First pick
Parc Bargoin
Park or garden · 0 m outside the commune
7.1 ha3 km of path
40 minto walk all 3 km of path
1 km eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: SM63 · CC BY-SA 3.063%woodland
Outdoors in Royat · protected areas, woods and footpaths
63% of Royat is woodland, more than in 9 in 10 French towns
Royat has 11 km of waymarked hiking routes. 28 km of footpaths cross Royat (4.2 km per km²). No protected area reaches Royat; the nearest, Volcans d’Auvergne Regional Nature Park, is 0.6 km from the town center. France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
0.2%
of the commune’s land
Nearest: Volcans d’Auvergne Regional Nature Park, 0.6 km
Woodland
63%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
28 km
4.2 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
2
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc Bargoin
Throughout this page, the Puy-de-Dôme 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 Royat?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
A wooded commune63% mapped woodland, more than in 96% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.On waymarked routes11 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.A place of footpaths4.2 km per km² of mapped footpath, against 1.7 km per km² for the median compared town.Protected land nearbyVolcans d’Auvergne Regional Nature Park is 0.6 km from the town center.
What sets Royat apart: its woods, then its hiking routes.
Against French towns
How Royat 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 areas0.2%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
52out of 100
Woodland63%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
96out of 100
Footpaths4.2 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
86out of 100
Hiking routes1.6 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
94out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Royat has the 4th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (4,444 to 4,512 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Cap-d'Ail (10.8 km per km²) to Marans (0.2 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cap-d'Ail Alpes-Maritimes | 10.8 | 7.8% | 0.2% | On it |
| 2 | Jacob-Bellecombette Savoie | 7.4 | 26% | 45% | 232 km |
| 3 | Saint-Nicolas Pas-de-Calais | 4.8 | 2.8% | 0% | 79 km |
| 4 | Royat Puy-de-Dôme | 4.2 | 63% | 0.2% | 257 km |
| 5 | Nozay Essonne | 3.2 | 5.7% | 0% | 162 km |
| 6 | Maurecourt Yvelines | 3.2 | 15% | 0% | 125 km |
| 7 | Bretteville-sur-Odon Calvados | 3.2 | 4.3% | 0% | 17 km |
| 8 | La Chaussée-Saint-Victor Loir-et-Cher | 3 | 11% | 8.1% | 215 km |
| 9 | Montrabé Haute-Garonne | 3 | 6.6% | 0% | 142 km |
| 10 | Thourotte Oise | 2.8 | 8% | 0.8% | 116 km |
| 11 | Montigny-en-Ostrevent Nord | 2.8 | 13% | 0.4% | 92 km |
| 12 | Écrouves Meurthe-et-Moselle | 2.6 | 23% | 100% | 346 km |
| 13 | Saint-Laurent-du-Pont Isère | 2.3 | 67% | 100% | 224 km |
| 14 | Villeneuve-de-la-Raho Pyrénées-Orientales | 2.2 | 0.2% | 0% | 9.8 km |
| 15 | Vinon-sur-Verdon Var | 2.1 | 34% | 100% | 57 km |
| 16 | Saint-Marcel Eure | 1.8 | 24% | 0% | 88 km |
| 17 | Rousson Gard | 1.8 | 28% | 0% | 70 km |
| 18 | Noirmoutier-en-l'Île Vendée | 1.7 | 4% | 38% | On it |
| 19 | Maintenon Eure-et-Loir | 1.6 | 28% | 0.5% | 130 km |
| 20 | Guise Aisne | 1.5 | 4.9% | 0% | 143 km |
| 21 | Marchiennes Nord | 1.4 | 38% | 100% | 91 km |
| 22 | Banyuls-sur-Mer Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.3 | 6.4% | 78% | On it |
| 23 | Plobsheim Bas-Rhin | 1.1 | 10% | 31% | 459 km |
| 24 | Saint-Pair-sur-Mer Manche | 0.9 | 2.5% | 4.5% | 0.9 km |
| 25 | Beaussais-sur-Mer Côtes-d'Armor | 0.9 | 12% | 100% | On it |
| 26 | Hergnies Nord | 0.9 | 8.5% | 100% | 94 km |
| 27 | Guignes Seine-et-Marne | 0.9 | 36% | 0% | 189 km |
| 28 | Hesdin-la-Forêt Pas-de-Calais | 0.9 | 51% | 0% | 28 km |
| 29 | Chancelade Dordogne | 0.7 | 48% | 0% | 100 km |
| 30 | Lamotte-Beuvron Loir-et-Cher | 0.7 | 52% | 100% | 239 km |
| 31 | Villeneuve-lès-Béziers Hérault | 0.6 | 1.8% | 30% | 7.4 km |
| 32 | Mesnil-Roc'h Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.6 | 36% | 100% | 8.2 km |
| 33 | Lunel-Viel Hérault | 0.6 | 4.6% | 0% | 13 km |
