Camping in the Landes forest

Smell the intoxicating scent of the maritime pines, discover small paths with a false sense of discovery, appreciate the calm and the change of scenery offered by the Landes nature, recharge your batteries while exploring new horizons.... If you want to discover the Landes forest without having to travel for miles and miles, we suggest you start your excursion from the 5-star Le Vieux Port campsite. On foot or by bike, let yourself be tempted by a walk in the forest along the footpaths and cycle paths, for example, from Moliets-et-Maa to Hossegor in the heart of the Landes Côte Sud.
If you like camping holidays in "cycle touring" mode, you can explore the Landes forest via the Vélodyssée (160 km of tracks between Biscarrosse and Tarnos). Along the coastal dunes and the wild coast, the Vélodyssée follows the forest, skirts the lakes and passes through charming Landes villages such as Messanges, Vieux-Boucau, Seignosse, Hossegor, Capbreton, Labenne, Tarnos, Boucau, the Adour and the Basque country...
If you prefer to walk, there are numerous marked hiking trails in the vicinity of the campsite which allow you to discover a preserved nature where maritime pines are king and holm oaks, cork trees, mulberry trees, ferns and heathers make up harmonious forest landscapes. With luck and discretion, you will be able to observe the animals that live in the Landes forest such as deer, weasels, squirrels, hedgehogs and hares. The biodiversity of the Landes forest is very rich and varied!
If you are a lover of local history and culture, your walks will lead you to the many interpretation trails which allow you to learn more about the fauna, flora, culture and heritage of the Landes forest. In addition to the animals that have taken up residence in the forest and the protected plant species, you will discover a remarkably well-preserved built heritage (old half-timbered farms, pigeon houses, Landes houses, fountains, etc.). The tourist offices organise guided nature tours and offer maps of the footpaths and cycle tracks that dot the Landes forest. Useful and practical so that you don't get lost along the way!

At the crossroads of the Landes and the Gironde, the Landes de Gascogne Regional Nature Park covers more than 200,000 hectares in the heart of the Landes forest. From the Arcachon basin in the Buch region to the south of the Grande-Lande, the park follows the valleys of the Grande Leyre and the Petite Leyre. An essential stopover on your camping holiday in the Landes, the Regional Nature Park has a unique wealth of natural and landscape features that you will have plenty of time to discover during your stay. Don't miss: the park house in Belin-Béliet, the Ecomuseum of the Grande Lande in Sabres or the Contemporary Art Forest which stretches along a route of several dozen kilometres between the Landes and the Gironde.

Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, this large forest massif in south-western France in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region covers almost one million hectares divided between state-owned forests, communal forests and private forests. Shaped by the hand of man in the 18th century, the Landes forest was intended to protect the Landes villages from the advancing sand dunes and to clean up the marshy moorland in order to improve the hygiene conditions of the population. Most of the Landes forest is therefore not natural, but artificial. However, some areas of the coastline were already forested almost two thousand years ago. The gem industry (resin harvesting) was for a long time the main source of wealth in the Landes, but this activity gradually died out in the 1990s to make way for forestry and paper production. Today, the Landes forest remains one of the most beautiful examples of cultivated forest, but also the ideal place if you want to spend a camping holiday close to nature!