Islay is great! Port Ellen is always our first stop on our 3 week sailing holiday in July. Here are a few ramblings which may or may not be helpful 🙂
There’s now a walking/cycle path pretty much the whole way from Port Ellen to Ardbeg, so about 3 miles (with 3 distilleries in that distance), hard gravel surface, so fine for kids on bikes. If you’re into whisky and want to do tours, they generally allow kids over 7, but the rules on under 7’s change a bit, so worth checking. The Ardbeg Cafe is good for lunch. The cyber bistro in port ellen is good for fish and chips and the new(ish) sea salt bistro on port ellen main street is good for pizza/burger/seafood.
A cycle/walk round to the lighthouse at the other side of port ellen bay is nice and there’s quite a nice wee beach there if it’s not to windy or at least an offshore wind. The singing sands beach is signposted from there and is a short walk just over the hill.
We usually do a day trip to Bowmore on the bus (I think we’ll cycle it this year with the kids), it’s about 10 miles one way. There’s a swimming pool in Bowmore – the mactaggart leisure centre, just check opening times. Heated from the waste heat from Bowmore distillery next door apparently.
A cycle trip out to the Kildalton cross is about 12 ish miles round trip from port ellen and takes you past some seals, a house which keeps peacocks, a few short but steep hills and ends with an honesty box cafe (picnic table). The road is singletrack and very quiet, although we have met the occasional deer, the odd tourist car going to the same place as us and once a very very very old man on a very very very old digger.
Crab line fishing off the pier/marina pontoons in port ellen – say hi to the friendly swans.