First pick
Forêt de l'Illwald
Wood or forest
1,260 ha7.5 km of path
1 h 40 minto walk all 7.5 km of path
5 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Oie blanche · CC BY-SA 3.056%of the land protected
Outdoors in Sélestat · protected areas, woods and footpaths
56% of Sélestat’s land is protected for nature
Mapped woodland covers 40% of Sélestat. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 25 km in Sélestat. Footpaths add up to 48 km across Sélestat (1 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
56%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
40%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
48 km
1 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
25 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
4
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Forêt de l'Illwald
Throughout this page, the Bas-Rhin 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 Sélestat?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Protected countryside56% of the land lies in protected areas.A wooded commune40% mapped woodland, more than in 85% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.A nature reserveRied de Selestat (Ill*Wald) nature reserve covers 39% of the commune.
What sets Sélestat apart: its protected countryside, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Sélestat 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 areas56%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
87out of 100
Woodland40%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
85out of 100
Footpaths1 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
32out of 100
Hiking routes0.5 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
63out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Sélestat has the 4th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (18,761 to 20,456 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Meylan (9.2 km per km²) to Bressuire (0.6 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meylan Isère | 9.2 | 18% | 12% | 205 km |
| 2 | Villefontaine Isère | 9.1 | 21% | 1.7% | 241 km |
| 3 | Gentilly Val-de-Marne | 8 | 1.8% | 0% | 153 km |
| 4 | Le Mée-sur-Seine Seine-et-Marne | 7.9 | 34% | 0% | 190 km |
| 5 | Mont-Saint-Aignan Seine-Maritime | 7.3 | 12% | 0% | 50 km |
| 6 | Juvisy-sur-Orge Essonne | 6.4 | 1.3% | 0% | 166 km |
| 7 | Moulins Allier | 6.1 | 3.3% | 11% | 338 km |
| 8 | Chevilly-Larue Val-de-Marne | 5.8 | 3.8% | 0% | 158 km |
| 9 | Fougères Ille-et-Vilaine | 4.8 | 1.8% | 0% | 33 km |
| 10 | Paris 2e Paris | 4.6 | 0% | 0% | 148 km |
| 11 | Chilly-Mazarin Essonne | 4.2 | 2.8% | 0% | 163 km |
| 12 | Albertville Savoie | 4.1 | 47% | 0% | 228 km |
| 13 | Mougins Alpes-Maritimes | 4 | 28% | 0% | 5.1 km |
| 14 | Cesson-Sévigné Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.9 | 5.2% | 0% | 50 km |
| 15 | Bruz Ille-et-Vilaine | 3.8 | 14% | 0% | 55 km |
| 16 | Bruges Gironde | 3.7 | 9.3% | 23% | 14 km |
| 17 | Ronchin Nord | 3.7 | 1.8% | 0% | 66 km |
| 18 | Cournon-d'Auvergne Puy-de-Dôme | 3.3 | 6.6% | 6.3% | 251 km |
| 19 | Ploemeur Morbihan | 3.3 | 15% | 4.9% | On it |
| 20 | Saint-Dié-des-Vosges Vosges | 3.2 | 58% | 1.9% | 436 km |
| 21 | Saint-Lô Manche | 2.9 | 5% | 0% | 26 km |
| 22 | Royan Charente-Maritime | 2.8 | 8.7% | 12% | On it |
| 23 | Grande-Synthe Nord | 2.8 | 5.3% | 7.4% | On it |
| 24 | Sarreguemines Moselle | 2.6 | 32% | 0.9% | 374 km |
| 25 | Beaune Côte-d'Or | 2.6 | 16% | 25% | 389 km |
| 26 | Lisieux Calvados | 2.4 | 1.9% | 0% | 26 km |
| 27 | Lannion Côtes-d'Armor | 2.3 | 15% | 5.9% | On it |
| 28 | La Crau Var | 2.3 | 23% | 1.8% | 6.1 km |
| 29 | Saint-Fons Rhône | 2.3 | 4.1% | 0% | 246 km |
| 30 | Vence Alpes-Maritimes | 2.2 | 28% | 64% | 8.3 km |
| 31 | Vitré Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.2 | 4.2% | 0% | 58 km |
| 32 | Cahors Lot | 1.9 | 42% | 0% | 172 km |
| 33 | Bourg-lès-Valence Drôme | 1.8 | 1.8% | 0% | 166 km |
| 34 | Sorgues Vaucluse | 1.7 | 9.7% | 22% | 62 km |
| 35 | Pertuis Vaucluse | 1.5 | 18% | 100% | 40 km |
| 36 | Brie-Comte-Robert Seine-et-Marne | 1.3 | 4.7% | 0% | 176 km |
| 37 | Riom Puy-de-Dôme | 1.1 | 2.4% | 1.3% | 269 km |
| 38 | Sélestat Bas-Rhin | 1 | 40% | 56% | 462 km |
| 39 | Mitry-Mory Seine-et-Marne | 1 | 4.8% | 0% | 151 km |
| 40 | L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue Vaucluse | 0.8 | 4.8% | 7.3% | 54 km |
| 41 | Bressuire Deux-Sèvres | 0.6 | 2.4% | 0% | 77 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 Sélestat
