To the question “As we don’t know the Ile de Ré, can you tell me which village I should choose for my holiday rental?” we always carefully weigh our response. Between a young couple with a baby looking for a calm holiday in the heart of nature near the unspoilt Ré coastline and a family with 3 teenagers looking for places to visit and plenty of activity, the choice of village won’t necessarily be the same.
To help you answer this question, we have rated each of the 10 villages on the Ile de Ré according to 4 significant criteria:
- How well the village has resisted the tide of change and retained its authentic character?
- The quality of its beaches, where are the sandy beaches, in particular whether you can enjoy the water at high tide as well as at low tide?
- The liveliness of the village during the daytime: are there a market or a summer market, shops, restaurants?
- The night life: is this a good place to be if you enjoy going out at night, to cafés, clubs or restaurants?
All these grades are, of course, subjective and you may well judge differently. However, we believe they are helpful in differentiating between 10 villages which at first glance seem very similar but, upon closer examination, are each unique & different.
These 10 Ile de Ré’s villages are graded on a scale of 1 to 4, 4 being the best mark. The last column gives the distance between the village & the Ile de Re’s bridge.