Day 1 — Arriving inside the walls of saint-Malo

Sleep: Saint-Malo, four nights
Book ahead: parking, and your hotel early if you want intra muros (we stayed at Hôtel Bristol Union, and loved it!)
Budget note: ~€120 for four days of parking. Factor it in

We came by car. If you’re flying, Rennes is the closest airport and there’s a direct train on to Saint-Malo. I recommend reading my train tips for France before you book, so you’ll know what to do, especially in hot weather

Book your Saint-Malo and Quiberon before you arrive. This is a must.

In Saint-Malo, We used Q-Park Saint-Vincent, the underground car park closest to the old town, and paid around €120 for four days in July. That is a lot of money. It was also completely worth it, because the alternative is circling a walled medieval city in high season with luggage in the boot.

Do not plan to drive inside the walls, not even to drop bags off.

We stayed intra muros because I’d wanted to since I was fifteen, and I’d make the same choice again. Staying inside the walls allows you to walk to many restaurants and to the Dinard boat. But it’s not the automatic answer.

If you want easy car access, base along the Plage du Sillon or in Saint-Servan instead. I go through all three properly in where to stay in Saint-Malo.

We stayed at the Bristol Union, a small boutique place with genuinely lovely staff and a simple breakfast made with real care. It had bread from the bakery next door, homemade jam, granola but also some salty options.

Our room faced the town and some nights carried a bit of restaurant noise. It never ran late, and honestly I liked it. It made the place feel alive.

One warning that applies to the entire region: keep in mind that buildings here weren’t built with air conditioning, and French summers are not what they used to be. It got hot in that room. If AC is non-negotiable for you, filter for it specifically, it’s really rare in Brittany.

Day 2 — Saint-Malo, then across the water to Dinard

Give the whole day to Saint-Malo and Dinard. They’re twenty minutes apart by boat and completely different places.

Take the boat to Dinard, not the car

The Compagnie Corsaire shuttle runs roughly every twenty minutes and the crossing takes fifteen to twenty minutes.

Driving takes forty-five minutes, plus finding a parking space in Dinard in August, which is its own kind of hardship.

Your boat ticket isn’t tied to a time slot, you buy it and take whichever boat you like. Book online in July and August.

Watch the tides. As the water advances or retreats, the boarding point moves. Look for the group of people waiting, or just ask at the ticket office.

There are also guided tours on the sea, proposed by Les Bateaux Rouges (the red boat in my picture). They take you on a short boat trip in the bay, with a live commentary.

Dinard, and a mistake I’d rather you didn’t repeat

Dinard reminded me powerfully of Biarritz. It has the same ocean light, the same grand villas stacked on the hill above a promenade.

Its main beach has everything Saint-Malo’s beaches can’t (because of the fortified walls, I’ll explain that in my Saint-Malo guide): bars, restaurants, actual beach infrastructure.

If you’re coming to Brittany to lie on sand rather than walk a city, Dinard is the better base. I make that case fully in is Dinard worth visiting.

Take the coastal path towards Saint-Lunaire. It goes past small beaches tucked between rocks, and Plage de Port Salut,  the one with the orange villa on the hill above it that you’ve definitely seen in photographs.

Again, watch the tides ! We put our things down a few meters from the water and went to paddle. Ten minutes, maybe. When we turned round the sea was already touching our bags.

So: check the tide before you settle on any low beach, put your things well above the waterline rather than a few metres from it, and if you’ve climbed down to a secluded cove, work out your way back up before you get comfortable.

Day 3 — Mont-Saint-Michel at six in the morning

We left the hotel at five. We were there by six.

Yes, really. And we were not the only ones with that idea.

Getting there before it opens

It’s a forty-five minute drive from Saint-Malo, which is the whole argument for not moving hotels.

We parked at P6 because P10 wasn’t open that early. P9 and P10 look furthest on the map but are actually closest to the main entrance on site.

Then you walk for forty-five minutes to an hour.

Another option is to take the bus from the parking to the village. At six they were empty, by ten every one came back full, and by midday the queue was long enough that we’d have waited an hour.

But the walk here is the thing. The abbey growing slowly larger in front of you is the experience. Come prepared to walk a lot and climb a lot of steps. This is not a place for reduced mobility, and there are no lifts.

