France / Normandy
Houlgate
Houlgate is a coastal resort area in Normandy, France. Its longest mapped beach (Plage de Houlgate) stretches about 1.9 km and has a sand surface. The sea averages 18.8 °C in August, its warmest month, and 7.6 °C in February; it never reaches 21 °C on average.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
The sea peaks at 18.8 °C in August. Most swimmers find water below 20 °C cold; a wetsuit is common here.
Average wind speed at 10 m reaches 7.2 m/s in January, the windiest month.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Services in the resort
- 25Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 11Public toilets
- –Showers
- 2Drinking water
- 28Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 13Hotels & guesthouses
- 4Campsites
- 4Grocery shops
- 9Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 1Pharmacies & clinics
- 2Cash machines
- 1Viewpoints
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 20 restaurants, 4 bars and 1 fast-food outlet. Accommodation: 13 hotels and guesthouses.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Bathing water quality
The official EU bathing-water site “Armengaud”, 250 m from the beach centre, was rated Excellent for the 2025 season. It was Excellent in 3 of its 11 classified seasons since 2015.
- 2015Good
- 2016Good
- 2017Excellent
- 2018Excellent
- 2019Good
- 2020Good
- 2021Sufficient
- 2022Sufficient
- 2023Sufficient
- 2024Good
- 2025Excellent
Source: European Environment Agency, EU Bathing Water Directive assessments · national site profile. Classes are based on four seasons of bacteriological sampling.
Month by month
October at Houlgate
Beach-day index 2.5/10 · France median 4.9
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 8.4 °C | 7.6 °C | 8.1 °C | 9.9 °C | 12.3 °C | 15.0 °C | 17.4 °C | 18.8 °C | 17.9 °C | 15.8 °C | 12.9 °C | 10.2 °C |
| High °C | 8° | 8° | 10° | 13° | 15° | 18° | 20° | 20° | 19° | 16° | 12° | 9° |
| Low °C | 4° | 4° | 5° | 7° | 10° | 13° | 15° | 16° | 14° | 11° | 8° | 5° |
| Rain mm | 79 | 66 | 62 | 45 | 56 | 51 | 55 | 64 | 54 | 85 | 90 | 97 |
| Cloud % | 77 | 75 | 70 | 62 | 64 | 63 | 61 | 63 | 62 | 73 | 77 | 77 |
| Wind m/s | 7.2 | 7.0 | 6.2 | 5.2 | 5.2 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 5.0 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 6.7 | 7.1 |
| Daylight h | 8.6 | 10.1 | 11.8 | 13.7 | 15.3 | 16.2 | 15.9 | 14.5 | 12.7 | 10.9 | 9.2 | 8.2 |
| Record high/low | 13°/-4° | 15°/-4° | 17°/-3° | 21°/0° | 24°/5° | 29°/8° | 32°/11° | 33°/12° | 28°/9° | 25°/4° | 18°/1° | 14°/-2° |
| Beach index | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 4.9 | 5.4 | 4.4 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
No month reaches 5.5 on the beach-day index; the best is August at 5.4/10, held back mainly by cool air (highs of 20 °C) and cold water (18.8 °C).
At its warmest the water here is 3.3 °C cooler than the France median for August (22.1 °C).
Across the year the sea averages 12.9 °C, cooler than 81% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
December is the wettest month (97 mm) and April the driest (45 mm); the yearly total is about 800 mm.
Daylight runs from 8.2 hours in December to 16.2 hours in June; in mid-August the sun rises at 06:50 and sets at 21:19 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces north-north-west (330°). Open water fills about 42% of the horizon close by, which makes it an open stretch of shore.
The sun sets over the sea in March–October; in mid-June it goes down at 22:06 local time on a bearing of 309°.
Straight out to the north-north-west the next coast is roughly 120 km away, so waves are mostly wind-driven sea rather than ocean swell.
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 2 m deep and 8 m at 3 km, a shallow, gently shelving sea floor. Behind the beach the ground is about 17 m above sea level 500 m inland and 57 m at 1.5 km.
Within 1 km, the land is 54% tree cover, 25% built-up land and 16% grassland (satellite land-cover map, 2021): a partly built-up setting. Water makes up 38% of that circle.
- Tree 54%
- Built 25%
- Grass 16%
- Bare 6%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m). Orientation from OpenStreetMap land polygons sampled in 36 directions; depths and heights from the GEBCO 2020 grid (about 450 m cells), indicative only.
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deauville Normandie airport Deauville | DOL | 18.1 km | north-east |
| Caen Carpiquet airport Caen | CFR | 30.8 km | south-west |
| Jersey Airport St. Peter | JER | 154 km | west |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 9 bus stops within 1.5 km, rail station Houlgate (170 m), rail station Dives-sur-Mer Port-Guillaume (2.2 km) and 28 mapped car parks within 1 km.
7 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 18.8K residents); within 30 km there are 73 (about 555.1K).
Photos
From above
Around the beach
Nature
- Butte de Houlgate peak 750 m E
- La Butte de Caumont peak 1.4 km SW
Campsites
- Camping de la Plage 630 m NE
- Camping La Vallée 930 m SE
- Eurocamp 930 m SE
- Camping Clicochic- Les Chevaliers 960 m S
Map and nearby beaches
Loading map…
Open in OpenStreetMap · Directions in Google Maps
| Beach | Distance | Warmest sea | Length | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houlgate | – | 18.8 °C | 1.9 km | Sand |
| Deauville | 12.1 km NE | 19.0 °C | 1.3 km | Sand |
| Ouistreham | 13.5 km W | 18.5 °C | 2.1 km | Sand |
- Deauville12.1 km NECompare
- Ouistreham13.5 km WCompare
Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 8.8 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature r11199900; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Photos: Wikimedia Commons, author and licence under each image.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2B_30UYV_20260527_0_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Bathing-water quality: European Environment Agency (site FRD1114338M014070).
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 2.4K Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.