First pick
Pré pour tous
Park or garden
1.1 ha0.2 km of path
Centralin the middle of Villard-de-Lans
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: CORLIN · CC BY-SA 3.0100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Villard-de-Lans · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Villard-de-Lans lies inside Vercors Regional Nature Park
100% of Villard-de-Lans’ land lies in protected areas. 57% of Villard-de-Lans is mapped woodland. Villard-de-Lans has 145 km of waymarked hiking routes. 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
57%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
228 km
3.4 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
145 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
3
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Pré pour tous
Throughout this page, the Isère 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 Villard-de-Lans?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Vercors Regional Nature Park100% of the commune is in the regional nature park.A wooded commune57% mapped woodland, more than in 94% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.On waymarked routes145 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.A mountain communeThe town center sits at 1,030 m (IGN).
What sets Villard-de-Lans apart: the regional nature park around it, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Villard-de-Lans 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
Woodland57%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
94out of 100
Footpaths3.4 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
79out of 100
Hiking routes2.2 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
Villard-de-Lans has the 4th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,294 to 4,364 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Sevrier (4.3 km per km²) to Buzançais (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sevrier Haute-Savoie | 4.3 | 49% | 100% | 255 km |
| 2 | Saint-Maurice-de-Beynost Ain | 4 | 21% | 17% | 262 km |
| 3 | Tigery Essonne | 3.6 | 41% | 0% | 176 km |
| 4 | Villard-de-Lans Isère | 3.4 | 57% | 100% | 188 km |
| 5 | Nilvange Moselle | 3.3 | 27% | 0% | 304 km |
| 6 | Gattières Alpes-Maritimes | 2.7 | 27% | 80% | 9.5 km |
| 7 | Niederbronn-les-Bains Bas-Rhin | 2.6 | 74% | 100% | 417 km |
| 8 | Poulx Gard | 2.5 | 0.1% | 56% | 47 km |
| 9 | Saulxures-lès-Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.3 | 31% | 0% | 369 km |
| 10 | Coignières Yvelines | 2.3 | 29% | 0.1% | 137 km |
| 11 | Châtenois Bas-Rhin | 2 | 33% | 0% | 458 km |
| 12 | Steenvoorde Nord | 1.8 | 1.9% | 0% | 29 km |
| 13 | Villeneuve Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 1.8 | 34% | 100% | 74 km |
| 14 | Cheval-Blanc Vaucluse | 1.7 | 19% | 100% | 42 km |
| 15 | Is-sur-Tille Côte-d'Or | 1.6 | 41% | 0% | 388 km |
| 16 | Millery Rhône | 1.6 | 14% | 0% | 237 km |
| 17 | Hillion Côtes-d'Armor | 1.6 | 6.9% | 9% | On it |
| 18 | Le Val Var | 1.5 | 63% | 7.3% | 37 km |
| 19 | Louverné Mayenne | 1.5 | 3.9% | 0% | 74 km |
| 20 | Cadenet Vaucluse | 1.1 | 28% | 100% | 42 km |
| 21 | Camon Somme | 1.1 | 5.6% | 14% | 57 km |
| 22 | Saint-Aubin-d'Aubigné Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.8 | 12% | 0% | 38 km |
| 23 | Beaumont-lès-Valence Drôme | 0.8 | 9.8% | 0% | 157 km |
| 24 | Égletons Corrèze | 0.8 | 51% | 0.1% | 212 km |
| 25 | Chabanière Rhône | 0.8 | 17% | 0% | 230 km |
| 26 | Morestel Isère | 0.8 | 16% | 12% | 252 km |
| 27 | Pons Charente-Maritime | 0.8 | 10% | 13% | 22 km |
| 28 | Rang-du-Fliers Pas-de-Calais | 0.6 | 23% | 13% | 4.7 km |
| 29 | Cours Rhône | 0.6 | 46% | 0% | 283 km |
| 30 | Bessières Haute-Garonne | 0.6 | 9.9% | 2.4% | 145 km |
| 31 | Friville-Escarbotin Somme | 0.5 | 2.1% | 100% | 7.2 km |
| 32 | Saint-Savin Isère | 0.5 | 17% | 15% | 244 km |
| 33 | Eyragues Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.5 | 0.4% | 0% | 43 km |
| 34 | Sarralbe Moselle | 0.5 | 29% | 10% | 381 km |
| 35 | Valence-en-Poitou Vienne | 0.4 | 20% | 0% | 100 km |
| 36 | Ussac Corrèze | 0.4 | 24% | 0% | 167 km |
| 37 | Montélier Drôme | 0.3 | 2.2% | 0% | 165 km |