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt de l'Illwald leads, at 1,260 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc Adélaïde Hautval
Park or garden
0.7 ha0.3 km of path
Centralin the middle of Sélestat
Directionsto a point inside
Place du Général d'Armau de Pouydraguin
Park or garden
0.4 ha0.3 km of path
Centralin the middle of Sélestat
Rue Froehlich
Directionsto a point inside
Square Paul-Louis Weiller
Park or garden
0.4 ha0.2 km of path
Centralin the middle of Sélestat
Square Paul Louis Weiller
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 Sélestat
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park
4.8 km from the town center
Nature reserve
Ried de Selestat (Ill*Wald) nature reserve
39% of the commune1.5 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Ried de Colmar à Sélestat, Bas-Rhin
55% of the commune1.4 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Secteur Alluvial Rhin-Ried-Bruch, Bas-Rhin
53% of the commune1.4 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Ried de Colmar à Sélestat, Haut-Rhin
4.8 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area56%
Nature reserve39%
Natura 2000 site56%
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.
56% of Sélestat’s land is protected, more than in 87% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Bas-Rhin has 0.1%. 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
48 km of footpaths and 25 km of hiking routes cross Sélestat
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
48 km
1 km per km²
Hiking routes
25 km
waymarked: 0.5 km per km²
Woodland
40%
about 18.7 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
SélestatBas-Rhin medianFrance median
Footpaths1
Hiking routes0.5
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
SélestatBas-Rhin medianFrance median
Woodland40%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 68% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 85% 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 Sélestat is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
11 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 50.3 km
Sentier de l'Ill16 km
Sentier des Ducs9.8 km
Circuit d’Orschwihr6.1 km
Sentier d'interpretation de l'Illwald4.9 km
Sentier de la Cigogne4.9 km
Sentier botanique3.5 km
Circuit de la Chouette2.9 km
Dans les pas du Lion et du géant Sletto2.7 km
Sentier de la Mouette2.1 km
Sentier de la Belette1.9 km
GR 5 passes within 2 km of Sélestat.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Sélestat: April, August and September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Selestat Sa, 2.4 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) | 8.7 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.2 | 16.1 | 15.7 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.1 | 8.4 |
| High (°C) | 6 | 8 | 12 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 16 | 9 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 36 | 34 | 36 | 43 | 78 | 67 | 70 | 64 | 51 | 58 | 44 | 42 |
February is the driest month (34 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 26 °C). 78 mm of rain falls in May, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 63 nights a year. The climate in Sélestat →
Neighbors
Next to Sélestat
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
ScherwillerChâtenoisHilsenheimRibeauvilléMarckolsheimHuttenheimSélestat
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sélestat | 56% | 40% | 1 |
| Scherwiller 3,099 · 3.8 km | 0% | 40% | 1.3 |
| Châtenois 4,294 · 3.9 km | 0% | 33% | 2 |
| Hilsenheim 2,604 · 8.8 km | 18% | 28% | 0 |
| Ribeauvillé 4,685 · 12 km | 100% | 72% | 2.7 |
| Marckolsheim 4,398 · 13 km | 47% | 37% | 0.8 |
| Huttenheim 2,735 · 15 km | 35% | 32% | 0.3 |
Ribeauvillé is more wooded.
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 Sélestat
Is Sélestat in a national or regional nature park?
No, but 56% of its land is in a nature reserve or a Natura 2000 site.
Are there good walks in Sélestat?
OpenStreetMap maps 48 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 25 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Sélestat is woodland?
40% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Sélestat near the sea?
No: the coast is 462 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Sélestat?
April, August and September: 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 4, 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.