Want to Visit the S4 White Lotus Locations? Why Now May be the Best Time

The White Lotus is returning to European shores in the next series, due to air in spring 2027 with a cast including Laura Dern, Steve Coogan and Vincent Cassel. As a fan and francophile, the news that it will be set on the Côte d’Azur was heaven. My love affair with the area started in the 1980s when we had a family holiday in St-Tropez and the memories of that trip are hard-wired in my DNA.

The smell of eucalyptus, the bobbly pine forest broken up by honey-colored houses and terracotta spires, the clink of pétanque balls colliding and the scrunch as they skittered away across a sandy piste, my wonder at cassis-flavored ice cream and of course, the memory of buying the best bikini ever (candy striped, white ties at the side)…

Advertisement

You may say the sun-drenched snapshots in my mind’s eye differ vastly from the reality of the coastline these days – a stretch that is sometimes slammed for being overtouristed – but I still love it with a passion. However, with the so-called "White Lotus effect" having seen the program’s previous locations (Hawaiʻi, Sicily and Thailand) skyrocket in popularity by 425%, even I am advising caution on the Côte d’Azur next summer and fall.

There’s still time to enjoy the French Riviera before the clapperboards snap, and if you fancy set-jetting before The White Lotus season 4 hits our screens, I’ve prepared a guide.

What do we know about The White Lotus series 4?

Finding out about the show and its filming locations, cast and plotlines is harder than keeping Tanya McQuoid-Hunt alive past the second season. No one’s talking! Perhaps not surprising when you find out even the local tourist office has signed a 5-year gag agreement.  

I’ve discovered that Château de la Messardière, on a hill outside St-Tropez, will be transformed into the main hotel and renamed White Lotus du Cap. Having scoured Cannes’ seafront, I can also confirm that there’s a White Lotus Cannes logo above the door of the iconic Hôtel Martinez, and that there are signs up in its reception advising customers that some interiors are part of a "fragile movie set."

So that’s the two main White Lotus hotels on the Côte d’Azur sorted – when filming moves to Paris, it’s rumored to be taking place at the Mandarin Oriental Lutetia – and I also know that the plot centers on the Cannes Film Festival, but that’s all I can uncover with certainty.

Make like a White Lotus star

Advertisement

Even if details of season 4 are secret, you can still have an experience similar to the dysfunctional fictional characters we know and love – minus the murders, of course. After all, the Côte d’Azur is awash with glamorous hotels, nightspots and beaches. So, get your bikini and baseball cap, it’s time to make like White Lotus stars.

Antibes is a great choice instead of St-Tropez, for instance. It has more real-town charm, is around the corner from Cannes, and has an equally beautiful headland – or Cap, as the French say.  It’s home to the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, the hotel of choice for real-life movie stars seeking privacy during the film festival, and it has an equally glittering cultural heritage thanks to neighboring Juan-Les-Pins’ jazz festival.  

Where to stay in St-Tropez

Château de la Messardière is the main location for season 4 of The White Lotus. It’s owned by Airelles and has earned the better-than-five-star hotel rating the French call “Palace.” The 19th-century chateau is no stranger to lavish goings-on and was built as a wedding gift before being the location for many Gatsby-style parties in the 1920s.

If you can't stay at Chateau de la Messardière, try AREV St-Tropez. AREV – which means sunset in Hebrew and neatly translates to “a dream” in Franglais – is an easy walk to Pl des Lices and St-Tropez’s bars, restaurants and clubs. Designed to feel like a Provençal home, its honey buildings cluster around the longest and deepest pool in town.

I sat having a coffee under the 800-year-old olive tree in the garden. The waiter told me that The White Lotus cast members had stayed there during filming, and I immediately got carried away, scrutinizing my fellow guests for signs of fame. I peered over my dark glasses at a trio of American besties who’d just arrived. Their monochrome outfits and wide-brimmed sunhats twirled around and around as they snapped a million selfies before they’d even set foot inside. A great choice for those traveling this winter, AREV is one of the few hotels in St-Tropez to stay open all year round.

Where to stay in Cannes

Hôtel Martinez is the real deal when it comes to the Cannes Film Festival. Its interior is like an art deco cruise liner and its swirling staircase a popular paparazzi spot for movie stars all dressed up with somewhere to go. It plays host, in its Michelin-starred restaurant, La Palme d’Or, to the first dinner of the Cannes jury each year.

If you can’t stay in Hôtel Martinez, stay at Cap d’Antibes Beach Hote l. Much smaller, this 35-roomed hotel on the verdant headland between Juan-Les-Pins and Antibes reopened in 2022 after a renovation. Its interior is like a love letter to Mediterranean houses of the '50s, with white stucco interior walls, lacquered wood and lots of mirrors. Meanwhile, the vibey beach bar feels like you’ve landed in Palm Springs, with bubbling music, pink parasols and a tiled circular bar.

Where to eat in the Côte d’Azur

There’s a lot of in-hotel dining in The White Lotus. Guests emerge unrecognizable out of beach gear and the seething resentments of the day start to bubble over after a glass of fizz. It’s similar at The Strand, one of St-Tropez’s oldest restaurants which used to be in the center of town and has now been reborn, in bold primary colors, at the AREV St-Tropez hotel. I was obsessed with my fellow diners, but luckily a delicious plate of marinated seabass carpaccio with beetroot and apple arrived to drag me back to reality.

Book a table at Hôtel Martinez’s beach bar and restaurant in Cannes for lunch. It’s brimming with movie stars – or so the names on the back of the directors' chairs seem to suggest. I sat behind an alive-and-kicking Jean Cocteau and a burly Anne Hathaway while I chose to be Bette Midler for an hour or so. La Plage is right on the beach, just steps from rows of stripey loungers to which I staggered after steak-frites (steak and fries) and an unnecessary (but delicious) berry meringue.

At the beach with (or without) the stars

Pampelonne Bay is the long sandy beach which attracts guests from St-Tropez’s poshest hotels, thanks to its line-up of fancy beach clubs, and it’s rumored to play a part in season 4 of The White Lotus. Château de la Messardière ferries its guests to its beach club by Rolls Royce, doncha know. If you want a beach more accessible to town, and just as glamorous, try Plage de la Ponche, a tiny bay in the old town where Brigitte Bardot made her name in the 1956 film And God Created Woman.

Soak up some culture

Finally, if the thought of Cannes Film Festival is a bit showbiz, a chilled alternative is Jazz à Juan, the annual jazz festival under the pines on the seafront. It’s attracted the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone as well as more contemporary musicians like Gregory Porter, Jamie Cullen and even more recently, the mind-blowing voice of Samara Joy. And if five-star hotels are out of your budget, a small local hotel chain called La Villa has a four-star hotel with a pool and leafy garden just a street or two away from the stage.