The  Miramar Beach was named after the Miramar Hotel.  Previously known as Bernain Beach, plage Miramar was hugely popular in the 1930’s.

A sanctuary colonized by Gulls and Cormorants faces the beach.  The Winston Churchill passage leads you from Miramar beach to the Grand Plage via the Hotel du Palais.

The biggest and probably the most beautiful beach in Biarritz, it stretches from the Hotel du Palais in the North to the Bellevue in the south.  It is the only beach to have kept its colourful canvas tents that can be hired on a daily basis.  The Grande Plage used to be the known as the Madmans Coast.  It then became the Windmill Coast until 1958 when it was named the Empress’ Beach.  With the fall of the Empire in 1871 it was renamed again as the Grande Plage (The Main Beach). 

Known as Vieux-Port until 1897 when it was changed to Port-Vieux.  The beach is a natural tidal pool sheltered by rocks at both side which expose at low tide.  Port Vieux was the first of Biarrtz Beaches to install canvas tents for changing.  These tent were replaced by huts built on piles on the beach.  In 1858, under instruction from Napoleon III, a bathing shelter was erected.  It was replaced in 1924 by a more solid building in concrete but that was destroyed by bombing.  After the war the obsolete cabins were replaced by a horse track flanked by curving stone steps.