Photo
The feel of the place
Read moreShow less
The crowd
Town and islands
Best for
The short answers
The essentials before the detail
When to come
Apr
Every spot here is in season then
Number = how many of the 5 spots are in season that month.
Windiest modelled month
March · 55% of days · Cabasson
The month the wind model rates highest; the season above is when riders and schools go.
modelled
days with three hours in a row at 12 kt or more, between 06:00 and 19:00 local, in March at Cabasson, the strongest month any spot here models
A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.
What it costs
expensive
Côte d'Azur-level pricing in July-August, noticeably higher than off-season or than northern France
Schools
6
in the directory
Permits & rules
5 spots
with rules of their own for permits, zoning or the bathing season, on the spot cards
Good to know before you go 6
- The Almanarre roundabout parking area genuinely fills up by mid-morning in summer - arrive early or expect to walk
- Mistral gusts can be strong and uneven near the cliffs and peninsula terrain
- The salt road (Route du Sel) closes to vehicles in winter, complicating off-season logistics
- Book Porquerolles ferries ahead in season - they sell out, especially on weekends
Show all 6
- This is a genuine Provence summer hotspot, not a hidden gem - expect peak-season crowds and prices
- The beach effectively has two sides (west/Almanarre, east/La Capte) and which one is 'on' depends on the day's wind direction - check locally rather than assuming
The spots
L'Almanarre
L'Almanarre is the west-side beach of the Presqu'ile de Giens at Hyeres, strung along the Route du Sel with the old Salins and the Etang des Pesquiers behind it.
Brutal Beach
Brutal Beach is the board-sports end of Plage de Bonnegrace in Six-Fours-les-Plages, where kiters share the water with windsurfers and wingers: about 1.2 km of gravel beach along Promenade du General de Gaulle, sand underfoot once you are in the water, rocky breakwaters at intervals.
L'Ayguade - Le Mérou
Le Mérou is the east-wind spot of Hyères, the fallback for the days Almanarre does not work.
Plage de l'Argentière
Plage de l'Argentiere is the big sandy beach at La Londe-les-Maures, open onto the Baie de La Londe with Giens to the west, Fort de Bregancon to the east and the Iles d'Or on the horizon.
Editor's brief
Read the full brief · 2 minSpot characteristics · Parking and access · Best bases · Popularity and season · Medical facilities
Spot characteristics
Parking and access
Best bases
Popularity and season
Medical facilities
In detail on this page:Getting therePracticalBefore you book
Schools
6 in the directory
Le Spot Kitecenter & Wingcenter
FFVLFFVoile
Doeslessons · rental · foil · wing · camp · shop
RidesL'Almanarre
kitesurf-var.com
Ecole Kite Almanarre
Doeslessons · foil · wing · shop · accommodation
RidesL'Almanarre
SpeaksFrench · English
ecole-kite-almanarre.com
Le Robinson Almanarre
Doeslessons · rental · wing
RidesL'Almanarre · Brutal Beach
kite-hyeres.fr
Méd in Kite
Doeslessons · foil · wing
RidesL'Almanarre · L'Ayguade - Le Mérou
medinkite.com
KifKite School
EFK
Doeslessons · foil · wing
RidesL'Almanarre
kifkite.fr
Swell Kite
Doeslessons · rental · wing
RidesL'Almanarre · L'Ayguade - Le Mérou
swellkite.fr
Getting there & around
Nearest airports
- TLN Toulon-Hyères Airport · about 3 km from Hyères / 10-15 min drive; serves Paris-Orly, Nantes, Brest, Bordeaux and Rotterdam (seasonal), Lille, London-City (seasonal), Algiers, Corsica (Ajaccio/Bastia/Figari) and Luxembourg
- MRS Marseille Provence · roughly 1.5-2h drive, more long-haul/international options
- NCE Nice Côte d'Azur · roughly 2h drive, alternative with more international connections
Car
More on carCar needed · Parking at the spot
Transfers
More on transfers1 route · TLN (Toulon-Hyeres Airport) → Toulon centre
| From | To | Time | Price | Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TLN (Toulon-Hyeres Airport) | Toulon centre | ~20 min | ~EUR 40 by taxi | taxi |
| The reference fare is airport-to-Toulon, not airport-to-Almanarre; Almanarre and Hyeres old town are closer to the airport than Toulon centre (the airport is ~4km from Hyeres town centre, 2023), so an Almanarre fare would likely be lower, though no direct quote is published. | ||||
Road quirks1 min read
Kite bag rules for your airline
Type the carrier you are flying: what it charges for a kite bag, and the year of the policy that says so.