Arriving before anything opens is strange and wonderful.

The place was empty apart from staff hauling out yesterday’s rubbish. My photographs from that hour are the best I have. (We were also lucky to have a really nice light!)

Nothing opens until around 9:30, so bring a picnic. We eventually found a hotel serving breakfast to non-guests at €10 for coffee and a pastry, or €20 for the buffet. Don’t be afraid to ask them if you can join, they usually allow it.

Book the long guided tour

There’s a one hour version in several languages that follows the standard visitor route, or a two-hour version that takes you through areas closed to the public. Take the long one.

It’s where I learned that after the revolution this abbey became a prison.

Our guide showed us cells you could barely stand up in, and thold us about a 6 years old who was locked up here and walked out at 16. Can you imagine? I had no idea about any of this before I came here.

Book this tour at least ten to twenty days ahead. If you only wish a simple ticket for the abbey, resellers like GetYourGuide have them too. The official website, though, sells also tickets with video-tablet.

The bay, and what it costs

Do not walk out onto the sand alone. The tide retreats for 17 km here and the sands move. People have actually died trying to cross the bay.

If you want to cross it, and you should, it’s extraordinary! Just take a guided walk. There are short ones of about 90 minutes and full-day crossings that arrive the way pilgrims used to.

Everything on the mont and around it, is expensive. I saw a plain printed cotton tote for €25. I’ve written about what things actually cost in Paris but this place was worse. I recommend taking your own picnic or have lunch on the other side of the bridge, not the village itself.

Where we ate, and what I’d change

On the way back to the car, stop at the Barrage. It’s easy to walk straight past, and the view from it is one of the best you’ll get. There are benches and loungers for a picnic, and a summer guinguette beside it.

It was raining, so we ate inside at the Le Relais Saint Michel with the mont filling the window, for around €15 for goat’s cheese tartines and a salad, which is remarkable value for that view. It’s also a hotel, and this is my first regret of the trip: I’d stay there.

Full logistics will be explained in Mont-Saint-Michel as a day trip guide from Saint-Malo.

Drive: 45 min each way from Saint-Malo
Arrive: 6am if you can face it. Park P6, P9 or P10
Book ahead: the two-hour guided tour, 10–20 days out
Bring: a picnic, rain jacket, proper shoes, and cash for the extras
I’d change: sleep here instead, in a hotel facing the mont like Le Relais Saint Michel

Day 4 — Dinan, the reason I came to Brittany in the first place

I almost cried on Rue du Jerzual. I’m not being dramatic.

Dinan is the town from that magazine photograph, and it did not disappoint. Start on Rue de Lehon, then find the Passage de la Tour, which it looks like a secret entrance and opens into a small green square with cafés and craft shops.

Climb the Tour de l’Horloge. It’s €4, forty-three metres, and the view is worth every step.

Two warnings: it’s steep and genuinely hard if you struggle with stairs or heights, and they only allow nineteen people up at a time for safety. Expect to queue.

Place des Merciers has the most beautiful buildings in the town — gabled timber-framed houses from the 15th to 17th centuries, upper floors jutting out over wooden pillars.

Place des Cordeliers is where you sit down.

Then walk down Rue du Jerzual towards the port. This is the one. We stopped at Dos Hermanas, a literary café in old beige stone with pale blue shutters, drank excellent coffee, ate the single flavour of ice cream they make, and had a long conversation about the feminist books on the shelves.

Honest take on the castle: we bought the combined ticket with the clock tower and it was a good place to escape the heat, but the interiors are empty. Take a guide or skip it and spend the time on the streets instead.

The full walking route is in my guide to Dinan. And if the names are confusing you — they confuse everyone — I plan to write Dinard or Dinan specifically for that.

Drive: 30 min from Saint-Malo
Book ahead: nothing. This is a walking day
Don’t miss: Rue du Jerzual, downhill towards the port
I’d skip if short on time: the castle interiors, unless you take a guide

Day 5 — Corsairs, a cliff-top fort, and north to the Pink Granite Coast

Squeeze in the Demeure de Corsaire before you leave Saint-Malo. It’s a house built by a corsaire. A corsaire was, in very short, someone who made fortune out of investing in ships.

