Brittany, Where To Stay?

Andrea, Brittany has so much variety that I'd make a tour, starting with two nights in Vannes, giving you 1.5 days to see Vannes, neolithic sites, and Auray. Then west to Quimper or Locronan or Pont Aven, for a night. Finally, go north along the coast to St. Malo or Dinard for two nights and Dol-de-Bretagne on your way to Bayeux. Even with this, there is still a lot more to visit.

Thanks Bets. I adjusted things to give us 6 nights. Every little bit helps.

Andrea, Vero (France with Vero) has several video tours of her time visiting in Brittany on Facebook.
She even stayed with relatives in their AirbNB.
You could also watch these to get a sense of what places appeal to you.

SharYn, that’s a good idea. Or is it? After watching her tours I always want to go wherever it is. :-)

I suggest getting the Michelin Green Guide for Brittany. It lists virtually every town a tourist might want to visit, and also has some suggested driving itineraries. Also you can request Stu's itinerary; see https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/normandy-and-brittany-stu-dudleys-updated-itinerary-1670294/ We used both of those planning our trip to Brittany and Normandy a few years ago.

We stayed in Vannes and it has a nice medieval core and harbor. However we like being on the coast and it turns out Vannes is not; the harbor is more than a mile from the bay and not at all within walking distance of the Atlantic. If this is a factor then you might want to look elsewhere.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I’m going go to the bookstore today.

I also found Lonely Planet France to be useful. Note that there's historic Brittany and there's resort Brittany. For example, we stayed in Dinard and it was shoulder season, so a few places were closed, and the beach was chilly. (Note that apparently, Dinard has the highest percentage of UK overseas real estate ownership in France. Why? The climate is the same! But we heard little English during our visit.) I think the Quimper steam trains were closed, or only on days we weren't there. We stayed at Reine Hortense, a lovely old-style (smaller rooms, but new bathrooms) beachfront hotel. It had locked parking nearby, a big plus.

We are public garden fans, which takes a lot of driving on narrow roads, but we used some French garden guidebooks as well. We couldn't get tickets to one of the most famous (?) gardens (I mean, botanical garden, not Chateau formal garden), Le Vasterival, because it's only by appointment and it takes months of planning. Barbara Abbs, French Gardens, A Guide, ISBN 0-89831-041-5

We didn't seek out cider makers, but I wonder if apple harvest is still on in October.

Thanks Tim. I think we are more interested in history as opposed to a resort feel.

I'd drive to Mont St Michel and spend one night -- I'd also do one night in Carnac or Auray for the neolithic sites. We really liked basing in St. Malo for 4 nights -- but we didn't have a car on that trip and it was convenient for access to Dinan, Dinard, the Tour Solidor etc. With a car you could go for smaller towns. Some of our stops. https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/brittany/
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/mont-st-michel-is-that-a-real-place/

En route between Tours and Vannes, I recommend seeing the salt flats at Guerande. It also has a tiny, walled old town center. My own trip around Brittany was “progressive,” with a lot of one-night stops but no backtracking.

Sure, when I wrote "historic", I didn't mean neolithic, I meant pre-Rennaisance . These are non-paywalled links to older NY Times articles. That's why they're so long-note the legit domain at the beginning of the links. But there have been more recent articles on ruined churches and towns, south of the "resort" areas.

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/17/travel/a-celtic-slice-of-france.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUkd_Uq4hkTlUaBCbJR9E5oxnBjL3Ezbggh3S7NyyUQjsHyOpQDZKJ_UzAI6p_Yt95lxKqeOh8Cp59Dvpj0r0YeEV3VwijppbDk85Zeits99_2AT471NeQDbkxtG-6YGf8ebgjmrTh5UmMaWDrS7WfhSN6XHttpZtifFCh0HIalOySQqMuhI4Ijbp2DYt6RDwDeCGKo_Htbh14M92NZRnagRIkD6AbAXqA2I7BtM9TNVlaGlnET3tg4W0j6ts6ON4fPKb3LxNIa9PKM_yJC2iZZFazf7B8Ew2f&smid=url-share

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/16/travel/brittany-s-church-towns.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUkd_Ur4hlSFUaBSbJR9E5oxnBj-LO3KA1gG67N22eSStYxORQH4-f_VyLZbZmY5F7-QWnc-J7Ee1lQu1unKgYNlZxSgKsr9yOkstfcnho8Me-UDtrms_BBb59oWGxZSzmdOojzra27h-IbDP6SeeIhy1aUQViqZdvfFGg32VZhfuWV74ohaQtmKspFZt4Rj8fZCKVv_eOCxh2O9uOaxu0-RBhEqgCGmmVxYjAnupGJAZCClvGTGd84nI96L5fPdAXOqX5Kn0waWIv-84yhUKWTUf5IetdNZQ&smid=url-share

One reason we chose Dinard was that Picasso stayed there for a while. But we saw no trace of an art colony on our brief stay. I'd comment that while St. Malo seems a more cultural/historic target than Dinard (they face each other across a narrow bay), St. Malo is quite urban and tourism choked by day. Both require a daily 15-minute escape from a peninsula via a narrow road. I think St. Malo had a yachting event when we were there. The vast pleasure marina was jammed with huge boats, and parking almost non-existent.

Thanks again to all that have taken the time to respond to my question. Janettravels, I enjoyed your blog posts and Carnac is on my list of things/places I want to see. We’ve been to MSM and unlike many people we were underwhelmed. It was late September the year we traveled there and our impression was of endless souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants on the island. My favorite thing was seeing it from off the island. I realize I’m in the minority regarding this, but hubby felt the same way. I’m sure we will take a peek as we drive from Brittany to Normandy.

If our schedule doesn’t change it will be October 10th when we travel to Brittany from the Loire. With 6 nights does it seem feasible to just wing it and not travel with reservations? I’m thinking we will start in Vannes to explore it and the surrounding area, but from there it might be nice to figure out where and how long we stay as we go. It makes me a bit nervous to do that as I’m definitely a planner, but we will have a car and flexibility. Am I being unrealistic to think there won’t be as many tourists by then so we won’t have trouble finding a vacancy? We would likely do something along the lines of what Bets has suggested.

Would 2 nights be enough time in Vannes? We would probably arrive around noon, so we would have the rest of that day and all of the following day to explore Vannes and Carnac. Is there anything else in that area that we shouldn’t miss? I’m sure that region has much to see, but we only have 6 nights for all of Brittany.

The best thing about MSM IS in fact seeing it across the flats at a distance -- it is magical. We went in late October when it was not at all crowded and ignored the souvenir junk -- the Abbey, the views and just climbing around the ramparts is interesting and fun. And that view at night and day at a distance is stunning.

It was not crowded when we were at St. Malo and I imagine that would be a lot less fun in mid-summer -- but again the views and the beauty of the place itself made it a treat -- and some of the best restaurants we have eaten in in France.

We hopped over to St. Malo today and it’s amazing. A walled city. You can walk along the ramparts , the beach, or the city streets. I wish we had more time here.