Five-star hotels in Arzon, at the mouth of the Gulf of Morbihan

Arzon hotels: where the gulf meets the ocean

Arzon covers just under 9 km² at the western end of the Presqu'île de Rhuys. The Gulf of Morbihan borders it to the north, Quiberon Bay, the western part of the sea area Bretons call Mor Braz, to the south, and Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys to the east. The commune lies within the Parc naturel régional du Golfe du Morbihan. Its name first appears as Ardon in Rowis in 836, in the cartulary of Redon, when the Frankish king Louis the Pious gave the parish to Conwoïon, abbot of Redon.

Two resorts of very different character share the commune. Port-Navalo, a former coastal fishing port dating from the early 20th century, looks across to Quiberon and Locmariaquer from the point at the gulf entrance. Le Crouesty is the modern resort, developed continuously since 1973 around its marina. Scattered hamlets such as Monteno, Kerners, Tumiac and Kerjouanno fill the land between.

Arzon lives by the seasons. About 2,000 people live there all year, while a peak of 45,000 visitors was recorded in 2019, and in 2020 some 79.5% of its homes were second homes. Anyone comparing Arzon hotels for a stay outside July and August should expect a quiet town once the season ends; the harbour fronts, the coastal paths and the hotel's own seawater facilities then set the pace.

Port du Crouesty and Port-Navalo

Port du Crouesty was created in 1973 on a marshy former lagoon at the entrance to the gulf, and apartment blocks for holidaymakers went up with it from the start. The town lists 1,432 berths on pontoons and some 400 more places ashore and in dry storage, and calls it the largest port in the Morbihan; the département's tourism board counts it among the largest marinas in Brittany. Boats come in on a pair of leading lights visible from 19 nautical miles.

Port-Navalo is the older harbour, a good refuge in south-westerly weather, with a lighthouse on its point. In season, its landing stage is the departure point for crossings to Belle-Île-en-Mer, Houat and Hoëdic and for tours of the gulf. Beside it, the Criée de Port-Navalo, the former fish hall, hosts exhibitions, artists' residencies and a craft market run by Arzon Événements, and the town's Arzibus shuttles and Kicéo buses stop close by. In July, the Grandes Régates de Port-Navalo bring dinghies, cruisers, one-designs and traditional sailing boats together for a weekend of racing in the gulf.

Markets set the rhythm of the week. The market in the bourg runs every Tuesday morning all year on the Place de l'Église and the Rue Centrale. In 2026 the Port-Navalo markets run on Fridays and Sundays from late March to the start of November, spread along the Boulevard de la Rade, the Place du Taveno and the Rue de la Douane.

Hôtel Miramar La Cigale on the Route du Petit Mont

Hôtel Miramar La Cigale stands at Port du Crouesty, on the Route du Petit Mont, with direct access to the Plage du Fogeo. The hotel likens its building to a liner run aground at the water's edge, and its rooms open either onto the ocean or onto the marine lake.

The room range starts with Passerelle rooms, 24 m², simple and comfortable, which look over the marina lake, and Escale rooms, sober and practical, with views of the peninsula and the ocean. Fil de l'Eau and Terre & Mer rooms are 27 m² with a private balcony, and Grand Large rooms, also 27 m² with a balcony, have panoramic ocean views. The suites, which the hotel gives as 50 to 80 m², add a private sitting room and a bathroom with both a shower and a bathtub.

Water shapes the facilities. The marine circuit combines a sauna, hammam, sensory shower and a seawater pool heated all year; the spa area adds cascading showers, sea jets and bubble baths, and spa treatments are open to guests from the age of 16. Le Safran, the restaurant, serves refined traditional cuisine from local, seasonal produce, with dietetic options, and the bar has panoramic sea views. The hotel's FAQ notes that guests having treatments may lunch at Le Safran in a bathrobe, while proper dress is expected at dinner.

Pets are accepted on a lead, but not on the fourth floor, which holds the restaurants, bar, pool and fitness room, nor in the thalassotherapy area. Each floor has two rooms adapted for guests with reduced mobility, and covered, secure parking is available near the hotel. For what the French five-star grade requires of a hotel, see our guide to what makes a hotel five-star.

