Bike rides and hiking

Whether on foot or by bike, discover the pretty low-rise houses here with their plastered walls in bright, sunny colours. Travel from the active Port Tudy to the charming Port Lay, passing by the hilly Port Saint Nicolas with its shades of pink and red, and lose yourself in the winding, picturesque streets of the quaint little port of Locmaria. Head across the heathland of Pen Men to the Trou de l’Enfer across the wildest coastal paths of the islands, strewn with gorse and heather along the cliffs.

Kervédan, Lomener, Keloret, Locmaria, Kermarec – the Île de Groix is dotted with pretty villages with names that sound quintessentially Breton. Cycle through them, passing between rows of traditional granite houses with blue, grey or pink shutters. To find out where you are, look out for the inscriptions on the road or on the stones at the crossroads, a tried and tested wayfinding system. Travelling by bike is the perfect way to explore the 40 km of paths that criss-cross the entire island. To rent regular and electric bikes (and even tandems), there is a rental shop in Port Tudy, just a stone’s throw from our hotel. Special parking spaces are available for you to leave your bikes and take your own two feet; the coastal roads in particular are too fragile for cycling on.

The island is also a paradise for hiking. A Natura 2000 site, it is a protected area and some common sense rules are required for all walkers (for example, don’t take any flowers, minerals or sand). The choice of itineraries, created with support from the Fédération Française de Randonnée Pédestre du Morbihan (the Morbihan branch of the French Hiking Federation), takes into account coastal and inland landscapes of interest, enhancing local and village heritage and the distances between the different loops.
There are three itineraries – the Pen Men circuit (10 km), the Trou de l'Enfer circuit (14 km) and the Pointe des Chats circuit (11 km). For each of these loops, two variants allow you to discover the inland of the island. Equally, the Île de Groix circuit (27 km) is an extension of the GR 34 route, Brittany’s iconic “Sentier des douaniers” (Custom officer’s path), marked by red and white.