With the classic French Riviera<\/a> heartland growing increasingly more crowded and overpriced, it’s worth looking further west to the Var coast\u2014past Saint-Tropez<\/a>, the Var\u2019s perennial poster child, which has since succumbed to the same afflictions\u2014to a stretch of coast where Riviera charm remains blithely intact. Though to understand the Var coast, you must first understand what it is not.<\/p>\n The main hub of the French Riviera, as most people conceive of it, is essentially a narrow strip of the Alpes-Maritimes that includes popular towns like Nice, Cannes and Antibes. It\u2019s compact, gleaming, and easily digested, with Nice\u2019s airport, France\u2019s third busiest, funneling in travelers from all over the world, while the Riviera railway, one of Europe\u2019s great scenic lines, stitches the coast together stop by stop. It is, in short, a machine built for tourism. The Var coast, by contrast, has no such infrastructure. Toulon has an airport, but with fewer international routes and that reliable railway that runs further east, abandons the coastline here, retreating inland.<\/p>\n Much of the Var also remains indifferent to the kind of glitz and glamour the east has perfected. It has no Monaco, a sovereign city-state conjured from pure ambition, where the Grand Prix tears through the streets. It has no Cannes Film Festival, with its fortnight of red carpet theater. Generally, fewer palace hotels. Fewer Michelin stars. Fewer superyachts (outside Saint-Tropez\u2019s summer circus, anyway).<\/p>\n But what the Var does have, in almost embarrassing abundance, is nature\u2014from the Port-Cros National Park, the rust-red ridges of the Est\u00e9rel, the silence of the Maures massif, the \u00celes d’Or, shimmering offshore in a sea of improbable blue, and vineyards spilling down to the coast, producing some of France\u2019s most underrated wine. Most of these are protected landscapes, and the tourism figures reflect that restraint. Here, you can soak in Riviera life without the performance, finding a quieter register that feels, somehow, more indulgent.<\/p>\n A beach along the Massif de l\u2019Esterel.<\/p>\n <\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n From a new wave of design-forward hotels, to no-frills seaside villages, wild nature, scenic islands and an art and culture scene that is having a moment, the Var is on the cusp of a moment of its own. It also happens to enjoy slightly warmer and sunnier weather than its eastern neighbors year-round, a function of its more sheltered position and some benevolent local microclimates. A small but persuasive bonus.<\/p>\n Pull up a chair at a port-side terrace in Bandol and order a glass while you wait for the ferry to cross\u2014the harbor town\u2019s small appellation has a disproportionately serious reputation, its Mourv\u00e8dre-driven reds unusually structured and age-worthy for the region. Seven minutes by private boat for hotel guests, or public ferry for daytime visitors, lies Zannier \u00cele de Bendor<\/a>, one of the most anticipated hotel openings in the South of France this summer, which arrived this month after five years of transformation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6a146cc0fe02bcc29894fdc4\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-482127918.jpg\"\/)
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