Dog-Friendly Parks & Walks in Arcachon

Arcachon is built for walking, and its geography gives dogs an unusual range of terrain within a small town. The Belle Epoque district of the Ville d'Hiver, laid out in the 1860s as a winter health resort, is a hillside maze of ornate villas, pine trees, and quiet streets centred on the Parc Mauresque, the green lung of the town. From there a chain of walks runs down to the long seafront promenade of the Ville d'Ete and along the calm bay. And just south of town the pine forest of the Landes and the colossal Dune du Pilat give dogs a wilder, larger landscape, sand, forest, and a 100-metre panorama, all within fifteen minutes. Two green spaces anchor the in-town walking: the Parc Mauresque, the shaded central park with its observatory and panorama over the bay, and the seafront promenade itself, a flat, breezy 3 km walk along the water. Both keep dogs on leads, but both are genuinely welcoming.