First pick
Parc du Canet
Park or garden
3.1 ha0.6 km of path
10 minto walk all 0.6 km of path
0.7 km southfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Édouard Baldus · CC030%woodland
Outdoors in Bandol · protected areas, woods and footpaths
Bandol is on the coast
30% of Bandol is mapped woodland. No protected area reaches Bandol; the nearest, La Pointe Fauconnière (Natura 2000), is 2.5 km from the town center. 17 km of footpaths cross Bandol (1.8 km per km²). 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: La Pointe Fauconnière, 2.5 km
Woodland
30%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
17 km
1.8 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
3.1 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
8
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Parc du Canet
The sea
On it
the commune touches the coast, 0.7 km from its center
Throughout this page, the Var 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 Bandol?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
On the coastThe commune touches the sea; the coast is 0.7 km from its center.A wooded commune30% mapped woodland, more than in 76% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.Protected land nearbyLa Pointe Fauconnière (Natura 2000) is 2.5 km from the town center.
What sets Bandol apart: the sea, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Bandol 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
22out of 100
Woodland30%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
76out of 100
Footpaths1.8 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
54out of 100
Hiking routes0.3 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
49out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Bandol has the 19th most footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (8,130 to 8,414 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Bihorel (5.5 km per km²) to Donges (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bihorel Seine-Maritime | 5.5 | 4.8% | 0% | 51 km |
| 2 | La Ville-du-Bois Essonne | 4.4 | 28% | 0% | 164 km |
| 3 | Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie Vendée | 4.3 | 3.1% | 5.4% | On it |
| 4 | Harfleur Seine-Maritime | 4.1 | 14% | 0% | 6.6 km |
| 5 | Paray-Vieille-Poste Essonne | 3.9 | 0.4% | 0% | 164 km |
| 6 | Bouaye Loire-Atlantique | 3.4 | 20% | 9% | 26 km |
| 7 | Mazingarbe Pas-de-Calais | 2.9 | 7.4% | 0% | 68 km |
| 8 | Ballancourt-sur-Essonne Essonne | 2.9 | 28% | 0.1% | 179 km |
| 9 | Guilers Finistère | 2.9 | 11% | 0% | 5.1 km |
| 10 | Vern-sur-Seiche Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.9 | 13% | 0% | 57 km |
| 11 | Téteghem-Coudekerque-Village Nord | 2.8 | 9.1% | 0% | 4.1 km |
| 12 | Brunstatt-Didenheim Haut-Rhin | 2.7 | 25% | 0% | 438 km |
| 13 | Souffelweyersheim Bas-Rhin | 2.7 | 1.7% | 0% | 447 km |
| 14 | Le Mesnil-Esnard Seine-Maritime | 2.6 | 16% | 0% | 57 km |
| 15 | Carbon-Blanc Gironde | 2.5 | 0.5% | 0% | 14 km |
| 16 | Charnay-lès-Mâcon Saône-et-Loire | 2.4 | 5.7% | 0% | 311 km |
| 17 | Coutances Manche | 2.4 | 5.6% | 0% | 5.7 km |
| 18 | Orchies Nord | 1.9 | 1.7% | 0.7% | 84 km |
| 19 | Bandol Var | 1.8 | 30% | 0% | On it |
| 20 | Noyal-Châtillon-sur-Seiche Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.8 | 4.5% | 0% | 56 km |
| 21 | Val de Briey Meurthe-et-Moselle | 1.7 | 55% | 0% | 305 km |
| 22 | Anse Rhône | 1.7 | 16% | 0% | 269 km |
| 23 | Saint-Claude Jura | 1.7 | 78% | 100% | 318 km |
| 24 | La Colle-sur-Loup Alpes-Maritimes | 1.7 | 39% | 28% | 5.1 km |
| 25 | Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf Seine-Maritime | 1.5 | 5.4% | 1.3% | 53 km |
| 26 | Trignac Loire-Atlantique | 1.5 | 0.1% | 65% | 1.7 km |
| 27 | Pégomas Alpes-Maritimes | 1 | 49% | 0% | 6.4 km |
| 28 | Linselles Nord | 1 | 0.7% | 0% | 53 km |
| 29 | Chinon Indre-et-Loire | 1 | 15% | 100% | 142 km |
| 30 | Meximieux Ain | 1 | 12% | 2.7% | 274 km |
| 31 | Thuir Pyrénées-Orientales | 0.9 | 0.4% | 0% | 23 km |
| 32 | Tournan-en-Brie Seine-et-Marne | 0.8 | 17% | 0% | 178 km |
| 33 | Feurs Loire | 0.8 | 6.8% | 37% | 243 km |
| 34 | Marguerittes Gard | 0.7 | 11% | 33% | 44 km |
| 35 | Malemort Corrèze | 0.7 | 27% | 0% | 171 km |
| 36 | Marseillan Hérault | 0.7 | 0.9% | 52% | On it |
| 37 | Tonnay-Charente Charente-Maritime | 0.6 | 3.3% | 17% | 6.9 km |