| 34 | La Réole Gironde | 0.5 | 7.2% | 6.5% | 64 km |
| 35 | Pineuilh Gironde | 0.5 | 8.5% | 2.2% | 67 km |
| 36 | Jarnac Charente | 0.5 | 6.2% | 23% | 53 km |
| 37 | Gonfaron Var | 0.4 | 42% | 23% | 21 km |
| 38 | Freneuse Yvelines | 0.4 | 34% | 51% | 100 km |
| 39 | Charmes Vosges | 0.4 | 60% | 8% | 391 km |
| 40 | Torigny-les-Villes Manche | 0.3 | 5.4% | 0% | 38 km |
| 41 | Marans Charente-Maritime | 0.2 | 0.3% | 100% | 11 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 Royat
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc Bargoin leads, at 7.1 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc Thermal
Park or garden
2.2 ha1.2 km of path
15 minto walk all 1.2 km of path
Centralin the middle of Royat
Chemin des Grottes Rouges
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Volcans d’Auvergne Regional Nature Park is the nearest protected area, 0.6 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
Volcans d’Auvergne Regional Nature Park
0.6 km from the town center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area0.2%
Regional nature park0.2%
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.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
28 km of footpaths and 11 km of hiking routes cross Royat
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
28 km
4.2 km per km²
Hiking routes
11 km
waymarked: 1.6 km per km²
Woodland
63%
about 4.2 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
RoyatPuy-de-Dôme medianFrance median
Footpaths4.2
Hiking routes1.6
02.55 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
RoyatPuy-de-Dôme medianFrance median
Woodland63%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 86% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 96% 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 Royat is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
7 named hiking routes within 2 km
Other named walk
Le Puy de Montrodeix9.7 km
Chemin de Montaigne de Clermont-Ferrand à Saint-Ours8.4 km
Le chemin des écoliers6.8 km
Le Paradis6.7 km
Le Rocher du Salut2.7 km
Clermont-Ferrand - Olloix2.6 km
La Côte de Pégnu0.9 km
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Royat: April to June, August and September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Sayat_Sapc, 8.6 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) | 9.0 | 10.3 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 14.9 | 15.7 | 15.4 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 10.8 | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| High (°C) | 7 | 8 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 17 | 11 | 7 |
| Rain (mm) | 56 | 48 | 50 | 73 | 74 | 71 | 78 | 67 | 66 | 60 | 69 | 64 |
February is the driest month (48 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 25 °C). 78 mm of rain falls in July, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 56 nights a year. The climate in Royat →
Neighbors
Next to Royat
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
ChamalièresCeyratBeaumontOrcinesClermont-FerrandAubièreRoyat
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royat | 0.2% | 63% | 4.2 |
| Chamalières 17,509 · 1.7 km | 0.1% | 3.4% | 4.1 |
| Ceyrat 6,592 · 2.5 km | 100% | 48% | 4.6 |
| Beaumont 10,728 · 3.2 km | 0.1% | 2.4% | 6 |
| Orcines 3,609 · 3.4 km | 100% | 59% | 2.5 |
| Clermont-Ferrand 146,351 · 4.3 km | 0.7% | 4.6% | 3.7 |
| Aubière 10,459 · 5 km | 0% | 0.4% | 5.2 |
Ceyrat and Orcines have at least twice as much protected land.
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 Royat
Is Royat in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is Volcans d’Auvergne Regional Nature Park, 0.6 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Royat?
OpenStreetMap maps 28 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 4.2 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 11 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Royat is woodland?
63% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Royat near the sea?
No: the coast is 257 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Royat?
April to June, 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 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.