Antibes

1 Reserve crew house well in advance
The yachting hubs get very busy during the season with crew houses known to be fully booked from the end of March throughout June-ish. If you decide to stay in a crew house, then it is vital to make a reservation as soon as you know when you will be going. Make sure to bring a printed confirmation. A listing of crew houses can be found in the Crew Houses-section. Alternatively, you also have the option of staying in a hostel. HostelWorld is a brilliant tool to help you find the most suitable hostels for soon-to-be-yachties.

2 Passport- and visa copy
Keep with you a laminated copy of your passport and any visa you may be required. This way you limit the risk of being stuck overseas without any sort of ID. Include your emergency contact numbers on the backside and possibly also your blood type.

3. Credit Card numbers
Make a note of your credit card numbers and the related lost/stolen telephone help line. You can leave them on a note with your family, for instance.

4 Local Transport
Whether you are headed to Antibes, Cannes, Monaco or Nice public transportation is quite good and affordable and will get you there easily. During the evenings or on public holidays (or when the French go on strike) your options can be somewhat limited. Tell the driver where you need to go, and he will normally let you know where to get off. If you plan on using buses and trains on a regular basis, then you can save yourself a fair amount of money by getting a weekly pass.

Watch your belongings when using public transportation. Several cases of crew having lost bags, phones etc. have been reported in the past.

Airport: On the Nice Airport website you will find updated information about departures and arrivals along with other information about the airport itself.

Bus to/from the airport:
Line LR200H (Public bus – click to see schedule)
Nice Airport Antibes Golfe Juan – Cannes: 1.50 Euros (no large bills, preferably coins)

Airport Shuttle (click to see schedules)
Nice Airport Monaco-Menton Line 110: 16.50*/22 Euros
Nice Airport Cannes Express Line 210: 16.50*/22 Euros
Nice Airport Antibes-Golfe Juan Line 250: 11Euros
* Price for passengers less than 26 years old

Airport Bus Stops
Bus LR200H stops at Aeroport-Promenade, a hundred meters away from terminal 1 (use Exit A1). If you are travelling to or from terminal 2 use the airport shuttle to connect to terminal 1.
Airport Shuttle Line 110: Terminal 1, Bus Platform 2
Terminal 2, Bus Platform 2
Airport Shuttle Line 210: Terminal 1, Bus Platform 3
Terminal 2, Bus Platform 3
Airport Shuttle Line 250: Terminal 1, Bus Platform 6
Terminal 2, Bus Platform 1

Buses in Antibes
Once in Antibes, you will easily recognize the pink/white public buses, also known as Envibus. You will find the main bus station at Place General de Gaulle. Bus tickets are sold from the Envibus outlets and automatic ticket dispensers. They are valid for one hour with connections allowed during this time. Discounted bus passes are available from the outlets and ticket dispensers making it even cheaper to get around!

Taxi:
The taxi stand is found outside the airport, just follow the Taxis-sign. In Terminal 1 use exit A1 and in Terminal 2 use exit A3. For matters of safety you may consider declining anyone offering you an alternative private ride, although do keep in mind that many private limousine companies also offers the service.
Taxi Rates from Nice Airport:
Antibes: 60 Euros
Cannes: 80 Euros
Monaco: 90 Euros
Nice City Centre: 32 Euros

Taxis in Antibes can be booked at +33 04 93 67 67 67

Train:
To get to Antibes by train transfer to the regional fast train know as the TER at Gare Nice-St Augustin or Gare Nice-Ville. There you can jump on the TER Line 3, direction Les Arcs or TER Line 4, direction Mandeliu-La-Napoule. To get to Monaco, get the TER Line 4, direction Vintimille (Ventimiglia-Stazione).

Prices vary depending on the distance and time of the day, you will be traveling, but count on less than 5 Euros. You can book online on the SNCF website or pay in the ticket office.

Train passes are know as “ZOU Hebdo. It is a weekly pass between 2 points of your choice on the TER coastal train. It gives you huge discounts (up to 75%) and is perfect for dockwalkers! If you are under 26 years of age, you pay 15 Euros for a card which gives you 50% discount on every train for up to 3 people. Between June and September, the stations offer a “ZOU Pass” for 15. This gives you UNLIMITED one-day train travel on the TER network, which is super useful for long distances e. g. between Monaco and Mandelieu etc.
To save yourself a lot of money, inquire about the current plans at any train station. Happy train travels and once again, watch your belongings!

Tram:
To get on the train, you will need to travel by Tram line 2 to either Gare Nice-St Augustin or Gare Nice-Ville. You can catch the tram by exit A0 in Terminal 1 or exit A2 in Terminal 2.

