St Malo day trip opportunities

Hi!
The "obvious" one is Mont Saint Michel, very easy by car. On the way back, you could either make a quick stop in cute Dol-de-Bretagne, or (slightly longer) drive along the coast to Cancale.

Another good day trip is to the west, driving towards Fort La Latte / Cap Fréhel / Sables d'or les pins : stunning part of the coast. Between there and St Malo, you can also swing by St Briac and St Lunaire, cute coastal resort towns with lovely sea views.

To the south, you have Dinan. Beautiful medieval town center, but it can be crowded.

You don't say whether you have a car or not, and that will open up all sorts of options if so. Mont-Saint-Michel is an obvious choice, but a little further afield to the East is Avranches (<1 hr.). Great little town with a bunch of history and places to see and eat. There is also the American Brittany military cemetery in St. James. Two hours away by car is Bayeux and the nearby Normandy landing beaches from WWII. Although I have never been, if I was there for four days, I would try to take a ferry to Jersey also.

We enjoyed some (paid admission) estate gardens (inland, smaller roads) from our hotel in Dinard (which is also a nice resort town visit, not as historic as St Malo.) Note that both towns are on peninsulas, so there is some driving overhead time in and out. Dol de Bretagne is a pretty stop, with a neolithic Dolman on the outskirts, if you look up the GPS coordinates. Read up Coutances or Vitré, in case you want to see them. Vitré is not quite as Disneyfied or overrun as Dinan.

If you don't mind fairly long day trips, I took a day trip from Dol de Bretagne (not far from St Malo) to Fougeres and Vitre. I know most people prefer to do day trips to one place and spend some time there, but I am sometimes ok with just a few hours in a place to get a feel for it and then go to another place for a few hours. This little trip made for a long day but it was a lot of fun and I found two places that I would be happy to visit again. I happened to hit Fougeres on a market day so I spent some time there, then walked around the town, visited a couple of churches, and took some photos of the castle (but did not visit inside), had lunch there and then headed to Vitre about a half hour drive from Fougeres. Vitre has another medieval castle and a very nice old medieval city center which was fun to just wander around.

I enjoyed all of Fougeres, Vitre, Dinard and Dinan. Also Rennes (larger). Lots of good possibilities in that area.

We stayed in Dinan for 3 nights last October and did not find it too crowded. We loved it. I’m assuming time of year matters for most places. We did a day trip to St. Malo and enjoyed it very much, but felt it was more crowded than Dinan was. Maybe it’s the difference between being somewhere during the day vs. in the mornings and evenings.

Dinard, Dinan, Rennes,