Do you need to book to watch a match?

Not for the free-entry Sunday matches, where you simply turn up. The VIP option, with a table and service at the clubhouse, does need booking in advance, and the big summer tournaments may have their own access conditions. The club's site is the authority.

How long does a match last?

Allow an hour to an hour and a half on site. A match is played over four to six chukkas of around seven minutes, separated by breaks for horse changes and by half time, which is when the crowd walks onto the pitch.

Is a match called off if it rains?

Generally no: polo is played in the rain and grass grounds take it well. A thunderstorm is another matter, and the decision rests with the club. Either way it is one of the few outings on the peninsula that survives a poor forecast, with a covered clubhouse as the fallback.

Can you visit the estate when there is no match on?

It is not open for casual visits: with no match scheduled there is nothing to watch from the stands. The rest of the facilities, pool, tennis, padel, spa and restaurant, run on the club's own terms, which is a conversation to have with them directly.

Is parking difficult at the club?

No, and it makes a pleasant change from the village: the estate is large and parking is not an issue, even on a tournament day. The difficulty comes earlier, on the beach road late in the day in July and August.

Photo: Office de tourisme de Gassin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sport · Saison d'avril à septembre, tournois et matchs du dimanche · Recurring

The Saint-Tropez Polo Club

Ten minutes from the harbour, an international polo club on a hundred hectares. On some Sundays you can watch a high-level match without paying to get in, and almost nobody knows it.

A stud farm that became an international club

The Haras de Gassin was founded in 1980. The Polo Club de Saint-Tropez itself was created in 1997 by Corinne Schuler, on the same site, at 1999 route du Bourrian, between the hill village and the Pampelonne beaches.

The estate has grown well beyond polo. Around the four natural grass grounds there is a clubhouse with an Argentinian restaurant, a heated thirty-metre pool open all year, tennis and padel courts, a fitness space and a spa. A hundred hectares in all, on a private estate most visitors drive past without noticing.

For a visitor that changes the nature of the outing: this is not a stadium, it is a club, with the atmosphere that comes with it, and an afternoon at a match can turn into a whole afternoon. The place is now among the most visible in Europe, and it has hosted international events such as the Polo Rider Cup.

The season, month by month

The season runs from April to September, and the character of the place shifts a great deal across those months.

April and May. The Easter tournament and then the Ascension one open the season. The peninsula is still empty, the grounds are in perfect condition after winter, and there is very little crowd. It is the pleasantest time to discover the place.

June. The Coupe de l'Hippocampe and the Pentecost tournament, with the longest days of the year and matches late in the afternoon.

July and August. The Polo Masters Open de Gassin, played at 8 to 10 goals, and the big fixtures. The standard of play is at its highest, and so is the attendance, with a distinctly more social atmosphere.

September. End of season, the heat gone, a quieter mood. As in spring, a good moment.

Between the major fixtures the club programmes Sunday matches, often free to enter, with a paid VIP option for anyone who wants the table and the service. In every case the rule is the same: the exact calendar changes each year and is published only on the club's site. Check before making the drive.

The Saint-Tropez Polo Club, at the Haras de Gassin — Match de polo à Gassin - vue des tribunes depuis le restaurant Photo: Logret de Carlin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Watching polo when you know nothing about it

Good news: polo watches very well without understanding a thing. Two teams of four riders, a mallet, a ball, and the aim of putting it between two posts. The real spectacle is not tactical but physical: the speed at which eight galloping horses change direction together is hard to believe the first time you see it close up. Nothing about it reads as delicate, and nobody watching needs the rules explained.

Four words are then enough to follow what people around you are saying.

Chukka: a period of play, around seven minutes. A match usually has four to six.
Handicap: every player is rated, from minus two to ten goals. A tournament's level is the sum of the handicaps of a team's four players. An 8 to 10 goal tournament therefore gathers very good players.
Polo pony: the word misleads, these are full-sized horses.
Divot stomping: the crowd treading the turf back down at half time.

That last one deserves another line. At half time, tradition has the crowd walk onto the pitch to press back the divots torn up by the hooves. Everyone goes, it is the friendliest moment of the afternoon, and it is by far what children remember.

The polo horse

People say polo pony, but these are full horses, selected for speed, handling and the ability to accelerate and stop within a few metres.

The detail that surprises spectators is the number. A player rides several horses over a single match, because none can hold that pace for more than a few minutes. With four players a side and several periods, that is a great many animals committed to one fixture, which explains the size of the stables around the ground and the number of grooms working between periods.

It is also what makes the afternoon interesting even if you do not care about the sport: between periods the horses come past, you see them at very close range, and the organisation of it all is a show in itself. The estate began with the horse rather than the polo, seventeen years separating the stud farm from the club.

Insider advice

Check the programme before coming. This is the critical point: there has to be a match on.
Aim for late afternoon. Matches are generally played at the end of the day, once the heat drops. The light on the grounds at 6pm in July is worth the trip on its own.
Dress properly, without overdoing it. The clubhouse is smart but not stiff, and neat clothes are plenty. Avoid thin heels: you walk on grass.
Hat and water. The grounds are in full sun and there is no shade on the spectator side.
Bring children. It is one of the few activities on the peninsula that genuinely interests them, and space is not in short supply. Half time alone justifies the drive.
Take the whole day. The hill village of Gassin is minutes away, the walk through the vines starts in the same area, La Table du Mas de Chastelas is within reach for lunch and Château Minuty pours in the same triangle.

Getting to the club

The club is at 1999 route du Bourrian, in Gassin, between the hill village and the Pampelonne beaches. Allow around ten minutes from Saint-Tropez off-season, more in July and August, when the beach road is loaded late in the day.

There is no usable public transport for a match finishing in the early evening: plan on a car or a taxi. That is the only real friction here, and it looks nothing like the village's.

For reaching the gulf itself, stations, airports and shuttles are set out in our practical guide.

Questions we get asked

Do you need to book to watch a match?: Not for the free-entry Sunday matches, where you simply turn up. The VIP option, with a table and service at the clubhouse, does need booking in advance, and the big summer tournaments may have their own access conditions. The club's site is the authority.
How long does a match last?: Allow an hour to an hour and a half on site. A match is played over four to six chukkas of around seven minutes, separated by breaks for horse changes and by half time, which is when the crowd walks onto the pitch.
Is a match called off if it rains?: Generally no: polo is played in the rain and grass grounds take it well. A thunderstorm is another matter, and the decision rests with the club. Either way it is one of the few outings on the peninsula that survives a poor forecast, with a covered clubhouse as the fallback.
Can you visit the estate when there is no match on?: It is not open for casual visits: with no match scheduled there is nothing to watch from the stands. The rest of the facilities, pool, tennis, padel, spa and restaurant, run on the club's own terms, which is a conversation to have with them directly.
Is parking difficult at the club?: No, and it makes a pleasant change from the village: the estate is large and parking is not an issue, even on a tournament day. The difficulty comes earlier, on the beach road late in the day in July and August.

Source: Polo Club Saint-Tropez

#polo#sport#gassin#free#family

Published on September 2, 2026

See you there. I am the one in the panama hat.

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