The old town lies 4 km (2.5 mi) from the sea clustered around the Castle of Saint Bernard, which is set on a hill.

[6] After defecting from Soviet intelligence in 1937, Walter Krivitsky hid in Hyères (one of the farthest points in France from his operational base in Paris).

[7] As part of Operation Dragoon on 15 August 1944, the First Special Service Force came ashore off the coast of Hyères to take the islands of Port-Cros and Levant.

[8] An intense naval barrage on 18 August 1944 heralded the next phase of the operation—the assault on the largest of the Hyères islands, Porquerolles.

French forces—naval units and colonial formations, including Senegalese infantry—became involved on 22 August and subsequently occupied the island.

A US–Canadian Special Forces landing at the eastern end of Porquerolles took large numbers of prisoners, the Germans preferring not to surrender to the Senegalese.

Hyères is located on the Côte d'Azur and enjoys a Mediterranean climate with hot and dry summers and mild and relatively humid winters.

The maximum and minimum nominal temperatures recorded are 29 °C in July–August and 6 °C in January and February, mild values thanks to the presence of the Mediterranean and the Toulon agglomeration.

[5] The London-born and Eton-educated Anglo-Grison Charles de Salis died in Hyères in July 1781, aged 45, and was buried in the Convent des Cordeliers.

William FitzRoy, 6th Duke of Grafton, spent the winter and spring each year at Hyères because he and his wife suffered from ill health.

[18] In 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson came to Hyères and for about two years lived first at the Grand Hotel (the building still stands in the Avenue des Iles d'Or), and then in a chalet called Solitude in the present rue Victor-Basch.

Lord Arthur Somerset, formerly of the Royal Horse Guards and head of the stables to the future King Edward VII fled to Europe in 1889 to escape arrest after being associated with the Cleveland Street scandal.

The British presence culminated in the winter of 1892 (21 March – 25 April) when Queen Victoria came for a stay of three weeks[19] at the Albion Hotel.

[5] The railway station Gare d'Hyères offers connections with Toulon, Marseille, Paris, and several regional destinations.

It has been a commercial airport since 1966, but the navy maintains a significant facility for helicopters and fixed wing aircraft within the perimeter.

[21] Hyères was the birthplace of Jean Baptiste Massillon (1663–1742), churchman and preacher as well as Marius Gueit (1808– 1862), blind composer, organist and cellist.

The author Jean-Marie-Edmond Sabran (1908–1994), who wrote under the pseudonyms Paul Berna (children's fiction), Bernard Deleuse and Paul Gerradwas (adult fiction), and Joel Audrenn (crime novels), was born in Hyères as well as François Coupry (born 1947), winner of the 1970 edition of the Prix des Deux Magots.

2010's MIDI saw around 15 acts play at the Villa Noailles complex and brought the new 'MIDI Night' event to Almanarre Beach in the early hours of Sunday morning.