Biarritz is a town of about 25,000 on the French Basque coast, eight kilometres from Bayonne and twenty from the Spanish border, and it faces the open Atlantic. That last fact is the whole character of the place and the reason this packing list differs from every Mediterranean one: the sea here has a tidal range of several metres, real swell, and currents strong enough to kill, and it is also why people come.
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It was a whaling village until the middle of the nineteenth century. Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, had a villa built here in 1855, and her patronage turned it into a resort that drew Queen Victoria, Edward VII and most of European royalty. The villa is now the Hotel du Palais, still on the seafront. The consequence is that Biarritz has grand nineteenth century architecture, a casino, and thermal and spa traditions, and almost no old town at all: there is no medieval quarter to get lost in.
Then in 1957 an American screenwriter working on a film nearby brought a surfboard to the Cote des Basques, and European surfing started here. It is now one of the sport's European capitals, the Cote des Basques is still where people learn, and the town carries a surf culture that sits oddly and pleasantly alongside the imperial hotels.
What you pack is set by Atlantic weather, which is mild and wet and changeable, by cold water, and by the fact that the beach you walked on at low tide may not exist at high.
The Beaches, the Rock and the Lighthouse
Four distinct beaches, a rock joined by a footbridge, and a headland walk.
The Grande Plage is the town beach, directly below the casino and the Hotel du Palais, and it is the one in the photographs: a crescent of sand with bathing tents, busy all summer and swimmable when the flags allow. North of it, the Plage Miramar runs toward the lighthouse and is quieter.
The Cote des Basques, south of the centre below a cliff, is the surf beach and the historic one. It is reached by a steep ramp and stairs, and at high tide it substantially disappears, which catches people out: check the tide before you settle in with your things against the cliff. It is where every surf school operates and the beginner waves are genuinely forgiving.
The Rocher de la Vierge is a rock stack offshore joined to the headland by a footbridge attributed to Eiffel's workshop, with a statue of the Virgin on top. It is the single most photographed thing in Biarritz and in heavy swell the bridge is closed because waves break over it. The headland around it holds the Musee de la Mer, an aquarium that is better than most, and the Port des Pecheurs, a small harbour of fishermen's cottages now mostly restaurants, tucked below the cliff.
The Phare de Biarritz on the northern point can be climbed, 248 steps, for the view down the whole coast to the Pyrenees. The Sentier du Littoral, the coastal footpath, runs south from the Cote des Basques toward Bidart and Guethary and is a good flat-to-undulating walk with the ocean beside you the whole way.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Surfing, Spas and the Wider Coast
Learn here, and know the water is colder and stronger than it looks.
Surf schools line the Cote des Basques and operate roughly April to October, with boards and wetsuits included. The water needs a wetsuit nearly all year: it runs from about 12C in winter to 22C at the August peak, and even in summer a couple of hours in it without neoprene is cold. The schools provide them.
If you are not surfing, Biarritz is a spa town by tradition and there is a thalassotherapy sector built on seawater treatments, which is a genuine local institution rather than a tourist invention.
Along the coast, Anglet's beaches run north toward Bayonne and are the long sandy stretch, Bidart and Guethary south are smaller and prettier, and Saint-Jean-de-Luz, half an hour south, has the only properly sheltered bay on this coast and therefore the calmest swimming. Spain is twenty minutes: San Sebastian is about forty-five.
Inland, the Basque villages of Ainhoa and Sare and the Rhune mountain with its rack railway are within an hour, and the Pyrenees proper start about the same distance.
Getting around: Biarritz is walkable though hilly, with the beaches at sea level and the town above them. Buses connect Bayonne, Anglet and the coastal villages frequently. The airport is close to the centre and the TGV station is a few kilometres inland at Biarritz-La Negresse.
When to Go
June, September and early October. July and August are busy; winter brings the surf and the storms.
The climate is Atlantic and wet: Biarritz gets considerably more rain than the Mediterranean coast, spread through the year with autumn and winter heaviest. Daytime highs run from about 12C in January to 25C in August, and the sea lags behind the air, peaking in late August and September.