Trams start at 8am and stop running from somewhere between19.00 -21.00h all depending on the day of the week. For further info, please see the Tram Schedule
The tram fare is FREE if you travel to the Grand Arenas-station. All other stations are 1.50 Euros.
Going TO the airport make sure to get the AEROPORT connection and NOT the CADAM – they are easily confused! !

Alternatively, you can also take the Aeroport Direct-bus which operates early mornings and evenings to get to the train station.

Uber: Another popular option is Uber, the door-to-door service. Once you have downloaded the app, you can check the price to your destination and book your ride via the app. Pricier than the bus and the train, but it will get you to your destination safely and without any uncertainties.

5. ATMs:
A few good pointers to how you can save money / avoid being scammed when using ATMs and shopping with your bank card overseas;

– ALWAYS withdraw in LOCAL currency (US$ in US, EUROS in EU/Euro zone, GBP in UK, Rand in South Africa, Swiss Francs in Switzerland etc. )

– ALWAYS decline conversion (leave it to your own bank)

– ALWAYS pay good attention to the transaction fee – in particular in areas with lots of nightlife. (one yachty experienced being charged 50 USD in Cancun just to withdraw 100 USD! ! ! )

– Some ATMs will offer quite large amounts (to make a larger profit from the transaction). In such case, see what your alternative options are.

Check out this great explanatory video where you will see how it works in real life. Potentially, it will save you a lot of money!

6 Get a local SIM card
Getting yourself set up with a local telephone number is not strictly required. Yet, people prefer to call local numbers rather than overseas numbers despite everyone being on WhatsApp these days. Furthermore, you may avoid any roaming charges associated with your current provider.

In France many yachties use
Free Mobile
Sosh Mobile

Free Mobile is the most widely used service by yachties in the South of France. The closest Free Mobile store is in the Antibes Centre Commercial by the big Carrefour hypermarket as well as in Cap 3000 (shopping centre by Nice Airport) in Nice. All are open Mon-Saturday, but with different closing times. Check out the Free store locator.

As soon as you have a local number make sure to include it on your CV and business card as well as updating your number with any crew agencies you are signed up with.

7. Print business cards and CVs

The sooner you have your CV and business cards (the French call it a Carte de Visite) printed, the sooner you will be ready to start the job hunt.

Both clip art and templates are available for free online. The very simple design above was made using Canva (which also offers great templates for your CV). They even give you the option to include nautical themes such as an anchor, a lighthouse, a compass, a sail, waves, a rising sun, a dolphin you name it…

Alternatively, for a very minimal fee you can have a professional designer create a print-ready professional looking business card (and CVs) on FIVERR. The design below includes double-sided design and unlimited revisions. This business card was designed by a designer starting her design service at just 5 USD.

Make sure to include the following information:
Position
Name
Telephone / WhatsApp / Skype
Short objective / Available for Daywork, Freelance, Deliveries, Full-time or Part Time work as applies to you
Qualifications
Photo (optional, although it will help the recipient remember you)
QR code* with link to your CV

*Free QR codes can easily be generated online. Next, download the scannable code and include it with your business card.

Your business card does not have to be the highest print quality available, but obviously the better quality the more it will stand out. Many yachties use Moo. com and VistaPrint. com. Both are great services and well-recommended. You can work on this in advance and have your business cards delivered straight to your crew house or your home address prior to traveling to Antibes, although doing so you will not be able to include a local number.

Locally, yachties have been recommending business card- and CV printing in these locations (among others):
Antibes Imprimerie 5, rue Vauban
S. G. S. Print 26, rue Lacan

How many cards and CVs to print is up to you to decide, but somewhere around 50-100 CVs and perhaps 200 business cards should do you fine to begin with. It is easy to have more printed, if necessary.

As for printing CVs, one important thing to remember is that if you work on it or make prints in a public internet cafe etc. always remember to delete your CV off the computer, when you are done.

8. Get to know the ports
Finding out which ports are most popular with superyachts is essential, obviously. Pick the brains of others staying in your crew house or hostel. They will most likely know where to go. Some marinas will be way better for dockwalking than others. Some may be gated, while others may have easy access. Some may have lots of large yachts, while others are for small pleasure yachts with no professional crew on board.

And then there are the shipyards, where there is always work going on. They will usually have security by the gate, often with strict security measures. There is a good reason for that; other than providing security for their clients, with a lot of heavy machinery moving around and the type of work going on, dockwalking can be dangerous, in particular for newcomers to yachting. Generally, dockwalking is not recommended in shipyards. Instead try and meet crew in the yachty bars after work.

