For four days every March, Cannes becomes the working capital of the global real-estate industry. MIPIM — the international property market, run by RX (Reed Exhibitions) since 1990 — brings around 20,000 delegates from 90+ countries through the Palais des Festivals: sovereign wealth funds, REITs, developers and investment houses, the major banks, architects, planners and consultancies, the headline city delegations (London, Paris, New York, Berlin, Dubai, Singapore, Riyadh), and the political and policy figures who attend each year's keynote programme. Total visitor count across the wider hospitality programme — including the unaccredited investor meetings on the Croisette and along the Bay of Cannes — runs to around 26,000+ across the week.
The 2027 edition runs Tuesday 9 – Friday 12 March 2027 (dates confirmed by RX each autumn). The official conference and exhibition programme takes place inside the Palais des Festivals on the Croisette — the same building used for Cannes Film Festival in May, Cannes Lions in June, and MIPCOM in October. What makes MIPIM distinctive is the working character of the week: this is a transaction event, not a creative festival. The Bay of Cannes yacht hospitality programme is built around fifteen-to-forty-minute meeting slots — deals signed on the upper deck, investor breakfasts in the saloon, country and city delegations hosting receptions on the swim platform, brokers and advisors running their entire week from a single yacht-based desk.
The page below is built around how a charter client should actually approach the week: whether to charter a yacht as your private MIPIM meeting venue — in which case the yacht is your office, hotel, breakfast room, dining room and reception space across the four working days — or to use the yacht as a smaller team's accommodation and on-deck client-hosting space. March on the Riviera is cool but rarely cold, and the yacht runs an indoor-plus-covered-aft-deck programme that hotels cannot match.
Why charter a yacht for MIPIM
The first reason real-estate teams book yachts at MIPIM is the most practical one: the yacht is a private meeting venue inside the festival footprint. The Palais des Festivals exhibition halls run from 09:00 to 19:00 each day with the major country and city stands (London, Paris, Munich, Dubai, Riyadh, Singapore) hosting the headline panels and receptions; the Bay of Cannes yachts run the rest of the meeting schedule. Each MIPIM yacht typically hosts twenty to forty discrete meetings across the four working days — investor breakfasts at 08:00, broker meetings on the upper deck through the morning, sovereign and government delegation receptions across the afternoon, hosted dinners in the saloon, and pre-bid client conversations until late.
The second reason is Cannes capacity. The Croisette hotels — the Carlton, the Martinez, the Majestic, the Hotel Barrière Le Majestic, and the wider luxury and four-star stock — are typically at capacity for MIPIM week by the previous November, with rates running at three to four times the standard March rate. Suites at the headline hotels routinely price at €2,500–€5,000+ per night. For real-estate teams of any meaningful size hosting multiple parallel client streams, a yacht charter is the cost-competitive option: four to twelve cabins plus dedicated meeting and reception space, catering, and after-hours hosting capacity that a hotel cannot deliver as a single venue.
The third reason is what the yacht delivers as a working venue. The upper deck is your private boardroom — a venue you control with no overhearing from neighbouring tables, dedicated catering by your on-board chef, custom branding if needed, and the ability to switch between a 6-person investment-committee discussion and a 50-person hosted reception inside the same hour. For sovereigns, REITs, large developers, and the headline investment houses, this combination is the entire reason the yacht-hospitality programme has grown to dominate MIPIM week.
The fourth reason is the wider Riviera context. March is the opening edge of the French Riviera year — cooler weather, calm conditions for short anchorage stops, and a working yacht-charter market still in pre-season pricing mode for cruising. The same yacht can be booked across MIPIM + a quiet week of Riviera cruising immediately after — or repositioned to Monaco for Monaco E-Prix in late April / early May. Multi-week programmes built on a single yacht are increasingly common among the larger MIPIM delegations.
When to book your MIPIM charter
MIPIM is one of the tighter charter-booking weeks of the European calendar. Unlike Cannes Yachting Festival or Monaco Yacht Show in September — where shoulder-season pricing applies and the yacht itself is bookable later than the berth — MIPIM generates true event-week premium pricing, and the headline yachts in the Vieux Port row are committed twelve to fifteen months ahead.