June is excellent: warm enough, long days, the sea warming, and the schools running before the holiday crowds arrive.
July and August are busy and expensive, with French and Spanish holidaymakers, and the beaches are full. The weather is warm rather than hot and humidity is noticeable. The surf is at its smallest and most beginner-friendly in this period, which is the trade-off.
September and early October are arguably the best of the year: the sea is at its warmest, the crowds have gone, the light is better, and the swell starts to build for autumn, which suits more confident surfers.
Winter, November to March, is mild at around 12 to 14C, wet, and this is the serious surf season with Atlantic storms bringing big swell. The town is quiet, the hotels are cheap, and standing on the Grande Plage promenade watching a storm come in is a genuine reason to visit. Expect the Rocher footbridge to be shut.
Is Biarritz Safe for Women Travelers
The town is very safe. The ocean is the real hazard and it kills people on this coast every year.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in France, and its terrorism wording is the strongest it uses: terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in France, with shopping centres, entertainment venues, sporting events, transport hubs and crowded gatherings named as possible targets. The everyday risks are more specific than that sounds. Pickpocketing is organised on the Paris Metro and on trains, typically in pairs with one person distracting you, and the FCDO records SERIOUS ASSAULTS on RER lines B and D, which matters because line B is the train most visitors take from the airports. Drink spiking is named with the drugs rather than hinted at: be alert to the possible use of date rape drugs including GHB and liquid ecstasy. Strikes and demonstrations happen at short notice and can stop trains and close roads, usually peacefully. And wildfires affect the south in hot dry summers.
Taking the town first: Biarritz is a prosperous, compact resort and about as low-risk as French destinations get. Violent crime against visitors is rare, the Grande Plage promenade and the Port des Pecheurs are busy and lit into the evening, and eating alone is entirely ordinary. The theft risk is the beach pattern: bags taken from towels while people swim, which is routine on the Grande Plage and the Cote des Basques, and break-ins to cars parked at the coastal path and surf spots. Take nothing to the beach you cannot carry into the water and leave nothing in a vehicle. The drink-spiking warning naming GHB and liquid ecstasy applies in the summer bar scene around the Port Vieux and the casino.
Now the water, which deserves more space than the crime. This is the open Atlantic. The tidal range is several metres, which means the beach changes shape through the day and the Cote des Basques largely vanishes at high tide. Rip currents are powerful and are the specific thing that drowns people here. Lifeguards patrol the main beaches in season, roughly June to September, and the flag system is enforced: green means supervised and swimmable, yellow means hazardous, red means prohibited and it means it. Swim between the flags, and if you are caught in a rip do not fight it directly, swim parallel to the shore until you are out of it.
Outside lifeguarded hours and months, the sensible position is not to swim at all. Winter swell on this coast is genuinely dangerous and waves break over the Rocher footbridge, which is why it closes.
If you are learning to surf, do it with a school rather than renting a board, because the value is someone reading the water for you.
The other physical risks are smaller: the ramps and stairs down to the beaches are steep and slick in rain, the coastal path has unfenced sections above the sea, and the lighthouse is 248 steps.
France is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which means you pay the same patient share a French resident pays rather than nothing. That is not the same as free and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. French hospitals are excellent and a pharmacie, marked by a green cross, handles minor problems without an appointment and will tell you where the duty pharmacy is out of hours. Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Dial 15 for a medical emergency or 112 for anything.
The Biarritz Packing List
Base layers, for a damp changeable coast
The Basque Atlantic is mild and persistently damp, and the pattern that matters is coming out of cold water or off a windy headland and then sitting still. Merino at 160gsm keeps insulating when damp, which is exactly where cotton fails and leaves you cold, and it manages the swim-then-sit and walk-then-stand cycles that define a day here. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron with no synthetic blend. A long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the layer to pull on over a wet swimsuit while you warm up, and it works in every month here.
