Photo: James Cridland from UK · CC BY 2.0Guînes lies inside Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 100% of Guînes’ land. Waymarked hiking routes add up to 37 km in Guînes. 34% of Guînes is mapped woodland. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Throughout this page, the Pas-de-Calais median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
What kind of outdoors place is Guînes?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
What sets Guînes apart: the regional nature park around it, then its hiking routes.
How Guînes 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.
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Guînes has the 14th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (5,424 to 5,537 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Marsannay-la-Côte (6 km per km²) to Noyant-Villages (0.1 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marsannay-la-Côte Côte-d'Or | 6 | 47% | 49% | 405 km |
| 2 | Crégy-lès-Meaux Seine-et-Marne | 3.5 | 10% | 0% | 159 km |
| 3 | Nouzonville Ardennes | 3 | 67% | 100% | 203 km |
| 4 | Chevreuse Yvelines | 2.9 | 50% | 100% | 147 km |
| 5 | Lardy Essonne | 2.7 | 46% | 0.1% | 173 km |
| 6 | Coublevie Isère | 2.7 | 18% | 73% | 220 km |
| 7 | Saint-Genis-les-Ollières Rhône | 2.5 | 14% | 0% | 250 km |
| 8 | Penmarch Finistère | 2.5 | 0% | 18% | On it |
| 9 | Roques Haute-Garonne | 2.4 | 4.3% | 40% | 148 km |
| 10 | La Roque-d'Anthéron Bouches-du-Rhône | 2.3 | 36% | 51% | 39 km |
| 11 | Saint-Sébastien-de-Morsent Eure | 2.2 | 35% | 0% | 71 km |
| 12 | Aussillon Tarn | 2 | 41% | 100% | 75 km |
| 13 | Le Boulou Pyrénées-Orientales | 2 | 19% | 7.4% | 18 km |
| 14 | Guînes Pas-de-Calais | 1.8 | 34% | 100% | 10 km |
| 15 | Wervicq-Sud Nord | 1.8 | 3% | 0% | 48 km |
| 16 | Ollainville Essonne | 1.7 | 37% | 0% | 165 km |
| 17 | Rosheim Bas-Rhin | 1.7 | 57% | 0% | 443 km |
| 18 | Rousset Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.7 | 7.1% | 7.7% | 27 km |
| 19 | Arnage Sarthe | 1.6 | 11% | 0% | 138 km |
| 20 | Nogent-sur-Seine Aube | 1.6 | 18% | 2.5% | 230 km |
| 21 | Flers-en-Escrebieux Nord | 1.5 | 12% | 1% | 85 km |
| 22 | Foulayronnes Lot-et-Garonne | 1.4 | 9.9% | 0% | 130 km |
| 23 | Coulogne Pas-de-Calais | 1.2 | 1.1% | 0% | 4.7 km |
| 24 | Grans Bouches-du-Rhône | 1.2 | 13% | 43% | 22 km |
| 25 | Neuville-de-Poitou Vienne | 1 | 0.3% | 26% | 114 km |
| 26 | Fenain Nord | 1 | 10% | 99% | 97 km |
| 27 | Les Achards Vendée | 0.9 | 4.6% | 0% | 15 km |
| 28 | Drap Alpes-Maritimes | 0.8 | 33% | 0% | 4.8 km |
| 29 | Saint-Memmie Marne | 0.7 | 4.7% | 0% | 239 km |
| 30 | La Ferrière Vendée | 0.7 | 9.6% | 0% | 38 km |
| 31 | Boulay-Moselle Moselle | 0.7 | 11% | 0% | 339 km |
| 32 | Mouguerre Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 0.5 | 40% | 7.9% | 11 km |
| 33 | Étoile-sur-Rhône Drôme | 0.5 | 8.7% | 1.6% | 154 km |
| 34 | Châtillon-sur-Seine Côte-d'Or | 0.4 | 12% | 100% | 334 km |
| 35 | Roquemaure Gard | 0.3 | 12% | 13% | 66 km |
| 36 | Ernée Mayenne | 0.3 | 1.4% | 0.1% | 48 km |
| 37 | Servian Hérault | 0.3 | 7.4% | 0% | 17 km |
| 38 | Aubigny-sur-Nère Cher | 0.3 | 25% | 24% | 265 km |
| 39 | La Garnache Vendée | 0.2 | 9.8% | 0% | 18 km |
| 40 | Nueil-les-Aubiers Deux-Sèvres | 0.2 | 4.2% | 0% | 83 km |
| 41 | Noyant-Villages Maine-et-Loire | 0.1 | 23% | 13% | 164 km |
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Protected land in and around Guînes
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park
Prairies et marais tourbeux de Guines
Pelouses et bois neutrocalcicoles des cuestas du Boulonnais et du Pays de Licques et forêt de Guines
Share of the commune’s land
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 Guînes’ land is protected, more than in 94% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Pas-de-Calais 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.
48 km of footpaths and 37 km of hiking routes cross Guînes
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.
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
That is more than in 54% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 80% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. 98% of Guînes’ residents live within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, close to the typical town.
16 named hiking routes within 2 km
+4 more
GR 128 passes within 2 km of Guînes.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
The best walking months in Guînes: May to July and September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Calais-Marck, 11 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) | 8.4 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.5 | 16.5 | 16.1 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 16 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 60 | 47 | 40 | 38 | 50 | 52 | 55 | 67 | 63 | 91 | 92 | 83 |
April is the driest month (38 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 22 °C). 92 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 31 nights a year. The climate in Guînes →
Next to Guînes
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
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 Guînes
Is Guînes in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Guînes lies in Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Guînes?
OpenStreetMap maps 48 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.8 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 37 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Guînes is woodland?
34% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Guînes near the sea?
No: the coast is 10 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Guînes?
May to July 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 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.