Departure time matters more than the route
One hundred and five kilometres, ninety minutes: that is an ordinary day, the A8 and then the descent to the gulf. The rest of the year the same distance is paid in patience, and the only document that puts numbers on it comes from the State.
Bison Futé names the windows, day by day. For the weekend of 15 August: avoid the A8 between Le Luc and Italy from 07:00 to 19:00 on Friday, from 10:00 to 12:00 on Sunday, from 10:00 to 18:00 on Monday. Le Luc is precisely the junction that governs the run down to the peninsula. Leaving at 06:00 and leaving at 09:00 are not the same journey, and that is the one variable a driver controls.
What you will not read here is a delay in minutes at the La Foux junction. The regional press calls it rarely free-flowing and never gives a figure. An invented number turns on whoever publishes it.
A town that names its own drop-off points
This is the fact that sets this run apart. Under a scheme running from 23 May to 30 August 2026, the town regulates by name the vehicles providing a paid passenger transport service. Traffic is restricted on boulevard Vasserot from 16:00 to 20:00 and on traverse de la Gendarmerie from 19:00 to 03:00, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
In exchange the town opened bays: seven from 23 May, including a zone on avenue Foch by place Carnot from 20:00 to 03:00, then delivery bays converted into drop-off zones from 30 May on avenue Paul-Roussel, avenue de la Résistance, boulevard Louis-Blanc and rue du 11-Novembre.
In season, then, the driver does not pick the stopping point. The town assigns it. The fallback landmark is the Nouveau Port car park, 1,477 spaces and eight coach bays, the only local structure built for a large vehicle.
When the boat beats the car
The town of Sainte-Maxime publishes the argument itself: the sea shuttle links Sainte-Maxime to Saint-Tropez in 15 minutes, with one to four crossings an hour, eleven months a year, seven days a week. No traffic queue applies to it.
In August, dropping at the Sainte-Maxime landing stage can therefore be faster than driving around the gulf. We suggest it when that is true. Tickets are sold at the counter rather than online, and the time of the last crossing is not published on an official source: that gets checked on the day, before the choice is made.