First pick
Forêt d'Écault
Wood or forest
715 ha27.7 km of path
6 h 10 minto walk all 27.7 km of path
3.2 km north-westfrom the center
Sentier de l'Enclos des Moutons
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Valentin Polo vp_fr · CC0100%of the land protected
Outdoors in Neufchâtel-Hardelot · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Neufchâtel-Hardelot lies inside Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park
Protected areas cover 100% of Neufchâtel-Hardelot’s land. 27% of Neufchâtel-Hardelot is mapped woodland. 52 km of footpaths cross Neufchâtel-Hardelot (2.5 km per km²). 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
27%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
52 km
2.5 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
4 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Green space nearby
82%
of residents within 800 m of a park or wood
Compared town: 100%
The sea
On it
the commune touches the coast, 3 km from its center
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 place
What kind of outdoors place is Neufchâtel-Hardelot?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Inside Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park100% of the commune is in the regional nature park.On the coastThe commune touches the sea; the coast is 3 km from its center.
What sets Neufchâtel-Hardelot apart: the regional nature park around it, then the sea.
Against French towns
How Neufchâtel-Hardelot 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
94out of 100
Woodland27%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
73out of 100
Footpaths2.5 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
66out of 100
Hiking routes0.2 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
37out of 100
Green space nearby82%Share of residents within 800 m of a mapped park or wood
4out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Neufchâtel-Hardelot has the 8th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,081 to 4,148 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Longeville-lès-Metz (7.3 km per km²) to Benet (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Longeville-lès-Metz Moselle | 7.3 | 9.3% | 0% | 327 km |
| 2 | Chanteloup-en-Brie Seine-et-Marne | 6.5 | 24% | 0% | 166 km |
| 3 | Montferrier-sur-Lez Hérault | 5.3 | 33% | 8.3% | 16 km |
| 4 | Mareil-Marly Yvelines | 3.8 | 24% | 0% | 136 km |
| 5 | Bouxières-aux-Dames Meurthe-et-Moselle | 3.5 | 30% | 0% | 359 km |
| 6 | Fouras Charente-Maritime | 2.8 | 2.8% | 43% | On it |
| 7 | Turckheim Haut-Rhin | 2.7 | 56% | 7.9% | 469 km |
| 8 | Neufchâtel-Hardelot Pas-de-Calais | 2.5 | 27% | 100% | On it |
| 9 | Aramon Gard | 2.4 | 2.4% | 15% | 51 km |
| 10 | Aulnat Puy-de-Dôme | 2.1 | 0.1% | 0% | 258 km |
| 11 | Monéteau Yonne | 1.9 | 37% | 0% | 293 km |
| 12 | Bouchain Nord | 1.8 | 18% | 0% | 105 km |
| 13 | Le Houlme Seine-Maritime | 1.7 | 37% | 0% | 44 km |
| 14 | Abscon Nord | 1.6 | 6.4% | 0% | 100 km |
| 15 | Baccarat Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.6 | 39% | 17% | 412 km |
| 16 | Brie Charente | 1.5 | 35% | 19% | 86 km |
| 17 | Veigy-Foncenex Haute-Savoie | 1.5 | 38% | 0.3% | 293 km |
| 18 | Saint-Romain-le-Puy Loire | 1.4 | 16% | 17% | 222 km |
| 19 | Val d'Oingt Rhône | 1.3 | 20% | 0% | 266 km |
| 20 | Ghyvelde Nord | 1.3 | 0.2% | 6.9% | 3.7 km |
| 21 | Pont-de-l'Arche Eure | 1.2 | 72% | 1.4% | 59 km |
| 22 | Gondecourt Nord | 1.2 | 4.8% | 0% | 68 km |
| 23 | Sainte-Menehould Marne | 1.2 | 70% | 35% | 263 km |
| 24 | Nissan-lez-Enserune Hérault | 1.1 | 4.6% | 38% | 12 km |
| 25 | Survilliers Val-d'Oise | 1.1 | 23% | 71% | 135 km |
| 26 | Chaingy Loiret | 1 | 21% | 2.3% | 202 km |
| 27 | La Destrousse Bouches-du-Rhône | 0.9 | 11% | 6.2% | 19 km |
| 28 | Condé-sur-Vire Manche | 0.9 | 3.4% | 0% | 33 km |
| 29 | Domfront en Poiraie Orne | 0.9 | 13% | 100% | 52 km |
| 30 | Arsac Gironde | 0.9 | 59% | 100% | 6.4 km |
| 31 | Neuilly-en-Thelle Oise | 0.8 | 7.9% | 0% | 114 km |
| 32 | Saint-Lubin-des-Joncherets Eure-et-Loir | 0.7 | 19% | 0% | 97 km |
| 33 | Eauze Gers | 0.6 | 24% | 9.8% | 117 km |
| 34 | Pusignan Rhône | 0.6 | 2.9% | 0% | 256 km |
| 35 | Pézilla-la-Rivière Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.5 | 1.8% | 0% | 22 km |
| 36 | Allassac Corrèze | 0.4 | 21% | 2.2% | 164 km |
| 37 | Les Mées Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 0.4 | 49% | 17% | 91 km |
| 38 | Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine Indre-et-Loire | 0.3 | 9.9% | 0% | 161 km |
| 39 | Solesmes Nord | 0.3 | 0.7% | 0% | 121 km |
| 40 | Saint-Joachim Loire-Atlantique | 0.2 | 0.1% | 100% | 8.8 km |
| 41 | Benet Vendée | 0.2 | 0.7% | 100% | 41 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 Neufchâtel-Hardelot
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Forêt d'Écault leads, at 715 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Forêt d'Hardelot
Wood or forest
535 ha12.2 km of path
2 h 45 minto walk all 12.2 km of path
1.2 km north-eastfrom the center
Sentier du HameaudAvenue Charlemagne
Directionsto a point inside
Mont Saint-Frieux
Wood or forest
464 ha5.2 km of path
1 h 10 minto walk all 5.2 km of path
1.7 km south-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Jardins du Château
Park or garden · 240 m outside the commune
0.5 ha
2.2 km northfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Close to home
8 in 10 residents of Neufchâtel-Hardelot live within 800 m of a park or wood
Each square is 1 resident in 100: in green, those within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or woodland edge (INSEE’s 200 m population grid against OpenStreetMap).