Checked so far for France:easyJetRyanairAir FranceTransavia
Every carrier, with limits and what riders report at the counter →
Practical
Cash & cards
More on cash & cards3 facts · ATM in town · Nearest ATM
Internet & working
More on internet & workingCoverage
Health & safety
Fees & rules
Seasonal closures
Before you book
Put these to the school
- Is the forecast for my dates Mistral (onshore/gusty, good for ramps) or Easterly (flat but offshore, better at Bergerie instead)?
- Is my accommodation within walking distance of the dedicated summer kite zone, or will I need a car to reach Bergerie/other faces?
- Does my trip overlap with the Défi Wind event (April) - do I want that crowd or want to avoid it?
What riders say
10 recurring claims
The tag says how far the riders who mention it agree; the figure is how many mention it.
Crossed lines and collisions in the Almanarre kite zone come up again and again, and not as near-misses: one rider was pulled out of the water close to drowning after someone cut across his lines, a wing foiler ended up wrapped in a kite's lines about 30 m off the beach, and another rider was towed by two kites at once after a stranger released without warning.
consensus5 riders
L'Almanarre has two distinct wind faces: Mistral (NW) is onshore/gusty with ramps for air, while an East wind flattens the water but blows offshore - riders wanting flat, safe water on an East day relocate to Bergerie beach across the peninsula.
strong4 riders
The thing that makes Almanarre dangerous is the beach, not the wind. It is a narrow strip with the Route du Sel immediately behind it, so a bad drag ends at a parked car, a rock, or on the tarmac; the old salt-pan stakes get named as the third option.
consensus4 riders
September is the month riders actually recommend: still over 12 knots often enough, water and air still warm, and nothing like the July-August crowd.
consensus3 riders
Thermal wind is present nearly every day in season, making it one rider's outright favorite European spot.
strong2 riders
Show all 10 claims
On a strong west day the wind is big but the water stays small — one rider was there in over 30 knots from the west and was struck by how little the waves were, and the local verdict is that it is a place to send it high rather than a wave spot.
majority2 riders
A 9m kite covers the large majority of session days, with a working range of roughly 5-12m.
mixed1 rider
Almanarre gets grouped with a short list of famously strong-but-crowded European thermal/venturi spots (Rhodes, Sicily, Gökova).
mixed1 rider
Whether an offshore east day is a problem or the best day of the trip depends entirely on who you ask. Locals describe it as flat, visually stunning water they go looking for; visitors treat offshore as the cue to drive to the other side of the peninsula or pay a school for a boat launch and pickup.
contested4 riders
In midsummer the beach is not the riders' own. Non-riders complain that kites get rigged across metres of sand next to the children's swimming area and want checks on the beach; riders answer that the two ends of the beach have been windsurf ground for over forty years and that supervised swimming zones exist for a reason.
contested3 riders
The trade-off
- Near-daily reliable thermal/Mistral wind
- Dedicated summer kite zone on the beach
- Easy add-on to a Porquerolles ferry trip
- Named as an outright favorite by at least one rider
- Crowded, grouped among Europe's other famous strong-thermal spots
- Mistral can be gusty
- An East-wind day is flat but offshore - riders need to know to relocate to Bergerie beach rather than fight it
Wind micro-knowledge
5 facts · Time of day · Through the season
Tips from riders
- Bring a mid-size kite (around 9m) as your main size, with something smaller and larger to cover the spread.
- On an East-wind day, head to Bergerie beach on the other side of the peninsula rather than fighting offshore wind at Almanarre proper.