Practical booking timeline for the 2027 conference week:
- Twelve to fifteen months out (late 2025 / early 2026 for the 2027 edition): The window in which the major real-estate teams, sovereigns, REITs, and city/country delegations commit the headline yachts — typically 30–55 metre motor yachts with the deck space, cabin count, and meeting infrastructure to host investor breakfasts and hosted dinners across the four working days. Boatcrowd's pre-MIPIM inventory in this segment is typically committed by the previous summer.
- Six to nine months out (June–October): The window for booking the mid-tier yachts — 25–35 metres, four-to-six cabins, the right size for advisor or developer teams of 8–20 people running their week from a single yacht-based desk. Vieux Port and Port Canto show-week berths should be locked in by this point too.
- Three to six months out (October–January): Last realistic window for the headline yachts. Premium pricing applies; remaining inventory tends to be smaller motor yachts (under 25 metres) and catamarans available on a weekly rate.
- Inside three months: By MIPIM standards, last-minute. Smaller yachts and overflow from cancellations are still occasionally available. Anchorage in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette is free and unrestricted; the yacht itself is the harder commitment.
Where to berth your yacht during MIPIM
The Bay of Cannes has the deepest concentration of yacht infrastructure on the French Riviera after Antibes. The two Croisette ports sit inside the conference footprint itself; everything else is a short cruise. Anchoring in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette is free and unrestricted across the year, including MIPIM week, which makes a yacht-based MIPIM visit considerably more flexible than the equivalent hotel-based one.
Vieux Port (Cannes Old Port) — the working-yacht row
The original Cannes harbour and the natural location for the headline MIPIM-hosting yachts. Vieux Port sits a five-minute walk from the Palais des Festivals — close enough that delegates can step off the yacht for a Palais meeting and return for the next one. The yachts moor stern-to along the quays at Quai Saint-Pierre and Quai Laubeuf. Inside-port berths during MIPIM week are the most valuable accommodation in Cannes — the country and city delegations, the sovereign and REIT clients, and the larger investment houses book these twelve to fifteen months ahead. Vieux Port handles yachts up to roughly 70 metres alongside on the outer quays.
Port Pierre Canto — superyacht segment
The newer marina at the eastern end of La Croisette, a fifteen-minute walk from Vieux Port and the Palais. Port Canto handles motor yachts to 95 metres on its outer pontoons and hosts the larger superyachts that won't fit Vieux Port. The eastern Croisette location is slightly further from the Palais but well-positioned for the headline hotels at the eastern end of La Croisette (Carlton, Martinez, Majestic).
Anchorage — Bay of Cannes / off La Croisette
The standard cost-efficient option during MIPIM. Anchor in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette (depths 8–25 metres, good holding) and tender into Quai Saint-Pierre at Vieux Port. Free of charge, unrestricted, and where the majority of mid-sized MIPIM-hosting yachts spend the week. Tender shuttle takes 5–10 minutes. March water is too cold for swimming but the anchorage itself is calm and sheltered.
Port Vauban — Antibes, French Riviera
The largest yacht marina on the French Riviera, 15 nautical miles east of Cannes. Port Vauban handles superyachts to 165 metres on its deep-water IYCA pontoon. The standard alternative when the Croisette is full — about a forty-minute cruise into the Bay of Cannes or a thirty-minute drive (closer to an hour during MIPIM traffic). Working real-estate teams using the yacht as their off-Croisette base often run Antibes-Cannes by tender each morning.
Port Gallice & Marina Baie des Anges — Juan-les-Pins, Cagnes-sur-Mer
Two practical smaller marinas between Cannes and Nice. Port Gallice in Juan-les-Pins is a 25-minute drive from La Croisette and handles yachts to 50 metres on its outer pontoon. Marina Baie des Anges in Villeneuve-Loubet handles up to 50 metres and is the closest substantial marina to Nice airport — relevant for clients flying delegates in across specific MIPIM days.