82% within 800 m18% further
Residents within 800 m of green space · share of residents
Neufchâtel-HardelotPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Within 800 m82%
0%50%100%
About 700 residents live further away. The distance is a straight line to the edge of a mapped park or wood, not a walk to a gate, and a wood can be private.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Neufchâtel-Hardelot
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park
100% of the commune
Nature reserve
Marais de Condette nature reserve
1.4 km from the town center
Natura 2000 site
Estuaire de la Canche, dunes picardes plaquées sur l’ancienne falaise, forêt d’Hardelot et falaise d’Equihen
7.1% of the commune0.4 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
Coteau de Dannes et de Camiers
3 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area100%
Regional nature park100%
Natura 2000 site7.4%
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 Neufchâtel-Hardelot’s 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.
Footpaths and woods
52 km of footpaths cross Neufchâtel-Hardelot
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
52 km
2.5 km per km²
Hiking routes
4 km
waymarked: 0.2 km per km²
Woodland
27%
about 5.7 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
Neufchâtel-HardelotPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Footpaths2.5
Hiking routes0.2
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
Neufchâtel-HardelotPas-de-Calais medianFrance median
Woodland27%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 66% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 73% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them.
12 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 12114 km
GR 12011 km
Le Mont de l'Epine7.2 km
Le Haut Pichon6.1 km
Sentier du Chablis3.5 km
Sentier de la Dune Cotière3.2 km
Sentier du Marais2 km
Sentier de la Dune Vive1.7 km
Sentier de la Pomme d'Or1.6 km
Sentier des Fourrés1.3 km
Glaisière de Nesles1.3 km
Ascension du Mont St-Frieux1.3 km
2 GR routes pass within 2 km of Neufchâtel-Hardelot: GR 121 and GR 120.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Neufchâtel-Hardelot: May to August
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Boulogne-Sem, 12 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 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 15.5 | 16.4 | 16.0 | 14.5 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.9 | 8.0 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 21 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 8 |
| Rain (mm) | 77 | 56 | 48 | 48 | 55 | 48 | 54 | 63 | 70 | 96 | 107 | 103 |
March is the driest month (48 mm) and August the warmest (highs of 21 °C). 107 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 19 nights a year. The climate in Neufchâtel-Hardelot →
Neighbors
Next to Neufchâtel-Hardelot
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Saint-Étienne-au-MontCamiersÉquihen-PlageSaint-LéonardOutreauSamerNeufchâtel-Hardelot
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neufchâtel-Hardelot | 100% | 27% | 2.5 | On it |
| Saint-Étienne-au-Mont 5,029 · 5.4 km | 100% | 35% | 2.8 | On it |
| Camiers 2,582 · 6.4 km | 32% | 30% | 2 | On it |
| Équihen-Plage 2,619 · 6.5 km | 100% | 3.8% | 2.7 | On it |
| Saint-Léonard 3,353 · 7.3 km | 0.2% | 7.5% | 0.9 | 4 km |
| Outreau 13,138 · 8.8 km | 0% | 4.8% | 2.6 | 1.7 km |
| Samer 4,704 · 9.2 km | 100% | 20% | 0.3 | 12 km |
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 Neufchâtel-Hardelot
Is Neufchâtel-Hardelot in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Neufchâtel-Hardelot lies in Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park (100% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Neufchâtel-Hardelot?
OpenStreetMap maps 52 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 2.5 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 4 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Neufchâtel-Hardelot is woodland?
27% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Neufchâtel-Hardelot near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 3 km from its center.
When is the best time for walking in Neufchâtel-Hardelot?
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.