Is Rennes and St. Brieuc each worth a 3 day/night stay? We are trying to supplement our St. Malo, Dinan, Vitre itinerary for May of 2019. We will be using train travel as our chief mode of transportation. We are planning a 2 1/2 week sty in Brittany. Thank you for your suggestions; much appreciated! Flying home from Paris.
Posted by
Washington DC
27142 posts
Rennes has a picturesque and not tiny historic area and a Museum of Fine Arts. Those were the main things occupying me during my 2017 visit, aside from side trips to Fougeres and Vitre. If you find yourself running out of things to do locally, you could hop on a bus to Fougeres.
Especially in smaller cities like Rennes, I review TripAdvisor's Things To Do list and try to check at least two comprehensive guide books to the country in question. If practical I also swing by the tourist office to see whether there's something special going on. Unless my advance research reveals a lot of points of interest, I assume that a place the size of Rennes can occupy me for one full day plus perhaps a few hours on my arrival day (or my departure day). Then I add extra days for side-trips.
This is by way of saying that 3 nights in Rennes without day-trips would have been more time than I needed, though the environment is pleasant. But I tend to get my down time from sitting on trains and buses rather than building in days specifically for vegging out, so YMMV.
I haven't been to St. Brieuc.
I hope you'll post a report covering at least the smaller places you visit, because I'll be heading to Brittany myself next June.
Posted by
USA
383 posts
RS says that Brittany and Normandy are best seen with a car and I agree. It is of course your choice and people do see the region by train, but a car opens up many more small villages and countryside.
I suggest you get the Michelin Green guide that covers Brittany and its villages in detail. On the Fodors site there is a regular poster named Stuart that will send you his sample itinerary on request; we used it and found it helpful.
We stayed in Rennes and found it an interesting city. A nice pedestrian-only zone, a medieval center, a beautiful park. I don't know that it would be enough for 3 days if you don't do any day trips. If you are staying in Vitre which is a 30 min train ride away from Vannes then I don't see the advantage of staying in both. In fact we planned on spending a day in Vitre from Rennes and after a few hours felt like we had seen everything so sat down to have a few drinks before the train back to Rennes. Then again, some people stay in a gite for a week and enjoy it, so maybe staying in 2 nearby locations is right for you.
Posted by
151 posts
3 nights in Rennes is fine, but 3 nights in St Brieuc may be too long, I would advise to stay in Paimpol instead, along the coastline, with beautiful walks around (except if you really prefer to stay in a small city like St Brieuc, rather than in towns).
In addition to the places you mentioned, you could also consider a city like Vannes, it is a good base if you do not have your own car (easy to reach with train, and quite many possibilities of day trips around with train and boats).
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7036 posts
I agree with previous poster that Paimpol would be a nice place to stay and 3 nights would give you the opportunity to take the ferry to Ile-de-Brehat which was one of my favorite days in Brittany if you like being outdoors. You can walk around the island, there's a nice hike out to the lighthouse, or rent a bike to see it that way.