France / Occitanie
Sète
Sète is a coastal resort area in Occitanie, France. Its longest mapped beach (Plage de la Vigie) stretches about 217 m and has a sand surface. The sea averages 22.0 °C in August, its warmest month, and 11.8 °C in February; it is 21 °C or warmer in July–August.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Services in the resort
- 246Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 13Public toilets
- –Showers
- 5Drinking water
- 32Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 21Hotels & guesthouses
- 39Grocery shops
- 3Water-sports spots
- 1Marinas & slipways
- 101Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 11Pharmacies & clinics
- 6Cash machines
- 1Bike rental
- 5Viewpoints
- 3Historic sites
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 182 restaurants, 21 cafés, 36 bars and 7 fast-food outlets. Accommodation: 21 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.
Month by month
October at Sète
Beach-day index 5.0/10 · France median 4.9
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 12.4 °C | 11.8 °C | 12.3 °C | 13.7 °C | 16.2 °C | 19.3 °C | 21.2 °C | 22.0 °C | 20.1 °C | 18.3 °C | 16.1 °C | 13.9 °C |
| High °C | 10° | 11° | 14° | 18° | 22° | 27° | 30° | 29° | 25° | 20° | 15° | 11° |
| Low °C | 4° | 4° | 6° | 9° | 13° | 17° | 19° | 19° | 16° | 12° | 8° | 5° |
| Rain mm | 52 | 39 | 48 | 59 | 49 | 30 | 20 | 25 | 51 | 82 | 73 | 46 |
| Cloud % | 66 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 59 | 48 | 38 | 43 | 48 | 62 | 64 | 63 |
| Wind m/s | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.0 | 4.2 | 4.7 | 5.2 | 5.0 |
| Daylight h | 9.3 | 10.5 | 11.9 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 14.0 | 12.6 | 11.1 | 9.7 | 9.0 |
| Record high/low | 19°/-2° | 20°/-7° | 24°/-3° | 28°/3° | 33°/5° | 41°/10° | 37°/13° | 38°/14° | 34°/9° | 31°/2° | 23°/-0° | 18°/-4° |
| Beach index | 2.7 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 5.3 | 8.1 | 8.9 | 9.1 | 8.1 | 5.0 | 2.9 | 2.8 |
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
The beach-day index peaks in July–August; August scores 9.1/10 with highs of 29 °C, sea at 22.0 °C and 25 mm of rain.
In August that is 1.1 points above the median of the 625 beaches in France covered by this atlas.
Across the year the sea averages 16.4 °C, cooler than 66% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
October is the wettest month (82 mm) and July the driest (20 mm); the yearly total is about 570 mm.
Daylight runs from 9.0 hours in December to 15.4 hours in June; in mid-August the sun rises at 06:49 and sets at 20:50 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces south-east (130°). Open water fills about 8% of the horizon close by, which makes it a sheltered cove or bay.
At no time of year does the sun set over the sea here: sunset bearings run from 238° to 304°, behind the land.
Sunrise is over the sea in November–January.
Straight out to the south-east there is open water for more than 2,000 km, so the beach is exposed to long ocean swell.
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 5 m deep and 19 m at 3 km, a shallow, gently shelving sea floor. Behind the beach the ground is about 50 m above sea level 500 m inland and 30 m at 1.5 km, so the beach is backed by steep slopes or cliffs.
Within 1 km, the land is 82% built-up land and 16% tree cover (satellite land-cover map, 2021): an urban beach. Water makes up 23% of that circle.
- Built 82%
- Tree 16%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Béziers Vias airport Béziers | BZR | 29.0 km | west |
| Montpellier-Méditerranée Airport Montpellier/Méditerranée | MPL | 29.0 km | north-east |
| Nîmes-Arles-Camargue Airport Nîmes/Garons | FNI | 70.2 km | north-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 101 bus stops within 1.5 km, rail station Sète (1.3 km), ferry terminal accès ferry maroc (580 m), ferry terminal ligne ferry maroc;Corsica Ferris (620 m) and 32 mapped car parks within 1 km.
8 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 87.5K residents); within 30 km there are 51 (about 533.2K).
Around the beach
Viewpoints
- Panoramique du Mont Saint-Clair 850 m W
Attractions & museums
- ImageSingulières museum 370 m S
- Aquarium Mare Nostrum Montpellier attraction 460 m NW
- International Museum of Modest Arts museum 520 m N
- Musée Paul Valéry museum 790 m SW
- Les Amis du Musée de la Mer de Sète museum 860 m S
- Wu Wei attraction 880 m N
Historic sites
- La Chapelle du Quartier Haut monument 270 m SW
- Mole et Phare Saint-Louis monument 810 m NE
- Fort Saint-Pierre monument 970 m S
Nature
- Mont Saint-Clair peak 940 m W
Lighthouses & piers
- Quai du Commandant Samary pier 400 m E
- Quai du Maroc pier 420 m E
- Quai A pier 490 m NE
- Phare de Sete lighthouse 560 m S
- Ponton F pier 600 m S
- Brise clapot pier 620 m SE
Marinas
- IGY Sète Marina 840 m NE
Diving & boat hire
- Retrocycle SETE 310 m NW
- JLC Location de bateaux 460 m N
- Miniboat 760 m SE
Map
Loading map…
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 6.4 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w98740198; 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.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2A_31TEJ_20230909_0_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- 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.