Which Breton island should you choose? (2)
Groix, Glénan, Batz, Île aux Moines or Sein

After Belle-Île, Ouessant and Bréhat, here are the five other Breton islands that have their own guide on Dem-Tukki. For a day of beach and lagoon, choose the Glénan; for three days of cliffs and coastal paths, Groix; for an easy outing with children, Île aux Moines or Batz; and for the silence of the world’s end, Sein. None of them needs a car, and all are less than an hour by boat.

By The Dem-Tukki editorial team·Published 6 September 2026·Updated 6 September 2026·9 min read

The first part of this guide compared the three great classics — Belle-Île, Ouessant, Bréhat. The five islands that follow are smaller, often closer to the mainland, and yet each has an identity no other can claim: a beach that moves, a turquoise lagoon, a cactus garden facing the Channel, a stone circle under the mimosas, a flat rock that said no in 1940. Most are visited in a day; some deserve a night. Here is how to choose.

🐟 Groix — The wild one of Morbihan

45 minutes from Lorient, Groix is a 15 km² island — eight kilometres by three — edged with cliffs and coves you can only reach at low tide. Its fame rests on a beach: Les Grands Sables, the only convex beach in Europe, which bulges out into the sea instead of curving into a bay and which the currents shift along the coast by several metres a year. A little further on, the François Le Bail nature reserve protects rare rocks — glaucophane, garnets — that draw geologists from around the world, and the Pointe des Chats carries the lowest lighthouse in Brittany.

In the 1930s Groix was also France’s leading tuna port, with up to three hundred dundee sailing boats fishing for albacore: the Port-Tudy ecomuseum remembers it, and on top of the church spire a tuna-shaped weathervane stands in for the usual cockerel. The coastal path circles the island in a good day; bikes hired at the harbour and a shuttle link the villages. In late August the International Island Film Festival fills the island for five days. Allow two or three nights, and see our Groix guide for addresses.

🏝️ The Glénan — Brittany’s lagoon

About ten nautical miles off Fouesnant, nine main islands form a circle around a shallow inner sea, the “Chambre”, whose white sand — crushed shells — gives the water a turquoise colour you would not expect at this latitude. The comparison with the tropics ends with the temperature: you swim here at 16 to 19 °C in high summer. Saint-Nicolas, the only island freely open to visitors, shelters a plant that grows nowhere else on Earth, the Glénan narcissus, saved from extinction and protected by a reserve that flowers in April.

This is where Europe’s largest sailing school was founded in 1947; its handbook is still the reference. Boats only run from April to September — about an hour from Bénodet or Concarneau with Vedettes de l’Odet, half an hour from Trégunc — and are cancelled in strong winds. You come for the day, as there is practically no accommodation, and you bring everything: water, picnic, hat — there is no shop and no shade on Saint-Nicolas. Details and operators in our Glénan guide.

🌵 Île de Batz — The exotic garden of northern Finistère

Fifteen minutes by boat from the old harbour of Roscoff, all year round and for about ten euros return: Batz is the easiest island escape in northern Finistère. The island’s paradox lies in a garden: the Georges-Delaselle garden, created in 1897 by a Parisian insurer, gathers nearly two thousand five hundred species from five continents — palms, agaves, cacti — at the northern tip of Brittany, thanks to a surprisingly mild microclimate.

The rest fits into 3.2 km² of early-vegetable fields — the Roscoff pink onion grows here too — dunes and white-sand beaches such as the Grève Blanche. At the far end, the lighthouse is climbed by one hundred and ninety-eight steps for a view over the whole Abers coast. No cars for visitors: the circuit takes three hours on foot or two by bike. One thing to know: at low tide the boats berth at the end of a pier nearly five hundred metres long, to be walked with your luggage — travel light. Addresses and timetables in our Île de Batz guide.

🌸 Île aux Moines — The pearl of the gulf

A five-minute crossing from Port-Blanc, in Baden, departures every half hour and a ticket under seven euros: Île aux Moines is the most accessible island in Brittany, and the largest in the Gulf of Morbihan. Cross-shaped, seven kilometres long for 3.2 km², it has six hundred year-round residents and vegetation that surprises: mimosas from February, camellias in March, orange trees, palms and fig trees, sheltered from the ocean winds by the land around the gulf.

Its woods bear legendary names — the Bois d’Amour, the Bois des Soupirs, the Bois des Regrets — and its heathland hides the Kergonan cromlech, one of the largest circles of standing stones in Europe, as well as the Pen Hap dolmen. Visitors’ cars stay on the mainland: you walk the island on the coastal path in a day, or cycle it. Most visitors stop at the village and Vhil beach; the wilder south is almost always empty. In odd-numbered years the Semaine du Golfe, in May, gathers hundreds of traditional sailing boats. Our Île aux Moines guide covers beaches and places to stay.

