Baltrum has a small network of cycling and walking paths running across the dunes and along the flat centre of the island. With no cars and no hills, the island can be cycled end to end in under an hour on one of the rental bikes available from the village. The western end of the island is a nature reserve and can only be entered on foot; it holds nesting colonies of terns and other seabirds in the breeding season.
The walk along the southern shore — following the edge of the Wadden Sea at low tide — is particularly good. At high tide the same route becomes impassable, so timing matters. A circuit of the island from the village, along the north beach to the west end, back across the dunes and along the south shore, takes two to three hours at a comfortable pace.