First pick
Les Palets
Wood or forest
3,497 ha52.9 km of path
11 h 45 minto walk all 52.9 km of path
4.5 km northfrom the center
Chemin de Sainte-MargueritegrRoute du Curadou+4 paths
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Georges-Louis Arlaud (1869-1944) · Public domain100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Vals-les-Bains · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Vals-les-Bains lies inside Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park
100% of Vals-les-Bains’ land lies in protected areas. 73% of Vals-les-Bains is mapped woodland. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 42 km in Vals-les-Bains. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
100%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
73%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
38 km
2 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
42 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
2
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Les Palets
Throughout this page, the Ardèche median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
What kind of place
What kind of outdoors place is Vals-les-Bains?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park100% of the commune is in the regional nature park.A wooded commune73% mapped woodland, more than in 99% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.On waymarked routes42 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.
What sets Vals-les-Bains apart: the regional nature park around it, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Vals-les-Bains compares with French towns
Each figure against the 3,798 compared French towns (communes with an overall grade): the marked bar is the town’s, the line the median. Described, not graded.
Protected areas100%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
99out of 100
Woodland73%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
99out of 100
Footpaths2 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
57out of 100
Hiking routes2.1 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
97out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Vals-les-Bains has the 9th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (3,444 to 3,503 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Sainte-Catherine (3.3 km per km²) to Crèvecœur-le-Grand (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sainte-Catherine Pas-de-Calais | 3.3 | 6.1% | 0% | 78 km |
| 2 | Moûtiers Savoie | 3.1 | 52% | 0% | 204 km |
| 3 | Lapugnoy Pas-de-Calais | 3 | 42% | 0% | 60 km |
| 4 | Verquin Pas-de-Calais | 2.9 | 5.5% | 0% | 62 km |
| 5 | Barbazan-Debat Hautes-Pyrénées | 2.6 | 47% | 0% | 136 km |
| 6 | Choisy-au-Bac Oise | 2.5 | 62% | 56% | 119 km |
| 7 | La Buisse Isère | 2.4 | 35% | 61% | 218 km |
| 8 | Haucourt-Moulaine Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2 | 34% | 0% | 278 km |
| 9 | Vals-les-Bains Ardèche | 2 | 73% | 100% | 125 km |
| 10 | Culoz-Béon Ain | 1.8 | 57% | 22% | 267 km |
| 11 | Taninges Haute-Savoie | 1.8 | 57% | 28% | 268 km |
| 12 | Aubin Aveyron | 1.7 | 49% | 2.3% | 166 km |
| 13 | La Boisse Ain | 1.7 | 16% | 0% | 265 km |
| 14 | La Chapelle-Heulin Loire-Atlantique | 1.6 | 15% | 17% | 51 km |
| 15 | Lampertheim Bas-Rhin | 1.6 | 1.2% | 0% | 443 km |
| 16 | Saint-Sulpice-de-Royan Charente-Maritime | 1.6 | 16% | 16% | On it |
| 17 | Mauriac Cantal | 1.4 | 22% | 17% | 227 km |
| 18 | Les Belleville Savoie | 1.4 | 15% | 71% | 194 km |
| 19 | Saint-Jeoire Haute-Savoie | 1.3 | 64% | 0% | 275 km |
| 20 | Langeac Haute-Loire | 1.1 | 48% | 100% | 176 km |
| 21 | Saint-Ambroix Gard | 1 | 30% | 100% | 78 km |
| 22 | Issenheim Haut-Rhin | 1 | 14% | 0.2% | 458 km |
| 23 | Artix Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 0.9 | 15% | 38% | 76 km |
| 24 | Ruffec Charente | 0.9 | 30% | 0% | 91 km |
| 25 | Bourcefranc-le-Chapus Charente-Maritime | 0.9 | 7.9% | 46% | On it |
| 26 | Ruaudin Sarthe | 0.9 | 34% | 0% | 142 km |
| 27 | Bréhal Manche | 0.8 | 3.9% | 1.8% | 2.8 km |
| 28 | Mirande Gers | 0.8 | 20% | 0% | 150 km |
| 29 | Saint-Cyr-en-Val Loiret | 0.7 | 33% | 36% | 214 km |
| 30 | Val-de-Cognac Charente | 0.7 | 23% | 8.1% | 45 km |
| 31 | Chaumes-en-Brie Seine-et-Marne | 0.6 | 29% | 0.1% | 188 km |
| 32 | Chanceaux-sur-Choisille Indre-et-Loire | 0.6 | 17% | 0% | 190 km |
| 33 | Varilhes Ariège | 0.6 | 17% | 2.6% | 116 km |
| 34 | Saint-Éloy-les-Mines Puy-de-Dôme | 0.5 | 23% | 0% | 290 km |
| 35 | Bournezeau Vendée | 0.3 | 9.3% | 0% | 35 km |
| 36 | Le Porge Gironde | 0.3 | 89% | 100% | On it |
| 37 | Le Mérévillois Essonne | 0.3 | 8.2% | 0% | 178 km |
| 38 | Hornaing Nord | 0.3 | 8.8% | 99% | 98 km |
| 39 | Villeneuve-la-Guyard Yonne | 0.2 | 18% | 0.2% | 227 km |
| 40 | Steenwerck Nord | 0.2 | 0.8% | 0% | 47 km |
| 41 | Crèvecœur-le-Grand Oise | 0.1 | 4.3% | 0% | 70 km |
The map
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park or wood. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Green: parks, gardens and woods mapped on OpenStreetMap, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · INPN / PatriNat · IGN
Places to walk
Parks and woods to walk in, in and around Vals-les-Bains
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Les Palets leads, at 3,497 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc du Casino
Park or garden
3 ha0.6 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.6 km of path
0.9 km south-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Vals-les-Bains
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park
100% of the commune
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
Designations overlap (a regional park can hold a Natura 2000 site), so the rows don’t add up; the first counts each piece of land once.
