Where to stay in Marseille: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Everything in Marseille begins at the Vieux-Port. The rectangular harbour has been the city’s front door for 2,600 years, and it is still crammed with boats, ringed with café terraces and watched over by two stone forts at its mouth. The fish market sets up on the quay each morning, ferries leave for the Frioul islands and Château d’If, and La Canebière, the city’s famous main street, runs straight inland from the water.

Hotels line both sides of the port, and the best rooms have balconies facing the masts with Notre-Dame de la Garde on the skyline behind. There is a grand five-star above the harbour mouth, historic addresses on the quay and solid chains just behind. It is the obvious base for a first visit: central, lively and flat. It is busy at night, though, so ask for a room with good glazing.

Climb the steps on the north side of the port and you are in Le Panier, where Marseille was founded and where it still feels most like a village. The lanes are steep and narrow, hung with laundry and painted with murals, and they open onto small squares shaded by plane trees. The arcaded Vieille Charité sits at the top; the MuCEM and the cathedral are down by the water.

There are few hotels in the quarter itself, which is part of its charm. The grandest is a five-star in the former Hôtel-Dieu hospital, its terraces looking straight across the harbour to the basilica. Around the edges are newer design-led hotels and apartment-style stays, placed between the old lanes and the docks. Choose Le Panier for character and for having the port and the museums equally close.

North of Le Panier, the old commercial docks have been rebuilt into Marseille’s newest district. The 19th-century warehouses of Les Docks now hold shops and restaurants, the Terrasses du Port mall has a long terrace overlooking the ferries, and the MuCEM is a short walk along the waterfront. Rue de la République, a boulevard of handsome stone façades, links it all back to the Vieux-Port.

This is office territory in the week, which works in a visitor’s favour: hotels are modern, well equipped and often keenly priced at weekends. Some have sea-view balconies, one has an indoor pool, and the tram stops outside. It lacks the romance of the old port, but you can be there in ten minutes, and cruise and ferry passengers could not be better placed.

From the Vieux-Port, the Corniche Kennedy swings out along the coast, a road built for showing off the view. It passes the little city beach of Les Catalans, the tiny fishing inlet of Vallon des Auffes with its arched bridge, and a succession of belle-époque villas perched above the waves, with the Frioul islands and Château d’If always in sight.

The hotels here are some of the most appealing in the city. One is built into the rocks above the bay, another is a small hotel with a spa right on the beach at Les Catalans, a third is a quiet mansion in wooded grounds with a pool, and a fourth is Marseille’s most celebrated seafood address, with rooms above the sea. This is the pick for a romantic weekend. You will need the bus or a taxi for the centre.

South of the centre, the broad Avenue du Prado runs through Marseille’s smartest residential districts to the sea. Midway along is the Stade Vélodrome, home of Olympique de Marseille and a place of pilgrimage on match days; at the far end are the Prado beaches, a long run of sand and lawns, with the gardens of Parc Borély and the racecourse just behind.

It is a calmer, greener base than the port, and a good one for families: several hotels have outdoor pools and gardens, rooms are bigger, and the beaches are close. The metro runs up to the Vieux-Port from Castellane and the stadium. It also puts you on the right side of town for the Calanques, whose trailheads lie further south.

Marseille Saint-Charles station sits on a hill above the centre, and its monumental staircase is the classic first view of the city. The streets around it are plain and busy, but the location is hard to argue with: TGVs upstairs, the airport shuttle outside, the metro below, and La Canebière leading down to the Vieux-Port, which is under two kilometres away.

Hotels here are straightforward and good value, from a big-name chain opposite the station to a spa hotel and simpler places a few minutes’ walk away. It is the sensible choice for a one-night stop, an early train, or anyone planning day trips to Aix-en-Provence or along the coast. For atmosphere, walk downhill.

Cassis is what people imagine when they picture the Provençal coast. A crescent of pastel houses around a small fishing harbour, restaurants spilling onto the quay, terraced vineyards producing a crisp white wine, and the vast ochre bulk of Cap Canaille rising to the east. To the west begin the Calanques: narrow inlets of white rock and blue-green water, reached on foot or by boat from the port.

It is small, pretty and popular, so book ahead in summer. Hotels are mostly intimate: an Art Deco five-star on the rocks with pools above the sea, a beach hotel beside Plage du Bestouan, a central address with a rooftop terrace. Stay for a night or two after the city, or instead of it if peace matters more than museums. Marseille is around 20 km away.