Tips for a visit to Brittany

Saint Malo is a nice beach town on La Manche aka English Channel

Brittany is quite large and depending on what areas you want to see you may want to split your time between 2 bases. I actually used 3 bases for my 12 days in Brittany - one in the general area of St Malo, one on the western peninsula in the Morlaix/Brest area, and one on the south coast for the Carnac area.

EDIT This is a website highlighting 16 traditional Breton villages. You can then check locations to see what might be a good base to visit one or more of them.

Do you plan to rent a car? Even with a car, I am doubtful about the advisability of spending all your time in a single Breton town.

Yes, we will have a car.
Splitting time between 2 or 3 towns sound like good advice.
Thanks

For 7 days in Brittany, I would also advise to choose 2 or 3 home bases. One in the area of Saint Malo / Dinan. Two other bases could be in Finistere (in the north around Roscoff / Morlaix, or in the south near Quimper / Concarneau) and near the Gulf of Morbihan.

We spent 5 days in May in the area near Quimper. Charming, and inexpensive. We stayed in a hotel in Pleneuor Lonvein. Many small seaside towns there which are charming and not touristic by Paris standards. That is the Department Finisterre. We also visited Rennes, which I found more rushed and crowded, with confusing traffic patterns. This is the Department Ille et Vilaine. We visited Dinan and Combourg from Rennes by car. Each Department (state) in France is different, I find, and has its own charms. Bretagne is a place where cider is the drink, out of coffee cups no less. One note: When renting a car, you will be assessed any speed violations, which are done by speed camera. Look for the signs on the highway with the "radio wave" (concentric arcs) and mind your speed in those zones. We got 2 tickets, and I was more careful than in the US.

In june I came from MSM - drove along the coast through Cancale to Dinan stayed there 3 days - explored the rance river, St Malo, the Emerald coast. Then I drove the north coast to Perros Guirec which is spectacular - stopping at weird and wonderful places along the way. Did some hiking along the coast there. I then drove south to the morlaix area and further south. If I were you I'd concentrate on the north coast and then head to the Loire valley. I think Brittany is too big to try to see both north and south in one trip unless you have more time. sue

Great advice everyone, Many thanks
Bill

Whenever we travel by car in Europe we start with a Frommers travel guide. The last time was in Brittany (2016) with Frommers 25 Great Drives in France. (I have seen them for other countries as well.) They have the country broken into many 3-5 day trips in different areas showing things to do and mileages. Most travel is on small roads. We use that with a Michelin map and it has worked out quite well. We used it in 2015 to travel around the country...so it will have the Loire valley as well as other regions in between there and Brittany. You could easily do Brittany with two home bases, maybe Quimper and the Gold Coast. My opinion might change if you are going to Normandy as well. Have fun...it is one of our favorite areas of France.