Beyond MIPIM: client tours and pre-season Riviera
The natural way to think about a MIPIM charter is as a four-day working-conference programme bookended by a weekend of light Riviera cruising and client hosting. The conference absorbs Tuesday-through-Friday daytime attention; the surrounding Saturdays and Sundays are calm anchorage stops, working-lunch venues, and a small set of the Côte d'Azur's year-round restaurants. The March weather window is consistently among the most reliable on the European Riviera — clear, dry, cool with daytime highs in the mid-teens, evenings cold but calm anchorage conditions.
- Lérins Islands — Sainte-Marguerite & Saint-Honorat. Fifteen minutes' cruise from the Croisette. In March the islands are quiet and the wooded paths walkable; Saint-Honorat (owned by the Cistercian monastery) runs its winter wine-tasting and lunch programme. The natural Saturday-of-MIPIM-week lunch venue for a small hosted delegation.
- Cap d'Antibes & the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc. A short cruise east of Cannes. The Eden-Roc itself is closed in March (the hotel runs an April-to-October season), but the Cap d'Antibes coastline is the most photogenic on the Riviera, and the nearby restaurants at La Garoupe and Cap d'Antibes village stay open year-round.
- Mougins, Saint-Paul-de-Vence & the inland villages. A 25-to-45 minute drive inland from Cannes — Mougins (Picasso country, year-round restaurant scene), Saint-Paul-de-Vence (the Maeght Foundation), and Vence (the Matisse Chapel). The MIPIM-week alternative when you want to take a client off the Croisette for an off-the-record afternoon.
- Monaco & Cap Ferrat. A short cruise east — useful as a Saturday or Sunday repositioning for clients combining MIPIM with a Monaco-based week. The Monte-Carlo Casino, the Hôtel de Paris bars, and the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat clifftop run year-round programmes.
- Italian Riviera — Sanremo & Portofino. Sanremo (90 minutes' cruise east of Cannes) and Portofino (six hours east) are both within reach as weekend repositions. Portofino's village restaurants run a winter programme with reduced hours; Sanremo's casino and Promenade dell'Imperatrice are at off-season levels.
- Saint-Tropez. Two-and-a-half hours west of Cannes — almost entirely closed in March (the village runs on a skeleton off-season programme), but practical as a quiet repositioning stop for clients running an extended Riviera charter into April.
The best places to dine during MIPIM
March on the Riviera is off-season for many of the headline Cannes-and-Cap-d'Antibes restaurants — the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, La Vague d'Or in Saint-Tropez, and the seasonal beach clubs are all closed. What remains are the year-round Cannes city restaurants, the Palais-adjacent working-lunch venues, and the headline Cannes hotel rooms (Martinez, Majestic, Carlton) that operate twelve months a year. The rooms below are the perennial MIPIM-week anchors. Reservations should be made at the time of charter booking.
The best bars during MIPIM
During MIPIM week, the Croisette hotel bars run as the standing neutral-ground meeting venues. Each major real-estate group effectively colonises one hotel for its delegation; the bars below are where the cross-firm meetings happen. Reservations help; arrival before 18:00 helps more.
Nightlife: where MIPIM ends up
The defining nightlife of MIPIM is not late-night nightclub culture but the hosted-dinner-and-reception calendar — the London Stand party, the Paris Stand reception, the Greater London Authority and Berlin Senate dinners, the major REIT and developer hosted evenings, and the country-pavilion programmes that run each evening through the four working days. The list below covers the standing late venues; the city-stand and host-pavilion programme rotates each year.
- Country & city stand receptions. The Palais des Festivals exhibition halls run a tightly-scheduled programme of country-delegation and city-stand parties each evening through MIPIM — London Stand, Paris Stand, Berlin Stand, Dubai Stand, Singapore Stand, Riyadh Stand, and the major real-estate-industry hosted events. These are largely invitation-only; charter clients running their own programme often appear on multiple guest lists through their advisory relationships.
- Bâoli Cannes. The defining Cannes nightclub — harbour-front, just east of Vieux Port. Runs at peak intensity during the headline industry weeks; the natural late stop after the Croisette hotel-bar circuit winds down around midnight. Tables work through the hotel concierge or your charter team.