A proper waterproof with a hood
Not showerproof. A packable rain jacket for women with a hood, because this coast is wet and the rain comes with Atlantic wind, which makes an umbrella useless on a seafront promenade.
A mid layer, most of the year
A fleece mid layer for evenings outside high summer, for the lighthouse headland, and for any winter visit. The sea breeze makes the apparent temperature lower than the forecast year-round.
Shoes with grip
Walking shoes with grip for the steep ramps and stairs down to the beaches, the coastal footpath and the lighthouse steps, all of which are slick in rain. Merino wool socks, which keep working damp.
A dry bag, which is the anti-theft item
A waterproof dry bag. On a beach where bags are lifted from towels, the honest answer is to carry your valuables into the water with you, and this is what makes that possible. It also keeps a phone dry on a boat or in a downpour.
Sun protection, stronger than the cloud suggests
A wide brim sun hat with a chin cord for the wind, plus high SPF sunscreen and real sunglasses. Atlantic light off water burns people who feel cool, and there is no shade on the beaches or the headland. Choose a reef-safe formulation if you are swimming.
For the water
A swimsuit and a quick-dry towel. A rash vest if you are surfing more than once, though schools supply wetsuits. And note the water needs neoprene nearly all year: schools provide it, casual swimmers in June will find it colder than they expect.
The small things
A refillable bottle; tap water is drinkable. Cash in euros for the smaller places. A European two-pin adapter. A tide table or a tide app, which is the single most useful thing on this list for the Cote des Basques. And nothing valuable in the car at a surf spot.
Essential Resources for Women in Biarritz
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
Non-emergency police: the Police Municipale cover the town and the Police Nationale crime reports. A theft needs an in-person report, the plainte, to produce the document an insurer will require, and the station is used to beach-theft claims. Dial 17 for police directly or 112 for anything.
Main hospital or clinic: the Centre Hospitalier de la Cote Basque in Bayonne, about fifteen minutes away, has the emergency department for this coast. Dial 15 for a medical emergency, which reaches the SAMU ambulance service. A pharmacie with a green cross handles minor problems and posts the duty rota.
Official health authority: Sante publique France. A UK GHIC or EU EHIC gives you state-provided care on the same terms as a French resident, meaning the same patient share rather than nothing, and it does not cover repatriation
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Paris. Paris, with a consulate general in Bordeaux about two hours away, which is the nearer post
Official tourism authority: Atout France, the national tourism body. With the Biarritz tourist office for lifeguard season dates, surf school listings and the Rocher de la Vierge footbridge status, which closes in heavy swell
The Atlantic, which is the main hazard here: a tidal range of several metres and powerful rip currents. Lifeguards patrol the main beaches roughly June to September and the flag system is enforced: green supervised, yellow hazardous, red prohibited. Swim between the flags, and if caught in a rip swim parallel to the shore rather than against it. Outside lifeguarded hours and months, do not swim.
Tides: the Cote des Basques largely disappears at high water. Check a tide table before settling in against the cliff.
US State Department travel advisory: the France advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Solo women safety assessment: Biarritz is one of the safest and easiest places in France to travel alone. It is a compact, prosperous resort where the seafront promenade and the Port des Pecheurs stay busy and lit into the evening, violent crime against visitors is rare, and eating alone is entirely ordinary. The theft risk is the beach pattern rather than anything personal: bags lifted from towels while their owner swims, and cars broken into at surf spots and coastal path car parks, both solved by a dry bag you carry into the water and an empty vehicle. The drink-spiking warning naming GHB and liquid ecstasy applies to the summer bar scene around the Port Vieux and the casino. What genuinely deserves your attention is the ocean, and this is the reversal of every Mediterranean post: the Atlantic here has a tidal range of several metres and rip currents powerful enough to drown strong swimmers, and people die on this coast every year. Swim between the flags on a lifeguarded beach in season, do not swim at all outside those hours and months, learn with a school rather than renting a board, and check a tide table before you settle in on the Cote des Basques, which largely vanishes at high water.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the France travel guide for women. For why fine wool is what you want over a wet swimsuit on a windy coast, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
