Walking the Dune du Pilat sand dune

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
7
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
0
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
7
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
6
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
3
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
7
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
67 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
192nd/454
Top 40%
continent
Europe
country
France
Length of time
1 day or less
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$20 ($10-$20 in 2022 prices)
Time of year visited
September
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Beaches Forests Sand dune
All Tags
Hiking Islands
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐⭐

Summary

Dune du Pilat is Europe’s tallest sand dune and, on the face of it, sounds a bit dull . . . I mean, it’s just a sand dune right?  Seen heaps of them . . . but . . . it’s actually a better experience than you’d initially think.  For one, the views from the top at 110m / 360ft are pretty impressive as you look across the various sand bars offshore and the giant spit of the Cap Ferret bending around in the distance.  Secondly, the contrast between the turquoise island paradise to the west, the evergreen forest to the east and the bright white / yellows of the sand dune are one of those sites it’s fun to gorp at for a while.  And finally, the whole walking along a giant sand dune largely on your own away from fellow tourists (see top tip below) is just cool.  Very much makes sense to be down as one of the Lonely Planet’s top highlights of France

 

Top tip – the vast majority of fellow tourists get to the top of the dune from the stairs that lead up from the main northern end car park, walk around a bit in that area and then head back down the stairs again to the car park.  I can see how this would be a tad underwhelming.  Instead, start to walk southwards along the top ridge of the dune – after a short time you’ll have it largely to yourself, have better views of the surrounding forest and find that walking along the ridge is far easier than the sand you’ll have been waling on before.  We walked along maybe 2/3rds of the way and then ran down the dune (which was fun) and the walked back along to the northern point of the dune via the shoreline, where we were able to walk around the dune on paths back to the carpark (you could of course just avoid this shoreline-route and walk back along the ridge if don’t fancy the longer route).  Whole walk from car park back to car park, including stopping a couple of times, took us around 2.5 hours.

 

Extra tip – go barefoot.  Far easier on the sand

Highlights

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#1 Walking along the dune only a short way to the south, very quickly away from fellow tourists, and having Europe's tallest sand dune largely to yourself

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#2 Seeing that wonderful contrast between the yellow and blues of the sand bars to the west, and the beautiful green forest to the east that you can uniquely see from the top of the ridge

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#3 The walk along the shoreline on the way back to the north part of the dune

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#4 Emerging from the forests and rising quickly, and steeply, up the dune to be rewarded with the views

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#5 . . . and realising there are stairs there to help you!

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences — from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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