From the street, the house looks like two floors. It actually has eight, built so a corsair could negotiate with several parties who never knew about each other, plus cellars where the cargo landed.

The tour is French-only, around €8 (they don’t take reservations online), and runs on a loop you join wherever it happens to be, no beginning, no end, you finish in the room where you started. Odd system, but it works. Excellent house.

Corsaire’s house website

Then drive to Fort la Latte. We nearly didn’t get in because wildfires had closed the whole area days earlier and it reopened at the last minute. You don’t need to book this one in advance, neither!

It’s abrupt and windswept and looks like something out of Outlander or Ireland. There’s a walk from the car park, so wear proper shoes.

We’d planned a hike there and couldn’t, so we swapped in Cap d’Erquy instead.

It’s more a walk than a hike, easy for anyone, and the coastal views are the point : rock and heather, panoramas the whole way, turquoise water at Plage du Portuais and Plage de Lourtuais.

Erquy is Brittany’s leading port for scallops. If that’s your thing, book dinner before you arrive.

Arriving in Perros-Guirec, we spent the next three nights at the Villa Les Hydrangéas.

Our room was small but had a sea view, there’s parking, and a private garden exit puts you ten minutes’ walk from Plage de Trestrignel.

We only paid for breakfast once. It was good quality, had lovely views, but was pricey for what it is. We went to the Feuilletine bakery instead and liked it so much we went back twice.

Drive: ~2h in total, Saint-Malo → Fort la Latte → Erquy → Perros-Guirec
Sleep: Perros-Guirec, three nights at Villa Les Hydrangéas
Book ahead: dinner in Erquy if you want scallops
Bring: walking shoes. Both stops involve a proper walk from the car

Day 6 — Pink rocks and an island full of birds

The Sentier des Douaniers

The coastal path around Ploumanac’h is a very famous walk, and it earns it.

Start from Trestraou beach where parking is easy and a green path leads you onto the trail.

There are car parks nearer the pink rocks, but those fill fast.

The Sept-Îles boat

About thirty minutes out you reach the first island and it’s covered — genuinely covered — in seabirds. From a distance they look like white specks. I was so touched by this view, it felt like for a moment I was in the right place, at the right time. You knwo that feeling.

We saw seals too. I nearly cried again.

We took the 1h45 trip rather than the three-hour one that stops to walk on the Île aux Moines.

Practical things I got wrong: it was a rainy day and I’d worn shorts in case I got wet, and I was freezing. Bring layers and something to cover up with, I was very glad of a towel.

Arrive at least thirty minutes early, because the good spots inside and outside go quickly, and take an outside seat if you can.

Buy tickets online. They only open bookings on Saturday for the following week, because it all depends on the weather. You can find all the info on the Armor-Navigation webpage.

Evening in Lannion

Don’t miss the Escalier de Brelevenez, a long staircase with houses on one side and views over the town on the other. It leads to a church, but the climb is the good part.

We ate at Merci Mamie, decorated to feel like your grandmother’s kitchen in the best kitsch way. Good food, fairly priced, and a welcome break from crêpes.

More detail in the Côte de Granit Rose guide.

Book ahead: Sept-Îles tickets. Bookings open Saturdays for the week after
Arrive: 30 min early for the boat, or you’ll be inside with no view
Bring: layers, even in July. Especially in July

Day 7 — An abbey, a letdown, and an island

Abbaye de Beauport

This is an abbey in ruins and it is what makes its charm. It’s beautifully kept, with flowers everywhere. You’ll get explanations in three languages, and a kitchen garden running down to a park facing the sea. It was so,so quiet when we went.

There’s a tiny outdoor café on site that we expected nothing from and loved. Everything was homemade: cheese from a producer five kilometres away, around €6.50 for a cheese board.

The portions are small, but have fair prices, and the women serving were happy to talk about where it all came from.

Paimpol, honestly

I was disappointed.

I’d seen photographs of brightly coloured houses around a harbour and built it up. There are some lovely buildings. But the photos online oversell it.

Give it an hour or two on the way past, not a dedicated day. Parking is easy and free, there are good ice cream places, and when we were there a second-hand book market was running along the quay — I bought a novel I read on the ferry three days later.

