Quimper vs. Dinan vs. ?

Quimper was a larger, busy town. We liked it and spent about a day there. I wouldn't have enjoyed staying there. If you are near Quimper, you might stop at Douarnenez. Its a very beautiful bay. While in Brittany we stayed one night in Locronan (which I think is relatively close to Quimper) which is pretty high on my list of all time favorite, pretty, little towns in Europe. We were there mid September. I heard it can be busy in summer. It is absolutely delightful. We visited Dinan, we found it very picturesque, though we only spent a few hours there. If I had to chose between Quimper and Dinan, I'd stay in Dinan. We also stayed in Dinard which is directly across from Saint Malo. We liked Dinard very much. It was a quieter town. We walked along the coast for quite a distance. It is a town with a very retro (1940's??) resort feel. It was a fun stop that was very different from other French cities/towns I've been in. I'm not sure I've helped? I really loved Brittany and I know you will have a lovely time!

julesmenssen - very helpful feedback - thank you!!!!

How many days will you have for Brittany? I split my visit to Brittany into 3 different bases (4 nts, 4 nts, 3 nts). If you have 6 or more days I would pick 2 bases - in your case maybe Dinan and Quimper which you've already identified as possibles. I know it's sometimes more efficient to spend all your time at one base, I do it often, but Brittany is large and, even though the 'drive' time to different places may be 1-1/2 hours it can run to more than that and there can be other unique places around that will be longer than that from a particular base.

Hi Nancy. We will have three full days in Brittany. Thanks.

We stayed in Quimper last summer, near the Old Town and loved it. There are tons of sites around Quimper, including Carnac to the south and lots of chateaux, monasteries, gardens, passage tombs, etc. We were lucky to drop in on a couple of "local" events, where we saw beaucoup double-cheek kissing, and widespread participation in folk dances.
It's been years since we stayed in Dinan, which also has a nice Old Town, but we liked Quimper better. It wins the strolling browsing crown IMO.
We drifted north and east staying a few days at Morlaix and Loudeac to see sites around those towns without having to make longer drives from Quimper. If you wanted to, you could find plenty to see and do around Quimper and certainly around Dinan without changing bases.

With only 3 days I see why you want one base; you're probably not going to do more than one part of Brittany. Which you choose depends a lot on where you're coming from before your days in Brittany and where you're going after (I believe you're driving). It also depends on which sights you're interested in. With 3 days I'd probably stay in Dinan and concentrate on the NE, maybe visit Dinard, St Malo, Cancale, Fougeres or Vitre and maybe a bit of the coast around Cap Frehel, but again it depends on what kind of sights you want to see and how much driving you want to do.

I loved the rugged coast and Cap Frehel. I also took the ferry to Ile-de-Brehat, which was one of my favorite day trips in that area. I adored Fougeres but I didn't get to Vitre and it has a lot of admirers here on the forum - I understand they are somewhat similar for attractions. I stayed at a b&b in the countryside outside Dol-de-Bretagne and really liked that area, but it's not what you want as far as a town with restaurants, strolling, browsing.

My bases were Dinan in the northeast, Lampaul-Giumiliau in the northwest and Vannes in the southeast. I ended up without a base in the southwest but visited Locronan and Concarneau and Pont Aven. If you want something bigger, you might love Concarneau. I just felt Quimper borders on being a large industrial port and too big for my taste.

I enjoyed Dinan but it's a pretty major drive from the west. Vannes was a great base for the prehistoric ruins in the area; plus it had more of a medieval center than I would have expected and a nice port right next to that. I also really liked Auray, a much smaller version of Vannes. I had many favorite places in Brittany, Vannes was my favorite base (but be walking distance to the port/old center).

Almost every place gets tourist traffic in the summer (though less than much of France) so there will be cafes and accomodations in virtually every town. I'd probably least recommend the northwest unless you really want to see the Parrish closes (unique to the area) or are determined to escape tourism. Towns I visited had relatively few cafes. I had to drive to reach scenic areas rather than just walk out the door. I preferred the look and feel of port towns, even though ports are often a ways upriver from the sea.

We had 7 days in Brittany so we split between Dinan and then the southern coast with day trips to Quimper, Belle ile sur Mer (explored on bike). Can’t remember the place we actually stayed in though! Auray maybe?

I think with 3 days you need to pick one side or the other.

And if going to St. Malo take a read of:
“all the light we cannot see“ by Doerr. Excellent!

Thanks to all of you that responded - all very helpful. We've decided to give ourselves an extra day in Brittany and did this by reducing our stay in Mont St. Michel to be overnight (instead of two nights). Given that, we may split Brittany into two "bases", i.e., one along the north coast, and one in the SW area.

We stayed in a small, not fancy hotel, Hotel les Voyageurs, in Pleneour-Lanvein, last summer. 65E a night. A wonderful breakfast. The food for dinner was fabulous, and the 31 E menu was very satisfying, and very reasonable. This is a small town 15 K NE of Quimper. It is close to many beach towns. Concarneu, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We have friends in a veryvery Clos, and we visited them, which was great. We also visited Rennes (meh), Dinan (enjoyed it), and a couple other small towns. We loved Finisterre.

If you go to Saint Malo, which I highly recommend, I would try to get there early in the day. It was pretty busy there. We brought a picnic and enjoyed it on a part of the wall. And if you go to Saint Malo, yes, read "All the Light you Cannot See", which has contributed to the business of Saint Malo.

I noticed that a lot of Dinan is modern, so don't assume you're going to be in a half-timbered B&B. I don't vigorously recommend it, but we enjoyed Dinard - although the weather didn't cooperate. Recent-history, it's a very "English" visiting place, even though the climate is exactly like it is on the other side of the Channel. Note also that Dinard and St. Malo are both on peninsulas, which adds ten to fifteen minutes to every arrival and departure - perhaps in summer traffic. There is a massive modern marina outside the walls of St. Malo, and parking in the huge lot is not easy. This area is not exactly undiscovered. We saw no need to sleep at MSM. A daytime visit by car was fine, for us.