⚓ Île de Sein — The end of the end of the world

An hour’s crossing from Audierne through the Raz de Sein, one of the roughest passages in Brittany, and you land on an extreme case: fifty-eight hectares, about two hundred inhabitants, not a single tree — the wind forbids it — and a highest point less than two metres above the sea, protected by dykes. The village lanes are so narrow that two people can barely pass, laid out that way to break the gusts. Offshore stands the Ar-Men lighthouse, “the hell of hells” to its keepers, which took fourteen years to build.

Sein also carries an extraordinary page of history: in June 1940, after de Gaulle’s appeal of 18 June, more than one hundred and thirty of the island’s fishermen sailed for England, which led de Gaulle to say that Sein was “a quarter of France”. It is one of the five French communes made Compagnon de la Libération. On the island, neither cars nor bikes are of any use: you cross it on foot in twenty minutes. A few hotels, two or three restaurants, one grocery. A day trip gives you an idea; sleeping there, once the last boat has gone and only the wind and the lighthouses remain, is an experience few places in France can offer — provided you accept that a storm may keep you an extra day. See our Île de Sein guide.

🗓️ When to go?

Like their big sisters, these islands live to the rhythm of April to September. May, June and September offer the best: swimmable water, flowering paths, crossings without queues and rooms available on Groix, Batz and Sein. April has two dates not to miss: the flowering of the Glénan narcissus on Saint-Nicolas and the last mimosas of Île aux Moines, which bloom from February. In late August, the International Island Film Festival on Groix fills the island for five days: book very early.

Winter closes the Glénan — no boats between October and March — and sharply reduces sailings to Batz and Sein, where the sea may cancel the crossing or keep you on the island for a day or two. Île aux Moines, five minutes from the mainland, stays reachable all year and regains its calm from November. Off-season timetables are on our transport pages: Groix, Glénan, Batz, Île aux Moines, Sein.

⛴️ Getting there: five ports, five crossings

Five islands, five ports: Lorient for Groix (Compagnie Océane, 45 min); Bénodet, Concarneau, Loctudy or Beg-Meil for the Glénan (Vedettes de l’Odet, about 1 h, €39 to €49 return) and Trégunc (Glénan Découverte, 30 min); the old harbour of Roscoff for Batz (15 min, all year, about €11 return); Port-Blanc in Baden for Île aux Moines (Izenah Croisières, 5 min, every 30 minutes, about €6.80 return, with seasonal links from Vannes, Locmariaquer and Arzon); and Audierne for Sein (1 h). From the UK, Brittany Ferries lands you in Roscoff — Batz is then a quarter of an hour away. Bikes are carried to Batz and Groix; check for the others.

None of these islands justifies shipping a car: possible but expensive and discouraged on Groix, banned for visitors on Batz, Sein and Île aux Moines, out of the question on the Glénan. You leave the car in the mainland car parks — paying, and quickly full in summer at Port-Blanc and Roscoff — and continue on foot or on a bike hired at the harbour. Our pages getting around Groix and getting around Île aux Moines compare the options.

👨‍👩‍👧 Which island for you?

Families: Île aux Moines and Batz, for a car-free, hazard-free day with a beach on arrival. Beach and swimming: the Glénan without hesitation, then the Grands Sables on Groix. Walkers: the Groix coastal path, with sunset at Pen-Men. Couples: a night on Sein, or Île aux Moines out of season. Gardens and botany: the Delaselle garden on Batz, the Glénan narcissus in April, the mimosas of Île aux Moines. History: Sein and its free men, the Kergonan cromlech, the tuna boats of Groix. A single day: Glénan, Batz or Île aux Moines. A long weekend: Groix, or the Sein + Ouessant pair from Finistère.

📊 Comparison

❓ Frequently asked questions

🔗 Further reading

• Which Breton island should you choose? (1)Belle-Île, Ouessant, Bréhat: the first part of the comparison
• Île de GroixGrands Sables, tuna boats and nature reserve
• Glénan archipelagoTurquoise lagoon, sailing and diving for the day
• Île de BatzExotic garden and lighthouse fifteen minutes from Roscoff
• Île aux MoinesThe pearl of the Gulf of Morbihan, five minutes from Port-Blanc
• Île de SeinThe island of free men, an hour from Audierne
• Where to stay on GroixSelected hotels, B&Bs and rentals

The Dem-Tukki editorial team

Dem-Tukki is an independent travel media devoted to islands: more than 70 destinations documented in five languages, practical pages that are regularly refreshed, and comparisons to help you choose the right island at the right time. Every guide is reviewed and dated; update dates are shown.

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Keywords : Breton islandsGroixGlénanÎle de BatzÎle aux MoinesÎle de Seinwhich Breton island to choose