Please Help With Itinerary for Brittany
 

I posted previously asking for help to decide between Brittany and Burgundy, and we have decided to spend 15 days in Brittany in early May.

I have developed an itinerary, but any insights would be appreciated. I think that our visit being in May might influence where we want to spend our time.

So, we arrive at CDG at 8 am from a long flight, but we are in business class so I think we can handle getting on a train and getting out to Rennes on the same day. Since our vacations are a little shorter these days, I want to make the most of the time we have.

We have been briefly to Rennes, Dinard/St Malo and Honfleur just before Covid, and loved the area. That was in late July, so no doubt a bit warmer than it will be in May. This will be a change and we're hoping to see some beautiful scenery, wild ocean waves, hopefully a little sunshine, and some charming towns. Also we want to do a bit of easy hiking, and a lot of eating seafood. I've looked at Stu's itinerary, as well as read as many trips reports as I could find.

Here's what I have planned:

Day 1: Arrive CDG, take train to Montparnasse, get on a fast train to Rennes.

Day 2: Explore Rennes, and get acclimatized.

Day 3,4,5: Pick up rental car and drive to Dinard to Castelbrac Hotel, do some walks and drives along the coast. Visit St Malo, hopefully not as busy in May as in July.

Day 6,7,8: Drive to Ploumanach, again enjoy some hikes and beautiful scenery.

Day 9,10,11,12: Drive to area around Quimper, Pont Aven I haven't decided on where to stay here, and also in the area of Vannes. In May, might it be more lively in the bigger towns than in the smaller ones? Any suggestions on someplace central? Is Quimper easy to drive into and out of for day trips? We also want access to some good restaurants. Do we need to be in a bigger centers for this?

Day 13, 14, 15 Vannes area, and to see Carnac. I get the sense this area is more condusive to a beach vacation in the summer?

Day 16 Return rental car to Vannes, and take train to Paris for 5 nights.

I am open to suggestions for day trips, nice villages, beautiful coastal walks, delicious restaurants, beautiful hotels. Also, do the number of days in each place seem right?

I know many here love Dinan. We strolled through in late July, and it was unpleasant with the place heaving with tourists. We might take time on our drive to Dinard to stop in Dinan and see if we like it more the second time around.

I am hoping the May 1 holiday does not make train reservations hard to get, as we will want to get out to Rennes on April 30.
Any and all comments and suggestions welcome.
TIA

In Ploumanac'h (Perros-Guirec, to be specific), I enjoyed staying and dining at the Hotel des Rochers. It's been a while, but it still gets good reviews.

I'd encourage you to visit as many of the parish closes as you can -- they are remarkable IMO!

Enjoy!

north of Qyimper there are towns known for their enclos paroissail. Definitely worth a visit:

My trip report from before Covid covers some of the Brittany areas that interest you.
https://www.fodors.com/community/sho....php?t=1672104

Lots of helpful input on my planning thread, and a short trip summary at the end here https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...ttany-1659584/
Enjoy your trip!

Thanks for the recos to visit the parish closes!
AJP I have read your report twice, thank you!

ANUJ thanks for the link, I had not found that thread, and your small report. I appreciate your style of travel, just a bit fast for me, but thanks for the report on the places you visited. I am now thinking I should take a day from somewhere to drive through the Crozon peninsula and stop in Camaret-sur-Mer. Hmmm.

Also, I had another look at Man in Seat 61, and the sncf website, but they are still showing my trains as non bookable. They are supposed to be available 4 months out. I like the idea of going direct from CDG to Rennes without having to go into Paris to Montparnasse.

Any other suggestions?

You should consider visiting the Cairn de Gavrinis, accessible only by boat starting in the spring.

My favorite circuit of Les Enclos takes about 90 minutes of driving time and visits 10 sites. Of course, visiting the sites takes time and how many you want to see is up to you. It follows this route:

Sizon
Commana
Plouneour Menez
Pleyber Christ
St Thegonnec
Guimiliau
Lampaul Guimiliau
Bodilis
La Roche Maurice
Ploudiry

natylou, it could be repair works impacting scheduling, but I'd give it a bit longer for timetables (currently released only till end March) to show up. I vaguely recall we also faced a similar issue with tickets in May 2019. The CDG to Rennes connection is very convenient.

Thanks ANUJ that's good to know...I will wait to see what happens with the train tickets.

Shelemm, thanks for the village names. I have added them to my Points of Interest.

I found a site that notified me when the discount TVG tickets became available, allowing me to get the reduced price TGV tix as soon as they could be bought. I don't remember the name of the site, however.

You can get alerts on SNCF Connect. Though you do need to create an account. The following page is in French:

https://www.sncf-connect.com/aide/al...de-votre-train

Natylou we spent a month in Brittany last year around the same time as you, we had plenty of sunshine as well as a few gray days but not enough rain to bother us.
Are your flights booked? I think you will just miss the scallop festival - Fête de la Coquille Saint-Jacques - which was great fun.
You have received some great advice from some more learned than I but I’ll just mention a couple of spots that we loved…

We stayed in two places, a gite in Saint Suliac and a cottage just outside of Morlaix.
The village of Saint Suliac was very pretty, walkable and close to Saint Malo ( which wasn’t too crazy then) and lots of other interesting countryside. ( We had visited Dinan area previously.)

Day trips from Morlaix included the many phares (lighthouses) and some beautiful coastal walks.

I have a blog ( nothing professional, basically just for family and friends !) but you might find some of the pics interesting 😊

Brittany ? the east |

Enjoy your trip!

Ozgirl, I enjoyed looking at your blog, thank you for the link. It's good to hear the weather was not bad. Perhaps we will still be able to taste a few scallops if we remember to order them as soon as we arrive, end of April.

regular TGV trains early may should open for sale on Jan 22nd.
ouigo trains (low cost brand) usually open earlier.