Brittany holiday itinerary suggestions

[SuperfastJellyfish]

Looking for inspiration for a road trip with 2 kids next summer (6 & 4) for around 10 days.

Probably looking at getting ferry from either Plymouth or Portsmouth.

Totally overwhelmed with choice of routes/places to go, so any ideas highly appreciated!

Happy to travel around a bit but don't want to be constantly travelling!

Would love a mix of different sights - beaches and towns etc.

Thanks in advance! 😊

Try and get an overnight ferry into Saint Malo. That way you should be able to a fair bit of driving on your first day and actually get somewhere decent, as the area immediately around Saint Malo isn’t particularly inspiring!
It’s totally doable to get to Nantes. It’s only 2.5 hours of driving, and we usually take it gently stopping off here for a few hours. www.foretadrenaline.com/rennes/en/prices/
We’ve stayed twice at Nantes Camping which is superb. From there you can do really easy trips to both Planete Sauvage and Machines des Iles, both of which I’d highly recommend, but even better are Puy du Fou and Terra Botanica (each is an hour from Nantes). It’s also an hour from La Berniere en Retz which is one of our favourite seaside spots.
From Nantes, you could do to Vannes which is a really interesting quirky medieval town and has some great child-friendly beaches nearby e.g. Carnac.

Mont Saint Michel is lovely to visit. I guess your children might be a bit young for a trip to Bayeux to see the tapestry and maybe also for the Normandy beaches which are interesting.

@Fivemoreminutes1 that sounds brilliant! Thanks so much for the suggestions 😊

The submarine pens at saint nazaire were interesting, Mont st Michele is great, I also recommend Normandy, the beaches are beautiful, museum's fascinating (my kids were 6&8 first time we went) inland there's lovely countryside, chateaus etc

Thanks @lilyfire & @gogohmm 😊

If you go from Plymouth, Roscoff itself is lovely- it must be one of the smallest towns with a ferry port, so a very easy introduction to French roads!

The Cote du Granit Rose is beautiful- lots and lots of huge, surreal pink boulders to clamber over.

If you're camping, I would wholeheartedly recommend Le Milin Kerhe, nr Guingamp- I am forced to go there every single trip now, as the kids love it so much!

If you do sail into St.Malo, maybe get a cheap hotel room for a night and check the town out- it's really lovely.

Oh yes, and if you're not a veteran of French travel with kids- I think it's the best, cheapest country I know for budget hotels with family rooms.

I'll second Vannes, and the Golfe du Morbihan- we took a trip on a classic sailing boat and the kids loved it.

And yes, Nantes- Les Machines de l'ile is amazing, but there's loads of interesting stuff there- it reminded me a lot of Bristol in the sense of vibe, creativity etc.

@crackofdoom thank you! Sounds great! 😀

In the summer we did Portsmouth to St Malo and stayed in a lovely little town called Trelevern. Lovely beach, restaurant ,bar and shop in the town. Was perfect to drive/walk to other coastal resorts too.

Nantes and St Nazaire are not in Brittany.
I would recommend Quimper / Benodet for thé beach. They have a great little sailing school for kids. You could go to Locronan( where Tess was filmed many years ago.) On a misty Breton day it is fab.If you do a two centre, I would go towards Vannes- you have also Concarneau, Carnac, the Quiberon peninsula all super close. Even little places like Damgan or la Trinité sur Mer are so pretty.
I lived there years ago. No better place.

OK OK, Nantes became officially unBretonised in the 1980s (regional reshuffle). But before that, it was Breton since the, er, dawn of time (can't be bothered to Google). I mean, the whopping great castle in the middle of town is the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany....So I reckon it counts.

Can I wake up this thread? I'm struggling to find places to stay for less than 7 days in August - any suggestions please? Its all very booked up already!😱
thank you!

Go inland, away from the coast?

happy to go inland- we are staying with family on Belle Ile En Mer and trying to top and tail either side for a few days going to and from ferry is proving a challenge - not looking for beach places as have a week at the beach. I'm just surprised its so tricky.

What are you looking for? Hotel, gite, campsite?
And what are you looking on?
We mostly camp, but when travelling elsewhere use a mix of AirBnB and Booking.com.

@chillichoclove are you looking at hotels? We were able to get onto campsites no bother even at immediate notice last August but obviously that's not much help if you're not wanting to or not set up for camping - it was quite drizzly some days we were there as well.

I've just looked at Brittany on AirBnB - I entered 2 adults 2 kids, 2nd week in August- and there are LOADS of places available! Loads in the £40-80 per night bracket- there are barns, farmstays, gites, City apartments (lots in Vannes which is really nice), even a geodesic dome on an island! 😆

We really like the Cap Frehel area. The beach at Sable d'or les Pins is beautiful. Fab castle on the cliff - Fort la Latte

Thanks all -hoping not to bring tent for 2-3 days only - so lucky to have family friends to stay with for the middle week. We were looking for somewhere with a pool which I think might be what's making it tricky, also on a budget (like most people!).
also trying to avoid airbnb as had bad experience with last minute cancellations in 2021 and 2022!
Was wondering if there were other good search sites for France - have been on booking.com mostly.
I think we might abandon the pool, as you're right lots of lovely places without them.

I'm not sure if outside pools are much of a thing in Brittany. It's not much warmer than the UK....🤔

Gites de France is good