WorldFrance › Seine-Maritime › Le Havre beach

Le Havre beach 23.7

#5576 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇫🇷 France · Seine-Maritime · near Le Havre

Wind is the enemy here, thick rubber, gentle enough to learn.

Beginner
Le Havre beach, France
Photo: Sébastien Carlier · CC BY 3.0 · source
Surf score23.7 /100
Surfable days44% of the year
Clean days0% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell0% period 11 s+
Typical size0.5 m 1.8 ft median
Water14°C a 4/3 with boots

Best time to surf Le Havre beach

It rarely works. The nearest airport is DOL (16 km) and the nearest town is Le Havre (1 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan66%0%0.8 m8°C6/5
Feb65%0%0.8 m8°C6/5
Mar50%0%0.6 m10°C6/5
Apr29%0%0.4 m11°C5/4
May32%0%0.5 m14°C4/3
Jun16%0%0.4 m17°C3/2
Jul17%0%0.4 m19°C2mm
Aug34%0%0.5 m20°C2mm
Sep37%0%0.5 m18°C3/2
Oct59%0%0.7 m16°C4/3
Nov63%0%0.8 m13°C4/3
Dec64%0%0.8 m10°C5/4

What is under Le Havre beach

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor sits over 51 m. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 78 m against 51 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.

Depth 8 km out51 m
Depth 4 km out32 m
Channel beside it78 m

Measured, not estimated: NOAA ETOPO 2022 global relief at 15 arc-seconds, about 460 m per cell, sampled along this spot’s own swell window. At that scale the survey sees passes and channels; it cannot see a reef ledge, so nothing here is said about how the wave breaks.

Why 23.7

Seven parts, each normalised 0 to 1 and multiplied by its weight; the sum is scaled so the best spot in the world scores 100. Wave quality and what the spot does on its best days carry more than half of it, which is what separates this from a ranking of where the water is warm.

Wave quality 34.7%
4.1
Best days 22.4%
5.4
Clean days 18.4%
0.0
Consistency 10.2%
4.8
Season spread 4.1%
1.9
Water comfort 6.1%
0.3
Access 4.1%
4.1

The detail

Faces 235° with 36% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 53% of days. Mean peak period 5.8 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.4 m, with a peak period of 7 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 52%. Months that work: 6 of 12. Coordinates 49.500, 0.089 (OpenStreetMap).

Live here

31 homes for sale within 30 km of Le Havre beach, up to 60,000 euro. Houses and flats you can move into, never plots of land. Cheapest right now €37,000. Checked 2026-09-13. Listings from Bien'ici and the agents themselves; we take no part in the deal.

€40,000Flat · 53 m² · 2 rooms2 km from the spot →€46,500Flat · 24 m² · 1 roomLe Havre3 km from the spot →€47,500Flat · 15 m² · 1 roomLe Havre3 km from the spot →€55,000Flat · 21 m² · 2 roomsLe Havre2 km from the spot →€55,000Flat · 33 m² · 2 roomsLe Havre2 km from the spot →€59,000Flat · 21 m² · 1 roomLe Havre3 km from the spot →

What it costs to be here

Living here
€1,990/ month
typically €1,750 – €2,230
Rent, one bedroom€1,050
Groceries€418
Eating out€240
Getting around€141
Phone + internet€148
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,900/ month
typically €3,430 – €4,370
Somewhere to stay€2,300
Eating out€818
Car, transfers, fuel€529
Data + extras€252
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Airport and town on the doorstep, so the local estimate is 23% above the country average. Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for France (2025, United States = 1.00) applied to a fixed surfer basket, then adjusted for how remote the spot is. Your own number moves with the season and how you live.

Our own project · Sumba, Indonesia
Own a cabin on a surf coast in Sumba

Sumba has eight spots in this ranking, the best of them inside the world top 50. A cabin is €11,500. The land it sits on is separate, from €6,500 (€9,950 oceanfront), on an 80-year lease that extends at the end. Water, septic and electricity are another €6,500, and furniture is on top, so a finished cabin lands around €28,000 plus the land, payable in instalments.

Eco Beach City is run by the same people as SurfRanking, so treat this as our own advert, not a recommendation. It is an off-plan property in Indonesia: take your own legal and financial advice before paying anything.

Spots nearby

Park beach🇦🇺 Australia · score 37.9Åsa (Aasa)🇸🇪 Sweden · score 31.0Sumbe🇦🇴 Angola · score 31.1Multedo🇮🇹 Italy · score 37.3
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