Here is a list of some of the marinas and shipyards popular with superyachts in

FRANCE / ITALY

Antibes: Port Vauban, IYCA*
Juan-Les-Pins: Port Gallice
Golfe Juan: Port Camille Rayon
Cannes: Port de Cannes, Port Pierre Canto
Nice: Port de Nice
Monaco: Port Hercules, Port de Fontvielle
La Ciotat: La Citotat Shipyards**
San Remo: Portosole
Imperia: Porto Maurizio
Genoa: Porto Antico, Molo Vecchio, Marina Genova Aeroporto
Viareggio: Porto di Viareggio
* Gated Marina
** Gated Shipyard dockwalking not encouraged

You can use MarineTraffic to see how busy the various ports in your area are.

9 Network
There is little doubt that he large majority of crew jobs goes through word of mouth. For this reason, it is really important for you to start building a good network within the industry already from Day 1.

The more people, who knows you are looking for work, the larger are your chances of finding work. It is often seen that a yacht already employing a dayworker or two needs more dayworkers the following day. In such a case the captain will nearly always ask the dayworkers if they know of anyone else, who may be available. That’s where you get in the picture, but only if you have an established network. Here are a few of ideas of how to do that;

First off, build a good reputation for yourself as being friendly and helpful and be sociable.

When you do yachting courses meet up for a drink or two after training is over and connect with everyone attending the course on Facebook.
If you do your STCW and other entry-level training keep in touch with your fellow students.
Stay in a crew house instead of private accommodation.
If you stay in a crew house be sociable with everyone.
It is no secret that sailors like a drink or three. Neither is it a secret that the best way to meet yacht crew is either when dayworking or in the bars.
When you daywork, be friendly and sociable with everyone on board without interfering with their work. You may run into them in the bar one of the coming days or perhaps in years from now on a different yacht!
Try not to miss out on any yachting events such as boat shows, crew events, webinars or crew dinners. These events will normally be announced ahead of time in the Yacht Crew Facebook groups, among others.
When you meet people in the industry, share your business card and within reason ask them if you may add that person on Facebook.
Use Facebook to build your network. Set up an account purely for yachting and add other yachties and industry professionals. Be active with posting photos etc. , which gives them something to comment on. Make sure, they can tag you in job posts.
In the Facebook group covering your current location ask if there is anyone, who might be interested to meet up. You could ask if there is anyone from your country in town or if there is anyone interested in participating in an activity that you both share (rent a car to go exploring for the weekend, go for a run, go to the beach, go on a hike, go to the movies, meet up for a drink, go to watch rugby or Champions League in a bar, go out for a pizza etc. ).

After work many venture out for a drink just to get off the boat for a little while. Crew tend to frequent the same bars, no matter where in the world, they are located. Some of the more popular yachty bars in the area are;

Antibes
The Duke
The Hopstore
The Blue Lady)
Cannes
Ma Nolans
Monaco
Starsn Bars
Nice
Ma Nolans
San Remo (Italy)
The Red Lion

Long story short, making a good name for yourself and being proactive in your quest to build a larger network will pay off, eventually. The more people you know, the larger are the chances that work will come to you. Good luck!

10. Weekly budget
Make your money last as long as possible. As simple as that may sound, you will have a fair few expenses including;
Travel insurance
Airfare
Local transportation
Accommodation
Printing of business cards and CVs
Mobile phone
Food
Drinks
Training & ENG/1
Unforeseen expenses

Your expenses will vary all depending on the location. South of France is by far the most expensive destination in Europe, while Palma is not exactly super cheap either. Fort Lauderdale is somewhere in between.

To keep you going for as long as possible, it is really important to keep your expenses in control. A good way to make your money stretch a bit longer is to create a weekly budget for the expenses mentioned above. When you reach your weekly set budget for beers, then you know to kick back on that account for the next few days or perhaps you can go all in on cold beers and wine on Sunday afternoon

You can also save a fair amount of money on making your own food or sharing with others rather than going out for pizzas, kebabs and burgers.

In Antibes some have been using the local campsites in the past, which saved them a bunch of money. Unfortunately, camping is unavailable in many other locations, including Palma. Many end up renting a private room or share a flat with other job seeking yachties. These options are cheaper than most crew houses and hostels, but keep in mind the importance of networking, which will be limited in particular when renting a private room. If you choose to stay in a hostel or in a crew house inquire about prices prior to booking. You can find a list of crew houses and hostels in the crew house section.

There is also money to be saved on local transportation. To get you around, you can buy a second hand bicycle or moped on Facebook or travel by bus and train instead of by taxi, which is not exactly cheap in the South of France. Uber is also available as a somewhat economical alternative to jumping in a taxi. Most public transportation will offer discounts on multiple journeys or day passes so look into that. There are links posted in the Local Transport-section.