| 38 | Rives de l'Yon Vendée | 0.3 | 7.1% | 0% | 25 km |
| 39 | Roullet-Saint-Estèphe Charente | 0.2 | 16% | 3.1% | 65 km |
| 40 | Bassillac et Auberoche Dordogne | 0.1 | 49% | 0% | 116 km |
| 41 | Buzançais Indre | 0.1 | 28% | 5.7% | 206 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 Villard-de-Lans
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Pré pour tous leads, at 1.1 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Espace de jeux des Jeandiats
Park or garden
0.8 ha0.3 km of path
Centralin the middle of Villard-de-Lans
Directionsto a point inside
Jardin des Bains
Park or garden
0.3 ha0.2 km of path
Centralin the middle of Villard-de-Lans
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 Villard-de-Lans
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Vercors Regional Nature Park
100% of the commune
Natura 2000 site
La Bourne
1% of the commune2.5 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
Natura 2000 site1%
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 Villard-de-Lans’ land is protected, more than in 99% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Isère has 0%. 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
228 km of footpaths and 145 km of hiking routes cross Villard-de-Lans
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
228 km
3.4 km per km²
Hiking routes
145 km
waymarked: 2.2 km per km²
Woodland
57%
about 38.5 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Villard-de-LansIsère medianFrance median
Footpaths3.4
Hiking routes2.2
024 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Villard-de-LansIsère medianFrance median
Woodland57%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 79% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 94% 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 Villard-de-Lans is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
5 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 9120 km
Tour des 4 Montagnes45 km
Au Fil de la Bourne7.7 km
Sentier des deux cols4.8 km
voie normale0.5 km
GR 91 passes within 2 km of Villard-de-Lans.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Villard-de-Lans: May to August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Villard-De-Lans, 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) | 9.1 | 10.3 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.8 | 15.6 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.9 | 9.5 | 8.8 |
| High (°C) | 4 | 5 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 24 | 23 | 19 | 15 | 9 | 5 |
| Rain (mm) | 101 | 77 | 91 | 110 | 117 | 95 | 94 | 95 | 121 | 120 | 138 | 112 |
February is the driest month (77 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 24 °C). 138 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 136 nights a year. The climate in Villard-de-Lans →
Neighbors
Next to Villard-de-Lans
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Lans-en-VercorsVifAutrans-Méaudre en VercorsVarces-Allières-et-RissetClaixSaint-Georges-de-CommiersVillard-de-Lans
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villard-de-Lans | 100% | 57% | 3.4 |
| Lans-en-Vercors 2,751 · 6.5 km | 100% | 48% | 2.9 |
| Vif 8,530 · 9.6 km | 7% | 48% | 1.8 |
| Autrans-Méaudre en Vercors 2,936 · 9.9 km | 100% | 72% | 3.4 |
| Varces-Allières-et-Risset 8,542 · 10 km | 32% | 33% | 2.4 |
| Claix 7,836 · 11 km | 64% | 55% | 3.5 |
| Saint-Georges-de-Commiers 2,699 · 13 km | 9.7% | 70% | 4.5 |
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 Villard-de-Lans
Is Villard-de-Lans in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Villard-de-Lans lies in Vercors Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Villard-de-Lans?
OpenStreetMap maps 228 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 3.4 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 145 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Villard-de-Lans is woodland?
57% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Villard-de-Lans near the sea?
No: the coast is 188 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Villard-de-Lans?
May 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.