First pick
Square Saint-Joseph
Park or garden
0.4 ha
1.2 km northfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Cayambe · CC BY-SA 3.091%woodland
Outdoors in Kourou · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Kourou is on the coast
91% of Kourou is mapped woodland. 114 km of footpaths cross Kourou (0.1 km per km²). No protected area reaches Kourou; the nearest, Guyane Regional Nature Park, is 36 km from the town center. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Guyane Regional Nature Park, 36 km
Woodland
91%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
114 km
0.1 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
3.4 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
1
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Square Saint-Joseph
The sea
On it
the commune touches the coast, 1.1 km from its center
Throughout this page, the French Guiana 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 Kourou?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
On the coastThe commune touches the sea; the coast is 1.1 km from its center.A wooded commune91% mapped woodland, more than in 99% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.Few mapped footpaths0.1 km per km², against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.
What sets Kourou apart: the sea, then its woods. It is shorter on footpaths.
Against French towns
How Kourou 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 areas0%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
45out of 100
Woodland91%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
100out of 100
Footpaths0.1 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
0out of 100
Hiking routes0 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
24out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Kourou has the fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (23,559 to 26,211 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Les Ulis (10.9 km per km²) to Kourou (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Les Ulis Essonne | 10.9 | 13% | 0.2% | 156 km |
| 2 | Villeneuve-la-Garenne Hauts-de-Seine | 9.8 | 4.2% | 0% | 141 km |
| 3 | Vichy Allier | 8.8 | 1.3% | 12% | 290 km |
| 4 | Les Lilas Seine-Saint-Denis | 6.6 | 4.4% | 0% | 150 km |
| 5 | Fontenay-aux-Roses Hauts-de-Seine | 6.1 | 1.8% | 0% | 153 km |
| 6 | Rodez Aveyron | 5.9 | 5.5% | 0% | 136 km |
| 7 | Le Kremlin-Bicêtre Val-de-Marne | 5.8 | 1.8% | 0% | 154 km |
| 8 | Brunoy Essonne | 5.2 | 18% | 0% | 170 km |
| 9 | Eaubonne Val-d'Oise | 5 | 1.9% | 0% | 134 km |
| 10 | Montbéliard Doubs | 4.9 | 22% | 0% | 418 km |
| 11 | Alençon Orne | 4.8 | 2.3% | 5.5% | 97 km |
| 12 | Marseille 2e Bouches-du-Rhône | 4.8 | 0% | 0% | On it |
| 13 | Lormont Gironde | 4.7 | 12% | 7.4% | 16 km |
| 14 | Montgeron Essonne | 4.6 | 46% | 0% | 168 km |
| 15 | Castelnau-le-Lez Hérault | 4.6 | 4.5% | 1.2% | 11 km |
| 16 | Miramas Bouches-du-Rhône | 4 | 9.2% | 5.7% | 18 km |
| 17 | Béthune Pas-de-Calais | 4 | 4% | 0% | 60 km |
| 18 | Orly Val-de-Marne | 3.9 | 5% | 0% | 162 km |
| 19 | Eysines Gironde | 3.9 | 7.6% | 3.1% | 15 km |
| 20 | Hénin-Beaumont Pas-de-Calais | 3.8 | 5.6% | 0% | 80 km |
| 21 | Biarritz Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 3.5 | 11% | 3.5% | On it |
| 22 | La Valette-du-Var Var | 3.4 | 23% | 32% | 3.7 km |
| 23 | Le Grand-Quevilly Seine-Maritime | 3.4 | 4.9% | 0.1% | 50 km |
| 24 | Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône Val-d'Oise | 3.2 | 7.4% | 0% | 123 km |
| 25 | Le Bouscat Gironde | 3 | 1.4% | 0% | 16 km |
| 26 | Dammarie-les-Lys Seine-et-Marne | 2.7 | 35% | 26% | 192 km |
| 27 | Vernon Eure | 2.5 | 56% | 3.5% | 90 km |
| 28 | Dole Jura | 2.5 | 36% | 37% | 400 km |
| 29 | Libourne Gironde | 2 | 2.5% | 14% | 30 km |
| 30 | Saintes Charente-Maritime | 1.9 | 12% | 9.3% | 26 km |
| 31 | Les Pavillons-sous-Bois Seine-Saint-Denis | 1.9 | 0% | 0% | 151 km |
| 32 | Frontignan Hérault | 1.8 | 0.9% | 29% | On it |
| 33 | Muret Haute-Garonne | 1.5 | 10% | 3.2% | 150 km |
| 34 | Couëron Loire-Atlantique | 1.3 | 6.6% | 33% | 28 km |
| 35 | Cavaillon Vaucluse | 1.1 | 3.2% | 100% | 45 km |
| 36 | Laon Aisne | 1.1 | 16% | 0% | 156 km |
| 37 | Vierzon Cher | 0.8 | 44% | 0% | 265 km |
| 38 | Sèvremoine Maine-et-Loire | 0.6 | 5.3% | 0% | 70 km |
| 39 | Beaupréau-en-Mauges Maine-et-Loire | 0.4 | 5.1% | 0% | 78 km |
| 40 | Sainte-Suzanne Réunion | 0.4 | 31% | 49% | On it |
| 41 | Kourou French Guiana | 0.1 | 91% | 0% | On it |
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 Kourou
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Square Saint-Joseph leads, at 0.4 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Guyane Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 36 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Guyane Regional Nature Park
36 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0%
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.
A regional nature park is a charter between communes to look after a landscape: farming, building and hunting go on inside it. Natura 2000 doesn’t apply in the overseas départements.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
114 km of footpaths cross Kourou
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
114 km
0.1 km per km²
Hiking routes
3.4 km
waymarked: 0 km per km²
Woodland
91%
about 2,058.9 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
KourouFrench Guiana medianFrance median
Footpaths0.1
Hiking routes0
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
KourouFrench Guiana medianFrance median
Woodland91%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 99% 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. The center of Kourou is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood (INSEE’s population grid doesn’t cover French Guiana).
A named hiking route within 2 km
Other named walk
Sentier de la Montagne des Singes3.4 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The walking year in Kourou
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Kourou Plage, 1.1 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) | 11.9 | 12.0 | 12.1 | 12.2 | 12.4 | 12.4 | 12.4 | 12.3 | 12.1 | 12.0 | 11.9 | 11.8 |
| High (°C) | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 31 | 30 |
| Rain (mm) | 282 | 237 | 208 | 357 | 472 | 340 | 159 | 68 | 24 | 37 | 95 | 245 |
September is the driest month (24 mm) and October the warmest (highs of 32 °C). 472 mm of rain falls in May, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 32 °C, too hot for the outline. The climate in Kourou →
Neighbors
Next to Kourou
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
MacouriaKourou
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kourou | 0% | 91% | 0.1 | On it |
| Macouria 19,899 · 25 km | 0% | 50% | 0.1 | On it |
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 Kourou
Is Kourou in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Guyane Regional Nature Park, 36 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Kourou?
OpenStreetMap maps 114 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 0.1 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 3 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Kourou is woodland?
91% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Kourou near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 1.1 km from its center.
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.