When it comes to printing business cards, then you can have FREE business cards printed on VistaPrint. They come with a small advert on the backside, but they do the job alright!

Phone plans continue to change, so it is impossible to say which one is cheapest and which one suits your needs best, but also there you can save yourself a bunch. Shop around, check online rates and if in doubt, ask on Antibes Yacht Crew to see what other crew recommends. Seemingly, most local crew use Free Mobile. You can find them in the Antibes Centre Commercial by the big Carrefour hypermarket.

Finding daywork is obviously a complete game changer when it comes to your budget. Suddenly, you have an income, which will make life so much easier plus you spend less if you eat on board. Keep spending your money wisely. You never know when you will find work next.

Putting a number on any of the expenses mentioned above is nearly impossible, as we are all different. Some will not mind sleeping in a tent, while others may want to share an AirBnB rental apartment. Some may be partying everyday while others will meet up for a cup of coffee here and there. Some may not find any daywork (it is not entirely uncommon, unfortunately), while others find daywork on day 1. In Antibes, count on a monthly budget in the range of 2,000 Euros overall (not including training and medical expenses).

Watch over your money like a hawk! It is not rocket science; if you piss it away, apart from having a good time, your job hunt may come to an end much sooner.

11. Training
Having the right credentials is key to finding a job on a yacht. In an industry that is surrounded by rules and regulations, there is just no way around it. Common for all crew, you must have your STCW/10 Basic Safety Training (sometimes referred to as STCW/95) and the ENG/1 or a similar seafarer medical certificate.

The minimum requirements to work on a yacht depends on the position you are looking for;

Deckhand: STCW/10, Powerboat 1+2 including VHF
Stewardess: STCW/10, Food & Hygiene Level 2
Engineer: STCW/10, AEC
Chef: STCW/10, Ship’s Cook Certificate
Desirable courses, which will improve your chances of finding work:
Proficiency in Designated Security Duties (PDSD) (all crew)
Personal Water Craft Instructor (PWC Instructor) (Deckhands)
Yachtmaster Offshore (Deckhands)
Silver Service (Stewardesses)

If these courses are not available in your current location, you can do them in Antibes, Palma, Fort Lauderdale and UK – among others but remember to book your courses well in advance!

In the Crew Positions section, you can read more about which certificates are necessary to work in the position you are looking for and to progress up the ranks.

Course prices vary hugely between destinations. In countries such as South Africa, the Philippines and various Eastern European countries, you will find some of the best prices. In the UK and US prices are fairly reasonable while in Palma and Antibes some prices are at the higher end of the scale. It definitely pays to compare prices between the schools if you are on a somewhat tight budget. Do keep in mind any added travel expenses should you decide to do courses in other locations. Also make sure whether or not VAT is included in the course price. Some schools list their prices excluding VAT.

There are a number of training schools in Antibes. All of them have a good reputation, and prices are mostly about the same. Some may offer you 10% Palma Yacht Crew discount off some courses, but you will have to inquire directly.

Courses available in Antibes include (but are not limited to)

STCW/10
Powerboat Level 1+2
Yachtmaster Offshore and Ocean
Proficiency in Designated Security Duties (PDSD)
PWC Proficiency / Instructor
GMDSS
OOW modules
AEC 1
Food Safety & Hygiene Level 2
Silver Service
G. U. E. S. T. interior modules
Medical training

Below, you find a list of schools conducting courses for yacht crew in Antibes;

CREW TRAINING IN ANTIBES
STCW:
Antibes Ship Training
Bluewater Yachting
D&B Training
Seascope Maritime Academy
Zephyr Yachting

Deck Training:
Antibes Ship Training (RYA)
Bluewater Training (MCA, RYA)
D&B Training (MCA, RYA)
OceanPro (RYA)
Seascope Maritime Training (RYA)
Zephyr Yachting (MCA, RYA)

Engineer Training:
Bluewater Yachting (MCA)
Seascope Maritime Training (MCA)
Zephyr Yachting (MCA)

Interior Training:
Antibes Ship Training (G. U. E. S. T. )
Bluewater Yachting (G. U. E. S. T. )
Interior Training Academy (G. U. E. S. T. )
Magnum Butlers International (G. U. E. S. T. )
Seascope Maritime Training (G. U. E. S. T. )
Zephyr Yachting

Galley Training:
Bluewater Yachting
Ocean Wave Monaco

Medical Training:
Bluewater Yachting (MCA)
Marine Medical Antibes (MCA)

You have many other alternatives to these training providers in other locations, including in Spain, UK, Eastern Europe, US, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, just to name a few.

If you have any questions, you can always ask on Antibes Yacht Crew!

Good luck to you and enjoy the South of France!