, white rock and green water without the queues. The same coastline, seen from the side most visitors miss.

Why the Var earns the stay

Once you are here, Marseille becomes the day trip rather than the base, and the reason is simple value. The same budget that buys a cramped city rental near Marseille buys space in the Var: a private, sea-view pool, room for six across three bedrooms, and a coast that runs from family sand to wild cove within half an hour. There are the beaches near Toulon for the mornings, day trips out to the islands and villages when you want to roam, the Bandol wine villages of La Cadiere-d'Azur and Le Castellet on the way back from the city, and a whole route of Provence and Bandol estates to taste your way through. Marseille for a day, the Var for the holiday.

Mauricette's Tip

Take the train into Marseille rather than the car. You skip the worst of the city traffic and the impossible parking, you can have a glass of wine with lunch, and you are back at the pool inside the hour. Keep the car for the slow days: the coves before eleven, the hilltop villages in the late afternoon, the long way home through the vines.

Make Villa Mauricette your base

Marseille within the hour, the calanques on both sides, and a sea-view pool to come home to. See the house and book direct for the best rate, up to 10% less than the platforms.

Explore nearby

The Bestouan in Cassis · Calanque de Port d'Alon · Day trips from Toulon