Communities
r/Kiteboarding · Kiteforum.com spot wiki
r/Kiteboarding
Recurring "best France kite spot" recommendation threads that name-check Almanarre
Kiteforum.com spot wiki
kiteforum.com (se.kiteforum.com)
Community-maintained spot description; no dated rider thread specific to Almanarre
Scene & life
- Provençal cuisine and fresh Mediterranean fish
- local AOC Côtes de Provence rosé from vineyards on the peninsula itself
- hike the Giens peninsula's southern coastal cliff trail
- birdwatch (including flamingos) at the Étang des Pesquiers salt ponds, a former salt marsh worked from 1848-1996
- explore Hyères old town and its three classified 'remarkable gardens'
- visit the Olbia archaeological site (ancient Greek colony) right by the beach
- snorkelling trips (e.g. Eau Pop Pop) and the small tourist train to Giens village
- Porquerolles island (ferry from Tour Fondue, 10-20 min)
- Port-Cros and Île du Levant (seasonal boats from Hyères/Toulon area)
- Toulon
- beach-club and kite/windsurf-school terraces along the Almanarre strip
- bars in Hyères old town
Events
Défi Wind · MIDI festival
Défi Wind
April
MIDI festival
July
History & trivia
5 items
- The Almanarre area sits on the site of Olbia, an ancient Greek colony, and the name is thought to derive from either the Spanish 'almenara' (beacon) or Arabic 'al-manar' (lighthouse)
- Hyères is considered the oldest resort on the French Riviera; Queen Victoria stayed three weeks in 1892, and Robert Louis Stevenson and Edith Wharton both wintered here
- The peninsula's rare double-tombolo geography took about 3,000 years to form and enclosed the Pesquiers lagoon, worked as a salt marsh from 1848 to 1996 (up to 30,000 tonnes/year)
- Scenes from Luc Besson's 'Le Grand Bleu' (1988) were filmed on the peninsula
- Almanarre hosts Défi Wind, one of the world's biggest mass-start windsurf/speed-kite events
Itinerary idea
FAQ
When is the best time to kitesurf at L'Almanarre?
Wind is strongest with the Mistral in spring, especially around the April Défi Wind event, while summer brings more thermal sea-breeze patterns in the afternoons. July-August is the busiest and hottest stretch; spring and autumn are quieter but still reliably windy.
Is L'Almanarre suitable for beginners?
The beach mainly draws a strong, experienced freeride and freestyle crowd rather than complete beginners, though L'Almanarre has several kite schools and municipal kite channels for supervised access.
Do you need a car to get around?
Yes - a car is recommended to link the spot, Hyères old town and the Tour Fondue ferry port for the islands, since the salt road across the peninsula closes to vehicles in winter.
Where should you base yourself?
Stay at L'Almanarre or Giens village to walk straight to the water, or base in Hyères old town if you want restaurants, bars and evening life beyond the beach.
Are there rules or launch zones to know about?
As of 2026, Hyères has two dedicated kite channels, Mérou and Almanarre, and using them is mandatory for crossing the 300m coastal band.
How this place scores
Scores out of 10, compared with other places. The data figure under each label is how much of this record that score had to work from, so a high score on thin data is a thin score.
- Safetydata 71%8.8
- Kite communitydata 100%8.3
- Off the waterdata 100%8.3
- Wavesdata 100%8.2
- Ease of accessdata 100%8.1
- Beginner friendlydata 71%7.5
- Familydata 100%6.7
- Flat waterdata 30%6.5
- Room on the waterdata 70%5.4
- Long staydata 56%4.8
- Affordabilitydata 55%2.8
- Wind reliabilitydata 0%not scored
A paler bar was scored from less than half of the record.
Scores by trip type
- Wavesdata 70%8.0
- Family tripdata 100%7.6
- Learning to ridedata 100%6.9
- Freestyle and flat waterdata 65%5.6
- Kite and workdata 75%5.2
Nothing here carries a figure for wind reliability, so every line above is built without it.
Still open
Things we could not verify. If you have ridden here, you can help.
Show the 9 open questions
- Is Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal Toulon-La Seyne-sur-Mer (Hôpital Sainte-Musse) the hospital that serves Hyères?
- What does a night cost at Camping La Presqu'ile de Giens, Camping International or Camping Eurosurf?
- No named hotel/apartment-building option (as opposed to campsites) was confirmed for Hyeres old town or Giens village.
- No confirmed ATM/bank location specific to the Almanarre beach strip itself, as opposed to Hyeres town centre generally.
- Is the roughly 650-space car park at the Almanarre roundabout free or paid?
- Is Toulon's Hopital Sainte-Musse (CHITS) the nearest hospital to Almanarre, and what's the taxi fare?
- How crowded is the Défi Wind event at Almanarre, and what are the logistics like?
- Is there an active rider group for L'Almanarre?
- No rider account specifically describing the Porquerolles-ferry-plus-kiting combo logistics was found.
When to go and nearby places
Last updated: 4 September 2026