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Quiet coast, real volleyball
Photo: Baptiste Rossi, public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Sample trip

Quiet coast, real volleyball

Five days on the Var coast built around free public beach volleyball courts and a local club session, with a small chambre d'hôtes as your base.

5 days, 4 nightsFor 6 friendsBoutique guesthousesLocal & casual dining
Bormes-les-MimosasBormes-les-MimosasHyèresHyèresCollobrièresCollobrières
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The Var coast has one of the best-kept secrets in French beach volleyball: free public courts on the sand at Hyères, and a local club that welcomes visitors to its evening sessions. This week plays there, then shows you the rest of the coast: the flowered medieval lanes of Bormes-les-Mimosas, chestnut forests and a village lunch in Collobrières, the salt flats and the Tour Fondue on the Giens peninsula. The six of you sleep in two small guesthouses in the hills above Bormes, and every table is chosen for one dish worth the trip.

Settling in above Bormes-les-Mimosas

Day1

Where you're staying: four of you

Villa Nais, a family-run maison d'hôtes since 1993, three hectares in the hills above Bormes, pool, pétanque, tennis court, small outdoor gym, and a lockable bike-reception area.

  • Four of the six friends stay here
Villa Nais above Bormes
The house
The garden
A room
A terrace

Photos: villanais.com

Where you're staying: the other two

Le Mas de la Tuilière: a single stand-alone stone suite on a private mas, run directly by owners Katia and Francis Di Donna, own kitchenette, terrace, garden.

  • Not on the booking sites: we book it direct with the owners
  • Rated 4.8/5
  • Two friends stay here, a short drive from Villa Naïs
The gate to the mas
The property
The room and its bathroom

Photos: mastuiliere.com

Or all six together, in a hotel

Hôtel Le Mirage, a 4-star hotel in a Mediterranean garden just below the village, looking out over the sea to the Îles d'Or. We stayed here ourselves at the start of August 2026: calm, beautifully kept, and one of the nicest hotels we know on this coast.

  • The pool is the place to be in the middle of the day, quieter than any beach, with a pool bar bringing drinks and food and genuinely warm service
  • A small wooden gym, modern and properly equipped, rarely busy, and a newly renovated spa with hammam
  • 35 rooms: the classic rooms in the main building are spot on, the new garden rooms with big windows full of light are a step up again
  • A good breakfast, crêpes included. Dinner at Le Balcon, on the terrace from 7 pm, is Michelin-level cooking in fine-dining portions: a special evening rather than every night
  • Our tip from August: beach before 10 am or after 6 pm, pool in between
The pool at sunset
The terrace, with Bormes and the bay below
The restaurant terrace under the palms
The hotel at dusk
The gym

Photos: our own photos, 2026

The name is newer than the village

“-les-Mimosas” was only added to Bormes' name in 1968, over a century after Australian mimosa trees were first planted here and took over the hillsides every winter. The village itself dates to the 12th century.

Today

A deliberate soft-landing day, no sport.

  • Use Villa Naïs's pool, then walk the medieval village of Bormes itself: steep cobbled lanes, the Chapel of Saint-François-de-Paule, and a viewpoint over the Îles d'Or

Late afternoon

Or trade the pool for the sea at Plage de Jean Blanc, a small cove backed by pines on the coast road towards Le Rayol, about 20 minutes' drive: clear, calm water and a short path down from the road.

The cove, clear water and pines
Looking down on the bay from the path

Photos: our own photos

Dinner

Le Provençal, in the old village: moules à la crème and a properly generous aïoli provençal.

Flagship day

Palmeraie courts, Hyères: free play, then the local club

Day2

Day 2

The sport

25 minutes to Hyères and the Palmeraie courts: free play in the afternoon, the local club in the evening.

  • The Terrains de la Palmeraie are Hyères' official public beach volleyball courts: free, no booking, on Boulevard du Front de Mer between L'Ayguade and Les Salins
  • Spend the early afternoon on your own pickup games

Then, 18:00–19:30, join the Volley Club Hyères Pierrefeu La Londe "Beach Volley loisirs adultes" session, the Tuesday mixed beginner slot with the club's coach, at the same courts.

  • The club runs these from mid-September through the season; newcomers call ahead to register
  • Playing an actual session alongside local club members, not just having a beach pointed out to you
A pickup game on a public beach court (illustrative)
A free beach court by the sea (illustrative)

Photos: Wikimedia Commons (NorbertNagel, rene boulay; CC BY-SA). Illustrative: public beach courts like the Palmeraie, not Hyères itself

Lunch

Lunch at Le Ceinturon, L'Ayguade, a few minutes' walk from the courts.

Dinner

Dinner at Restaurant Le Progrès, Place Gambetta, Bormes: home-style Provençal cooking.

Le Progres, Bormes-les-Mimosas
At Le Progres
A dish

Photos: restaurant-leprogres.com

Chestnut forests & a village lunch in Collobrières

Day3

Today

A deliberate change of muscle group after volleyball.

  • Happy Bikes delivers electric bikes (Cube, XS–L, helmet and lock included) directly to the guesthouses
  • From Collobrières, an easier out-and-back on quiet paved backroads through the chestnut forest toward the Chartreuse de la Verne, turning back before the technical single-track begins, with e-assist doing the work on the climb

Lunch

Lunch at Hôtel des Maures, Collobrières: daube de sanglier aux châtaignes, the dish to order.

Dinner

Dinner at Au Fil de l'Eau, old Hyères: stone vaults, market-driven French-Mediterranean cooking.

Salt flats, the Tour Fondue & one more match on the sand

Day4

Today

30 minutes to the Presqu'île de Giens, the double sand spit linking Giens to the mainland, the Tour Fondue at its tip, an easy stretch of the coastal path along the salt flats.

  • Midday, a second free-play session back at the Palmeraie courts for those wanting more sand time

Dinner

Le Jardin, old Bormes village: the trip's one special-occasion table.

  • Chef Riccardo Berto, ranked #1 of 91 restaurants in Bormes on Tripadvisor
  • 3-course Provence menu, €58

Îles d'Or

The islands visible from the village viewpoint are nicknamed the “Golden Islands,” for the way their mica-schist rock catches the light at sunset.

Old Hyères & departure

Day5

This morning

A slow final morning, no sport scheduled.

  • Check out, then a short walk through old Hyères before the airport

Lunch

Lunch at La Petite Galinette: a blackboard menu, andouillette à la ficelle and homemade fries, 9.3/10 on TheFork.

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