Amsterdam-Brittany-Normandy-Amsterdam

We don't see a lot posted here about Brittany, and it's an area that has always looked very appealing to me. Please post a trip report after you get back!

I've been planning a future trip to the Normandy/Brittany area, and was trying to figure out the best place to start (London? Paris? Dublin?). I hadn't considered Amsterdam, where I've never been, so I like the idea! How long will your trip be? I, too would love a trip report, and what sights you saw each day and in which towns you stayed (and for how many days each).

Hi. We have approx. 2 weeks. We were in Amsterdam a long time ago and enjoyed it; people that were there recently loved it, as well. Plus, we live in The Villages, FL, now, and Orlando Int'l Airport is our main flying option, and they had direct flights to/from Amsterdam.

We've wanted to see the D-Day beaches, and as a result this blossomed into a bigger trip. We have our accommodations all set as of today, with our itinerary being as follows:

1. Rent car at Amsterdam airport and drive to Dieppe (France). This is just an overnight stop.
2. Drive from Dieppe to Dinan via Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei (that appears to be a very charming hill/valley/riverside town).
3. Use Dinan as a base for a day (two nights) to see coastal sights north of it.
4. From Dinan, drive to Perros-Guirec on the NW coast. There are towns, the pink cliffs coast, and much more to see.
5. After an overnight stay in Perros-Guirec, we drive south to Quimper via a number of sights along the way.
6. Use Quimper as a base to see the western tip of Brittany, and see Quimper, as well.
7. Drive from Quimper to Mont St. Michel, seeing sights along the way. We're staying overnight on Mont St. Michel.
8. Next day, drive to Bayeux and stay there for three nights. We'll see Normandy sights while there, including the D-Day beaches.
9. Finally, drive back to the Amsterdam airport, return our car, take the metro into the city, and enjoy Amsterdam for three days before flying home.

Or something like that. ;)

We are doing a somewhat similar trip in September starting with a week in Amsterdam and then taking the train to Lille so we can visit the Canadian WWI memorial at Vimy Ridge. We will spend 3 nights in Lille and then pick up a car and drive to Bayeux (3 nights) and then onto Brittany. We will drop the car in Rennes and take the train to Paris to join a bike tour of the Loire. You might want to consider taking the train either at the front end of your trip or perhaps taking the train back to Amsterdam at the end.

Sounds like a great trip. I really liked both Brittany and Normandy. Our objective in Normandy was the WWII sights, but we found the area beautiful. If you have the time, visit Honfluer, and spend an hour or so on the coast in Etretat. Brittany was charming! If you have the time visit Locronan. It is an enchanting little town. Locranon is close to Quimper. We also spent a bit of time on the beach at stunning Dournenez.

In my opinion, Brittany does not pair well with Amsterdam. MSM->Amsterdam is 8 hours on Google Maps, which is usually an under-estimate. In peak summer traffic (and there's traffic all the time in Europe, just like in the U.S.) it could be a lot longer. We drove across the Netherlands over ten days, and the last hour (we did go into Amsterdam to drop our luggage and the car, which was a mistake) was awful.

You certainly need a car for the best of Brittany and Normandy. But I'd do it from Paris. We combined the Loire with a bit of Brittany and Normandy in a two week car trip some years ago. Car was rented in St. Pierre des Corps, after the TGV from CDG. Paris was only a few days around the air travel, but we managed to see the 14 Juillet fireworks. All that said, some daytrips, like St. Malo, are on a peninsula (which restricts auto traffic) and are tremendously popular all summer. Parking can be like going to a U.S. mall at Christmas. Honestly, the vast new parking fields at MSM (while hideously American) are a useful response to the crush. That daytrip is just what you dream it might be. The others fight 19th Century infrastructure all the way.

Don't mistake that as a demand for Mass Tourism. I'm just making an observation I hope might be useful to the OP.

For those who do not wish to drive all the way long from Amsterdam to Brittany, there are direct flights from Amsterdam to Rennes and Nantes (which is officially in the region "Pays de la Loire", but historically speaking it is Brittany. The city is close to the ocean and to beautiful towns). You may then easily rent a car.

We did a similar trip last year but we took the train from Amsterdam to Lille and rented the car in Lille. We stopped at Etretat to see the white limestone cliffs before making our way to our Bayeux hotel. I recommend stopping there as it is just beautiful! I also thought one could not rent a car in Amsterdam and drive it in France? Maybe you’ll be ok as you’re dropping it off back in Amsterdam but hopefully you’ve looked into this. If it isn’t, then renting in Lille would be your option.