Holiday Homes & Rentals in Ile de Re

Find your perfect holiday home in this peaceful and beautiful island. Lots of whitewashed villages with terracotta roof tiles, old ramparts and a beachside atmosphere with stunning ocean views offering great accommodations ranging from old to modern and from basic to luxury ones. Enjoy your rental nearby the little boutiques, craft shops and galleries. Most properties are close to the sandy and sloping beaches in the south part of the island.

Enjoy a great rental by the sea, with great views of the blue waters from your window. Quality furniture, open plan kitchens and comfortable spaces arranged for you to have a cosy time while enjoying your holiday home. Lovely terraces and spacious gardens to enjoy the lovely summer weather and forget the stress of everyday life. Have a great time with the family, your partner or enjoy it as a solo traveller. The properties are varied in size and can accommodate up to 6-7 people.

The island enjoys a mild and sunny climate perfect for a beach getaway and it is also known as Ré la Blanche. Marvel at the wonderful 10 villages scattered around the island, magnificent marshes and dunes, visit the little harbours and admire the white houses with green shutters. Wander the flower alleys and the typical Marche Medieval, a village market with lots of stalls selling local produce, clothes and crafts.

Besides the picturesque points, Île de Ré is a perfect place to go for a bike ride, go horse riding through poppy fields and visit the historic ruins of L’Abbaye des Chateliers, as well as lovely and stunning beaches. The sea offers you also the possibility of practising your favourite water sports. Get on your surfboard and ride the waves or try your best swing at Golf de Trousse Chemise. Get your camera ready, your swimming gear or your clubs and head to Île de Ré!

Besides being a holiday destination known for its fine sandy beaches and outstanding beauty, as mentioned above, the island has 10 unique villages with traditional architecture and a unique charm. A breathtaking mosaic of landscapes between a village and the next one. Allow yourself some time to explore each one of them. Every village holds a rich history, a preserved lifestyle and great culinary traditions and while they all share undeniable similarities, at the same time, they have their own individual character. This is a true pearl of the Atlantic for you to smell, admire, taste and discover.

If you enjoy exploring places on two wheels Île de Ré offers you a great choice. All the villages of the island are well connected by 60 miles of great cycle paths and bike lanes and so are the majority of beaches. Get on a tandem, try an electric bike or just hire the classic city bike with a basket to put all your groceries in. Cycle along pine forests, fields of wheat, red poppies, vineyards and the nature reserve at Lilleau des Niges where you will see the salt pans, marshes and lots of birds. Although the island is not very big it can take up to two hours from one side to the other, especially if you are going with the children. Enjoy the island on wheels like a local!

Long stretches of sand offer you a nice way to spend a day at the sandy beaches that cover most of the coast. Have a sunny rest at Plage de la Conche des Baleines or Plage du Lizay. For sheltered beaches you can go to Plage de Trousse Chemise and Plage de la Patache. The more popular spacious and sandy beaches are located in the south of the island, close to the main villages with the main services and canoe and kayaking rentals for a nice jaunt through the salt marshland.

Being an isle offers their visitors the best and freshest seafood you can ever imagine. Is there a more satisfying way of spending an afternoon than crawling from an oyster shack to the next one on the western coast of the island? Mussels are the other thing you cannot miss while you are there. You can have tastes on the spot for reasonable low prices or you can take them home and give a go to your shucking skills. Try out L’Escale du Marais, near Le Bois-Plage-en-Ré and enjoy fresh oysters with a sip of local crisp whine. It is time to indulge your senses.

Hike the highest point at the westernmost tip of the island. Wander the many trails available and the marked routes through forests and along the coast. Walks are suitable for different fit levels so go and check it before you start one. Enjoy the fresh air and get to Phare des Baleines, climbing up the 257 spiral steps. After the effort, your reward will be the magnificent views you will get from the top of the lighthouse, stretching to mainland France.

The remaining hundred workers of the salt marshes still produce salt using the old techniques since the Middle Ages. These salt marshes are composed of 3 main basins: the mudflat, an evaporation reservoir and the marshland. The basins were designed and carved in a clever way so that water could flow through them by gravity. Whenever there is a climate change, the workers reduce or increase the water flow to the basins. The formation of the salt depends on the weather conditions and they harvest it from June to September. Visit the salt museum and know more about the crystallization of sea salt, techniques and tools used in the process, a knowledge that has passed on from generation to generation.

Visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, a fortification built in the 17th century to defend and shelter the local population. You can admire the 14 km of ramparts built in a semicircle, the two imposing main gates, large ditches and high walls. It all witness the military past of this beautiful island. Enjoy a guided or self-guided visit in group. This impressive fortification was built in just 5 years around the spacious citadel and a small fortified harbour.