100% of Vals-les-Bains’ land is protected, more than in 99% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Ardèche has 8.6%. A regional nature park is a charter between communes to look after a landscape: farming, building and hunting go on inside it.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
38 km of footpaths and 42 km of hiking routes cross Vals-les-Bains
Paths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, and waymarked hiking routes, mapped on OpenStreetMap inside the commune; woods are mapped forest and woodland, private woods included.
Footpaths
38 km
2 km per km²
Hiking routes
42 km
waymarked: 2.1 km per km²
Woodland
73%
about 14.1 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Vals-les-BainsArdèche medianFrance median
Footpaths2
Hiking routes2.1
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Vals-les-BainsArdèche medianFrance median
Woodland73%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 57% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 99% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. Every home in Vals-les-Bains is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
92 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Sous les Eaux - Font Rognon6.4 km
Lalevade-d'Ardèche - Martinesche5.2 km
Thieure - Fontalazon4.5 km
Le Village - Les Traverses4.4 km
Lachamp - Col de Farges4 km
Le Village - Col de Sétias3.4 km
Vals les Bains - Les Granges3 km
Pont Sans Eau - Col de Montagnac3 km
Sous les Eaux - Thieure3 km
Les Thérondes - Les Traverses2.9 km
Le Moulin des Prés - Le Patio2.6 km
Le Bateau - Longe Serre2.5 km
+80 more
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Vals-les-Bains: April to August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Vals-Les-Bains, 0.6 km away, and the daylight at the town’s latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 15 to 30 °C and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.2 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.8 | 15.5 | 15.2 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.5 | 8.8 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 22 | 27 | 30 | 29 | 23 | 18 | 13 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 100 | 64 | 70 | 91 | 94 | 66 | 62 | 79 | 144 | 184 | 180 | 117 |
July is the driest month (62 mm) and the warmest (highs of 30 °C). 184 mm of rain falls in October, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 35 nights a year. The climate in Vals-les-Bains →
Neighbors
Next to Vals-les-Bains
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
AubenasSaint-Étienne-de-FontbellonVilleneuve-de-BergPrivasChoméracLe CheylardVals-les-Bains
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals-les-Bains | 100% | 73% | 2 |
| Aubenas 12,416 · 5.7 km | 18% | 6.8% | 1.6 |
| Saint-Étienne-de-Fontbellon 2,920 · 7.7 km | 0.6% | 30% | 3 |
| Villeneuve-de-Berg 3,031 · 16 km | 0% | 5.9% | 1.2 |
| Privas 8,538 · 20 km | 1.6% | 32% | 2.1 |
| Chomérac 3,183 · 25 km | 1.3% | 24% | 1.2 |
| Le Cheylard 2,803 · 28 km | 0.4% | 70% | 3.2 |
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Protected areas. National-park cores, national parks’ outer areas, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites, from INPN. A national park’s core is strictly protected; its outer area and a regional park are charters between communes, not bans. Designations overlap, so the total counts each piece of land once.
- Woodland. Forest and woods as OpenStreetMap maps them, private woods included: woods nobody has mapped are missing, and a mapped wood isn’t necessarily open to walkers.
- Footpaths and hiking routes. Footpaths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, then waymarked hiking routes (GR and others) measured apart. A route often follows a path or lane already counted: the two overlap. Paths nobody has mapped are missing.
- Green space nearby. The share of residents (INSEE’s 200 m grid) within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or wood edge. It measures nearness, not a way in. Guadeloupe and French Guiana have no grid: their pages say whether the town center is within 800 m.
- The coast. The straight-line distance from the town center to OpenStreetMap’s coastline, which follows the tide line into estuaries. A commune is on the coast when the coastline crosses its boundary.
- No grade yet. U.S. and UK towns have an Outdoors Grade; French towns don’t yet. Each figure is set beside the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade) in the département and in France, each figure its own median.
Questions about the outdoors in Vals-les-Bains
Is Vals-les-Bains in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Vals-les-Bains lies in Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Vals-les-Bains?
OpenStreetMap maps 38 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 42 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Vals-les-Bains is woodland?
73% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Vals-les-Bains near the sea?
No: the coast is 125 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Vals-les-Bains?
April to August: long days, mild highs and little rain, from Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at the nearest suitable station.
Why is there no Outdoors Grade for French towns?
TownRatings grades the outdoors in the U.S. and the UK; the French figures are new and not graded yet. This page sets each one beside the median compared French town instead.
Sources: INPN / PatriNat (protected areas 2026, Natura 2000 2024) · © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (paths, hiking routes, woods, coast, gardens) · INSEE, Filosofi 2021 200 m grid (residents) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · Météo-France normals 1991–2020 · Medians and percentiles: TownRatings, over compared French towns, updated November 9, 2026. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.