This is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world: the highest dune in Europe surrounded by pine forests. If possible, try to get to the dune from the sea, this will allow you to discover little by little the beautiful scenery that awaits you from the top of Dune. Shuttles are organized during the day to visit the dune for 1 euro; you can come by bike or car (4 euros for car parking).

The Dune du Pilat has a volume of about 60,000,000 m³, measuring around 500 m wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length from north to south. Its height is currently 110 meters above sea level. The dune is a famous tourist destination with more than one million visitors per year.

The dune is considered a foredune, meaning a dune that runs parallel to a shoreline, behind the high tide line of a beach. The dune has been observed to move landward, slowly pushing the forest back to cover houses, roads and portions of the Atlantic Wall. To back this evidence of coastal movement, maps from 1708 and 1786 both place areas with the name Pilat to the south and off-shore of the current dune's location. The area where the dune currently does not stand was referred to "Les Sabloneys" or the "New Sands" until the 1930s when it was renamed by real estate developers as the Dune of Pilat. Pilat originates from the Gascon word Pilhar, which refers to a heap or mound.