transport in brittany
 

Hi guys,

i did some research online and realized that the transport system in brittany is not very established and as such i have a few concerns.

firstly, my friend and i have a plane to catch at brest airport but we are planning to stay near the MSM region. so would just like to ask the experts here, what would be the best way to travel to brest from let's say St Malo. Cabbing's out of the question i think because we are backpacking and would like to cut costs as much as possible. and i think no cab would bring us out to brest, considering it's a 2hr plus trip out (correct me if i'm wrong). would you guys recommend taking a train instead?

secondly, if we were to drive to brest airport, are the roads in brittany relatively "friendly"? because we are not really accustomed to driving in europe.. we're from singapore -- and we drive on the right hand side of the car.

would appreciate all your help in this matter! thanks!

What is MSM?

Anyway, the only way to explore Brittany is by hire car. Driving is easy, no big cities, hardly any congestion.

MSM is Mont Saint Michel.

And yes, driving is easy.

From MSM you can take E401 to E50 to Brest. It's a limited access highway but toll free, at least the last time I drove on it a few years ago.

Due to a medieval law or some such, no toll roads are allowed in Brittany.

The train route to Brest from most places near Mont St Michel is to take a local train to Rennes, and TGV to Brest. Tickets about €40 each for a single. See http://www.voyages-sncf.com/billet-train . Even if you don't have French, I am sure that you should be able to make some sense of it, and understand the options.

Driving in Brittany is very easy. The roads are good and generally not crowded, and there are no tolls (apparently there is some old law that guarantees that road tolls can not be applied in Brittany). Like you, I normally drive on the left of the road, but it's not a big problem to adapt. The route from St. Malo to Brest is mostly dual carriageway.

Thanks a lot for the info and reassurances! I feel better now about driving in Brittany. ha. :)


Padraig, thanks for the link. I've checked it out but the Brest train station is still a fair distance away from the airport rite ?

The station is 14km (about 9 miles) from the airport. There is a shuttle bus service from the station that runs about 8 or 9 times a day -- I presume it is linked with train times.

Info (in French) on http://www.airport.cci-brest.fr/fr/acces/bus.html . There is a link at the bottom of the page to give you timetables: look for the word "Téléchargez" and click on it.

Oh thanks so much Padraig!