Cairns, tumuli and a half-drowned stone circle

On 12 July 2025 UNESCO inscribed the Megaliths of Carnac and the Shores of Morbihan on the World Heritage List, a serial property of four areas whose monuments were raised between about 5000 and 2300 BC. Arzon lies in the area known as the confluence of the three rivers, west of the gulf, and several of its monuments belong to the property.

The Cairn du Petit Mont, on the headland just south-west of Port du Crouesty, is a complex of two cairns and two dolmens built in several phases, the earliest around 4600 BC; the whole mound measures 60 by 46 metres and stands 6 metres high. Protected as a historic monument since 1904, it was badly damaged in 1943, when the German army built a bunker into it for the Atlantic Wall, because the cairn commanded the view over Quiberon Bay. The two surviving chambers are covered with engravings, and the site is open to visitors.

The Tumulus de Tumiac, also called the Butte de César, is one of only three giant 'Carnac-type' mounds, with the Tumulus Saint-Michel at Carnac and Mané er Hroëck at Locmariaquer. Published measurements vary, but the mound, entirely man-made, stands at least 15 metres high. Tradition holds that Julius Caesar watched his war against the Veneti from its summit in 56 BC. The interior is closed to the public because the mound is unstable.

Offshore, on the islet of Er Lannic, a double enclosure of about a hundred standing stones, raised around 3500 BC, is partly submerged by the sea. The island is private, so the stones are seen from boats. Further into the gulf, the cairn of Gavrinis, discovered in 1832 and nicknamed the Sistine Chapel of the Neolithic, has a 14-metre passage lined with carved slabs; it is visited only in small groups by boat from Larmor-Baden.

Boats and islands of the Gulf of Morbihan

The Gulf of Morbihan takes its name from the Breton for 'little sea'. Legend gives it an island for every day of the year; in fact it holds about forty islands and islets, many of them private. The two largest, the Île aux Moines and the Île d'Arz, are the ones most visitors reach. The Golfe du Morbihan Vannes tourist office sells tickets all year for gulf cruises, to Arz, the Île aux Moines, Gavrinis and the Auray river, and for the island crossings to Houat, Hoëdic and Belle-Île.

The Île aux Moines, the largest island, is a five-minute crossing from Port-Blanc in Baden. Its paths run through woods such as the Bois d'Amour to the Kergonan cromlech, a 65-metre horseshoe of 34 standing stones, and to the dolmens of Kerno and Penhap; in July and August its village holds a market every day of the week. The Île d'Arz, 30 minutes by boat from Vannes, is less hilly and wilder than its neighbour, ringed by 17 km of coastal path, with the Berno tide mill in the north and the Marins et Capitaines museum in the village.

Arzon has a tide mill of its own. The Moulin de Pen Castel, recorded in 1186, is the second-oldest known tide mill in Brittany. Further east along the peninsula, in Sarzeau, the Château de Suscinio was a residence of the Dukes of Brittany in the late Middle Ages; Prosper Mérimée's visit led to its protection as a historic monument in 1840.

Reaching Arzon via Vannes

The hotel's reference station is Vannes, about 30 km away by road. Trains from Paris reach it in about two and a half hours, according to the hotel, which runs a shared shuttle between Vannes station and the hotel at set times; the concierge needs 48 hours' notice, and private transfers can be arranged outside those times. Lorient and Nantes airports are the two the hotel names, with transfers by its shuttle service or by taxi, again booked 48 hours ahead.

Locally, Kicéo buses, run by Golfe du Morbihan–Vannes Agglomération, serve Arzon. Cyclists have an easy route along the peninsula: the old railway from Surzur to Port-Navalo, which served Arzon and Port-Navalo stations from 1910 to 1947, survives for much of its length as a cycle path linking Arzon, Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys and Sarzeau.

Arzon also combines well with Normandy. From Rennes, on the way north, the A84 runs towards Caen and the D-Day coast around Audrieu, so a Brittany and Normandy tour can link the two stays.