Summer Escape: Discover Iconic Coastal Travel Posters and the Story Be

Before travel feeds, online bookings, and endless destination guides, there were posters that made the sea feel close enough to touch. They offered a glimpse of the coast at its most seductive: bright horizons, elegant resorts, and the promise of a beautiful escape.

From the first railway advertisements of the late 19th century to the bold compositions of the mid-century, travel posters helped define how Europe imagined a holiday. They did not simply promote a route or a hotel – they created entire worlds of sunshine, leisure, glamour, and possibility.

The birth of the travel dream

As railways expanded across Europe in the late 19th century, travel became more accessible. That’s when some railway companies, hotels, and resorts created their first posters, that transformed a journey into something to dream about. Early designs often combined romantic landscapes with local folklore, mountain railways, maps, and decorative details, giving travelers a glimpse of what awaited them.

These were not yet the bold graphic posters of the 1920s and beyond, but they established the essential idea: a destination could be sold through atmosphere as much as through information. The Belle Époque gave travel advertising its first real sense of theatre.

PLM – the railway that sold the Riviera

PLM began as a railway company, but it quickly became one of France’s most powerful ambassadors for leisure. Established in 1857, the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée network linked the capital with the Alps and the Mediterranean at a moment when the French Riviera was beginning to attract international visitors. For travelers arriving at Paris’s Gare de Lyon, PLM became the route to winter sun, mountain air, and the new glamour of the Côte d’Azur.

At the beginning of the 20th century, PLM understood that selling tickets was not enough. It commissioned leading artists, including Roger Broders, to create posters that made destinations such as Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Évian, Chamonix, and the Riviera feel irresistible. Printed in large editions and displayed across European stations and city streets, these images helped create a shared visual language of luxury tourism: palm trees, grand hotels, bright water, elegant figures, and endless horizons. PLM was not simply advertising travel – it was shaping the way people imagined a holiday by the sea.

A Coastline in Posters

Our collection of Vintage Coastal Travel Posters revisits the artworks that sold the dream of coastal Europe from the 1920s to the 1960s. The refined selection below may bring the atmosphere of iconic resorts and the golden warmth of a century-old summer into your home.

Été sur la Côte d’Azur

Long before the French Riviera was the world’s top destination, the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) railway turned it into a legend. By commissioning the era’s finest artists to capture the “Azure Coast,” they transformed a coastline into a symbol of pure glamour. This vibrant, sun-soaked poster remains the ultimate gold standard of vintage travel art.

Credits: Guillaume Georges Roger. L’Été sur la Côte d’Azur – PLM. PLM poster, 1926. © photothèque Wagons-Lits Diffusion – Paris. Public Domain.

Évian-les-Bains

On the shores of Lake Geneva, Évian-les-Bains became one of Europe’s most fashionable places to pause, restore, and be seen. This PLM poster captures the refined world of the Belle Époque spa retreat, where wellness arrived with grand hotels, lake views, and unmistakable style.

Credits: Géo François. Évian-les-Bains – The Wonderful Savoy Spa – PLM. PLM poster, 1929. © photothèque Wagons-Lits Diffusion – Paris. Public Domain.

Cannes

Before red carpets and movie premieres, Cannes was already a destination for European society, drawn by its mild winters, sea views, and polished promenade life. This poster captures the city in a quieter era – yet the glamour is unmistakably already there.

Credits: SEM (Georges Goursat). Cannes. PLM poster, 1925. © photothèque Wagons-Lits Diffusion – Paris. Public Domain.

Beaulieu Tennis

On the Riviera, leisure was never just leisure – it was a way of life. Beaulieu Tennis captures the era when tennis, yachting, and long afternoons outdoors became part of the coastal social calendar. It is a true relic of the Belle Époque.

Nice

Dreaming of 300 days of sun? Nice has been delivering that perfection for centuries. Once the secret winter spot of the elite, it became one of the first cities to be promoted by the railways, forever changing how we travel.

Credits: Henri Ganier-Tanconville. Nice – PLM. PLM poster, 1899. © photothèque Wagons-Lits Diffusion – Paris. Public Domain.

La Turbie

There’s something electric about the view from La Turbie. Standing high above Monaco, it’s the definitive Riviera lookout – a place where the Mediterranean stretches out forever and the pace of life slows down to a crawl. Pure, unfiltered coastal magic.

All these posters hold more than a destination – they hold a mood, a way of seeing the world through sun, sea, and light. InkPoster brings that mood into the home, turning the wall into a quiet window to other places and times.