Best camping destinations in France in 2025

The camping sector in France is undoubtedly a significant economic factor in the French tourism industry. According to INSEE, French campgrounds are collectively the country's leading accommodation option, with approximately 120 million overnight stays by 2024, 38% more than the hotel industry (87 million overnight stays).

Every three years, JetCamp.com conducts a study of all campgrounds in France to determine the most suitable towns, departments, and regions for camping. With 7,876 campgrounds, France occupies a prominent place in this Europe-wide study. Based on 1.7 million reviews, we drew several conclusions. We examined the appeal of different tourist areas, factors such as the average rating of a campground per town, and the popularity of campgrounds in France.

Ratings are becoming increasingly important when searching for a vacation destination. JetCamp.com aggregates ratings from various reliable sources and presents them in a campground-by-campground overview. Based on all ratings, we've compiled a top 20 list of municipalities with the highest-rated campgrounds in France, on average. To compile this top 20, a minimum number of campgrounds per municipality (threshold value) was also taken into account, in this case, five.

Lagorce is located in the center of Ardèche. It is a popular place to visit Vallon-Pont-d'Arc and Ruoms, and for excursions to the Chauvet Pont d'Arc Cave and Le Pont d'Arc in the Ardèche Gorges. Bassillac and Auberoche , located in the Périgord, attract many wine lovers. Its proximity to towns like Bergerac and Montignac, as well as the many caves, including Lascaux, make it a wonderful vacation destination. Les Vans , like Lagorce, is located in the center of Ardèche, close to the Ardèche Gorges, among others.

France has 7,876 campgrounds, spread across the 96 departments of metropolitan France. Just as in 2022, campgrounds are generally doing well in 2025, with an average score of 8.0 (8.0 in 2022). The Top 20 departments are new to this study, so we cannot compare their individual scores in 2022.

Compared to 2022, there are some variations. On average, campers in Occitanie (8.2), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (8.2), and Pays de la Loire (8.1) are now the most satisfied. The top three are followed by Bourgogne-Franche-Comté with 8.1 and Nouvelle-Aquitaine with 8.1.

In 2025, JetCamp.com will once again use a popularity score* to determine the most popular French municipalities for camping.

* The 2025 popularity score is calculated by dividing the total of individual review scores for a municipality by the area of that municipality. The threshold is set at 5 campgrounds. Let's take the example of the municipality of Vias. All the campgrounds in the municipality (24) have a total of 15,443 reviews, for a total (cumulative review scores) of 117,750. The municipality of Vias covers 32.49 km².

Vias' popularity score is then 117,750/32.49 = 3,624

The popularity index clearly shows that the most popular towns are located far from urban areas, in coastal tourist areas, or in French mountainous regions such as the Alps, the Pyrenees, and Corsica. With 12 campgrounds spread over just 2.35 km², Valras-Plage is rightfully the most popular camping destination in France.

Just as in 2022, the study shows that in 2025, popular campgrounds are often classified as nature campgrounds, often have a swimming pool (indoor and/or outdoor), accept pets, and offer free Wi-Fi. In 2025, the concept of "sustainability" will be added. Eco-friendly campgrounds or those with a sustainability objective and/or certification (such as ISO or Green Key) generally perform better.

To compile this list, a threshold of five campgrounds per municipality was taken into account. The Center-Val de Loire and Île-de-France regions are not included in the list because there are no municipalities with at least five campgrounds in the region.