- Yacht-hosted dinners. A meaningful share of MIPIM evening hospitality runs on the yachts themselves. Investor dinners on the upper deck, sovereign-fund hosted meetings in the saloon, and city-delegation receptions across the swim platform run from 19:00 onwards. Boatcrowd's clients hosting on the yacht typically arrange custom catering, branded décor and guest-list management through our concierge.
- Casino Croisette & Casino Barrière Le Croisette. The two Cannes casinos run year-round programmes — Casino Barrière's Salon Privé and the Casino Croisette gaming floors provide a late-evening alternative to the nightclub circuit. Dress codes are enforced; passport required for entry.
- Off-Croisette dinner programme. Many of the working MIPIM delegations prefer the off-Croisette restaurant scene (Mougins, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the Cap d'Antibes year-round rooms) over the Croisette hotel-dining-room circuit. Hosted client dinners regularly run at one of these inland or off-Croisette venues, with the yacht as the late-evening return for nightcaps and continued discussion.
How much does a MIPIM yacht charter cost?
MIPIM is a true event-premium week in the Cannes calendar, but two factors keep the premium below the summer event weeks (Lions, Film Festival, Monaco GP). First, the pre-season weather window means the yacht is delivering a working-meeting venue rather than a beach-club-and-pool hospitality experience — the rate premium reflects that. Second, the Riviera charter fleet is largely still in winter refit during March, so the available yacht pool is smaller and more concentrated around the year-round professional charter fleet. MIPIM-week rates typically run 1.5–2× the equivalent yacht's standard April-May early-season rate.
| Charter type | Yacht size | Typical rate range (March 2027) |
|---|---|---|
| MIPIM-week charter (March) | 25–35 m motor yacht | €80,000 – €220,000 / week |
| MIPIM-week charter (March) | 35–45 m motor yacht | €180,000 – €450,000 / week |
| MIPIM-week charter (March) | 45–60 m superyacht | €400,000 – €950,000 / week |
| MIPIM-week charter (March) | 60 m+ superyacht | €850,000 – €2,500,000+ / week |
| Day charter — Bay of Cannes | 20–35 m motor yacht | €10,000 – €30,000 / day |
What is included
Standard French Riviera charters include the yacht, full professional crew (captain, mate, chef, full stewardess and deck team), comprehensive insurance, and use of all on-board equipment and tenders. Most charters include the marina berth at the embarkation port; MIPIM-week Vieux Port or Port Canto berths are typically charged separately and command a significant premium over standard French Riviera March marina rates. Tender shuttle into Cannes from anchored or Antibes-based yachts is included as standard. Heating and indoor saloon dining setup are standard on year-round-operating yachts.
What is extra
Additional costs are APA (typically 30–35% of the charter rate during MIPIM — meeting catering, breakfast service, hosted-dinner spend), French VAT (20% on French-flagged charters in French waters), and a recommended crew gratuity of 10–15% paid at the end of the charter. Custom catering for hosted dinners and investor receptions, AV equipment hire, additional waitstaff, and branded décor are charged through APA or arranged separately depending on scale. Many MIPIM clients also arrange a dedicated AV rig for client presentations in the main saloon — discuss with us at the time of charter booking.
A note on multi-event Riviera programmes
MIPIM sits at the opening of the Riviera year. The same yacht is bookable across MIPIM + a quiet pre-season Riviera cruise in late March / early April, or repositioned for Monaco E-Prix in late April / early May. For longer Riviera programmes that include the major summer events (Cannes Film Festival, Monaco GP, Cannes Lions), some clients book MIPIM as part of a wider multi-event arrangement — the yacht stays on the French Riviera across the season, repositioning between events. Boatcrowd's brokerage team manages these programmes; the yacht is the constant, the events change.
Yachts available for MIPIM 2027 week
Frequently asked questions
When is MIPIM Cannes 2027?