| 38 | Questembert Morbihan | 0.6 | 19% | 0% | 16 km |
| 39 | Salles Gironde | 0.5 | 86% | 100% | 17 km |
| 40 | Évron Mayenne | 0.3 | 7.3% | 19% | 88 km |
| 41 | Donges Loire-Atlantique | 0.3 | 2.8% | 58% | 8.5 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 Bandol
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Parc du Canet leads, at 3.1 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Parc paysager Deferrari
Park or garden
0.6 ha0.3 km of path
1.4 km southfrom the center
Promenade Paul Ricard
Directionsto a point inside
Square Bir-Hakeim
Park or garden
0.2 ha0.2 km of path
1.2 km south-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Square Georges Haefner
Park or garden
0.4 ha
0.9 km north-westfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Rond-Point de l'Armée d'Afrique
Park or garden
0.2 ha
1.5 km north-eastfrom the center
Directionsto a point inside
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
La Pointe Fauconnière is the nearest protected area, 2.5 km away
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Natura 2000 site
La Pointe Fauconnière
2.5 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.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
17 km of footpaths cross Bandol
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
17 km
1.8 km per km²
Hiking routes
3.1 km
waymarked: 0.3 km per km²
Woodland
30%
about 2.7 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
BandolVar medianFrance median
Footpaths1.8
Hiking routes0.3
01.53 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
BandolVar medianFrance median
Woodland30%
0%50%100%
That is more than in 54% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 76% 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 Bandol is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
6 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 519.4 km
Sentier du Littoral - Bandol6.8 km
Les artistes étrangers à Sanary1.8 km
Sentier des Engraviers1.2 km
De Ollioules à Bandol1.1 km
Le sentier du Littoral – Sanary0.9 km
GR 51 passes within 2 km of Bandol.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Bandol: April to June and September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Le Castellet_Sapc, 5.1 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) | 9.3 | 10.5 | 11.8 | 13.3 | 14.6 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 13.9 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 9.0 |
| High (°C) | 14 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 31 | 31 | 27 | 22 | 17 | 14 |
| Rain (mm) | 69 | 41 | 38 | 50 | 47 | 20 | 7 | 15 | 66 | 92 | 98 | 66 |
July is the driest month (7 mm) and the warmest (highs of 31 °C). 98 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 31 nights a year. Summer highs reach 31 °C, too hot for the outline. The climate in Bandol →
Neighbors
Next to Bandol
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Sanary-sur-MerSaint-Cyr-sur-MerLa Cadière-d'AzurLe CastelletLe BeaussetSix-Fours-les-PlagesBandol
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandol | 0% | 30% | 1.8 | On it |
| Sanary-sur-Mer 18,538 · 4.4 km | 0% | 16% | 2.2 | On it |
| Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer 11,658 · 5.5 km | 25% | 30% | 2.9 | On it |
| La Cadière-d'Azur 5,739 · 6.4 km | 68% | 19% | 0.7 | 4.5 km |
| Le Castellet 6,040 · 7.6 km | 81% | 18% | 1.3 | 7.5 km |
| Le Beausset 10,219 · 7.8 km | 69% | 18% | 1.5 | 7.1 km |
| Six-Fours-les-Plages 37,109 · 8.5 km | 21% | 34% | 3.9 | On it |
Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, La Cadière-d'Azur and Le Castellet 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 Bandol
Is Bandol in a national or regional nature park?
No. The nearest protected area is La Pointe Fauconnière, 2.5 km from the town center.
Are there good walks in Bandol?
OpenStreetMap maps 17 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); 3 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Bandol is woodland?
30% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Bandol near the sea?
Yes: the commune touches the coast, 0.7 km from its center.
When is the best time for walking in Bandol?
April to June 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 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.