MIPIM 2027 runs from Tuesday 9 March to Friday 12 March 2027 at the Palais des Festivals, Cannes (RX confirms exact dates each autumn). The exhibition opens Tuesday morning; the conference programme runs across all four days. The wider hosted-hospitality programme on the Croisette and the Bay of Cannes yachts typically begins on the Sunday before the official opening with arrivals receptions and the country-delegation pre-conference dinners.
Why do real-estate teams charter yachts for MIPIM specifically?
The yacht functions as a private meeting venue, hosted-dinner space, and accommodation block all in one. MIPIM is fundamentally a transaction event — teams need controllable, on-record-or-off-record meeting space for fifteen-to-forty-minute deal discussions, hosted breakfasts and dinners, and country-delegation receptions. Hotels are filled twelve months ahead and run at three-to-four-times standard March rates; the yacht delivers comparable cabin counts plus the meeting and hosting capacity hotels cannot match in a single venue.
When should I book a yacht for MIPIM?
For headline yachts (30–55 metres, Vieux Port berth, full meeting and AV setup), the booking window opens twelve to fifteen months ahead and the best inventory is usually committed by the previous summer. For mid-tier yachts (25–35 metres) the practical window is six to nine months ahead. Inside three months counts as last-minute for MIPIM, with availability limited to smaller motor yachts and overflow from cancellations. The MIPIM yacht-charter pool is smaller than the summer event weeks — the Riviera fleet is largely in winter refit during March — so early booking matters more.
Where do MIPIM-week yachts moor?
The headline MIPIM-hosting yachts moor stern-to along the quays at Vieux Port (Quai Saint-Pierre and Quai Laubeuf), a five-minute walk from the Palais des Festivals — this is the priority location for clients running an in-and-out meeting schedule with the conference floor. Larger superyachts moor at Port Pierre Canto at the eastern end of the Croisette. Many MIPIM yachts also anchor in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette (free, unrestricted) and tender into Vieux Port; working teams using the yacht as off-Croisette base often run from Port Vauban Antibes with daily tender shuttle.
How does MIPIM compare with Cannes Lions for yacht charter?
Both events occupy the same physical infrastructure — Palais des Festivals, the Croisette hotels, the Bay of Cannes yacht anchorage. MIPIM (mid-March, 4 days) is a transaction-focused event for the global real-estate industry; Cannes Lions (late June, 5 days) is a creative-and-brand-activation festival for the advertising industry. MIPIM yacht-hospitality skews toward private meetings and hosted dinners; Lions skews toward larger-scale brand activations and after-parties. Pricing during MIPIM is lower than Lions because of the pre-season weather and the smaller available charter pool.
What is the March weather like for a Cannes yacht charter?
March on the French Riviera is reliably dry, clear and cool. Average daytime highs run 14–17°C in Cannes; overnight lows 7–10°C. Sea temperature is 13–15°C — too cold for swimming. The Mistral is at its most active in early spring, but the Bay of Cannes itself is calm and well-sheltered. For yacht operations, this means the on-deck programme runs from the covered aft deck and saloon rather than the upper-deck swimming pool; heating, enclosed dining space, and AV infrastructure inside the saloon are what you check on yacht selection.
What's included in a MIPIM yacht charter?
Charters include the yacht, full professional crew (captain, mate, chef, full stewardess and deck team), insurance, and use of all onboard equipment and tenders. Additional costs are APA (typically 30–35% of the charter rate during MIPIM — covering breakfasts, hosted dinners, and meeting catering), 20% French VAT on French-flagged charters in French waters, Vieux Port or Port Canto MIPIM-week berthing where applicable, AV-rig hire for client presentations, and a recommended crew gratuity of 10–15% paid at the end of the charter.
Do you arrange hosted meetings, breakfasts and dinners on the yacht?
Yes — for MIPIM clients running a hosted programme, Boatcrowd coordinates custom catering with the on-board chef, additional waitstaff and bar staff for receptions, AV equipment hire for client presentations and investor briefings, branded signage where required, and guest-list and access management for hosted dinners. These are typically arranged through APA or charged separately depending on scale. Discuss your hosting and meeting requirements at the time of charter booking; most arrangements need two to three months' lead time.