Note that Brittany’s shops often close from midday until 2 or 3, and close early in the evening. We missed the local art galleries entirely because of it.

Nearby there are hydrangea fields. Provence has lavender, Brittany has this, and a whole field of flowers with the sea behind it is not a small thing.

Île de Bréhat, and the tide I got wrong

Parking is huge (250 spaces) but it’s a ten to fifteen minute walk to the jetty, then a ten-minute crossing. Boats run every ten minutes in the morning and much less often after lunch, so check times before you commit to an afternoon.

I read that you should come in the afternoon to miss the morning crowds.

That was true, the queueing systems at the jetty tell you everything about mornings, and we practically had our boat to ourselves.

But it cost me the thing I’d come for. Low tide fell in the afternoon that day, so all those blue channels you see when you Google this island simply weren’t there.

So check the tide and the crowd pattern, and decide which one you actually care about. If it’s the photograph, go at high tide and accept the queue. I will go into it properly in the Île de Bréhat guide. (soon)

Book ahead: nothing, but check Bréhat boat times for the afternoon
Check first: the tide, if you want the blue channels
Bring: coins. The windmill on Bréhat costs €1 and takes nothing else
I’d skip if short on time: Paimpol

Day 8 — The long drive south, and a ferry at five

The longest leg of the trip, around 2h45. We broke it at Guingamp, which has a handsome main square, a big church and a Saturday market. Cars parked across the square rather spoil it, and the market producers weren’t all local.

It’s worth a short stop if it’s on your road. It isn’t worth a detour.

Parking at Quiberon

There are official town car parks and private ones. We used the Kerné car park, run privately, after going back and forth on the reviews. It worked well — big, and the shuttle was quick. €41 for three days, paid in cash on site or by transfer beforehand.

The catch: the shuttle only runs to ferry times. If you want to linger in Quiberon before or after, you’ll walk.

Car or no car on the ferry

Taking our car across would have cost around €250. Two foot passengers cost around €60.

We went on foot and hired a small electric car for one day instead, and I’d do exactly that again.

The crossing takes fifty minutes and the boat was packed in July. If you’d rather a smaller vessel, Iliens runs a catamaran — under two hours, far fewer passengers, greener, and similar prices. We took the 17:00 so we’d reach the hotel by six and have a proper first evening, and sat outside reading in the sun the whole way.

We stayed at the Grand Hôtel de Bretagne in Le Palais, and I chose Le Palais deliberately: every bus on the island starts and ends there.

I was nervous about a room facing the ferry terminal and I shouldn’t have been — the soundproofing was excellent, there was a second window with a side sea view, and the breakfast room is upstairs facing the sea rather than the queue.

Drive: 2h45, Perros-Guirec → Quiberon
Sleep: Le Palais, Belle-Île, three nights at Grand Hôtel de Bretagne
Book ahead: the ferry, and your Quiberon parking
Costs: ~€41 parking for three days, ~€60 return for two foot passengers
Don’t: take the car across unless you have a very good reason

Days 9 and 10 — Belle-Île: one beach day, one car day

We’d planned two days of hiking. By day nine we were tired, and we swapped to one beach day and one driving day.

No regrets at all. If you’re two-thirds through a trip like this and your body is telling you something, listen to it.

The beach day

We spent it at Plage Herlin, a superb beach in a cove. Bus line 3 from Le Palais to Kervarijon takes about fifteen minutes, then it’s a twenty-minute walk with no shade at all. Wear a hat. Coming back we walked to Bangor and took line 2, about 45–50 minutes in total.

As the tide drops, hidden pockets open up behind the rocks and you can find real quiet. It stayed calm until early afternoon, and by four the small car park was completely full.

Every beach on this island is wild. No toilets, no bins, no kiosks, nowhere to buy lunch. Bring what you need and take your rubbish home. I couldn’t find a single serviced beach on Belle-Île — and that is precisely why it looks the way it does.

The car day

We hired a tiny open electric car from Locatourisle, right next to the hotel — €133 for the day in high season. In roughly seven hours we saw everything famous and several things that aren’t.

Pointe des Poulains is the highlight, and deservedly. Sarah Bernhardt lived here and you’ll be jealous of her mornings. Port Coton, with the needles Monet painted, is best at sunset. Plage de Donnant is the surfers’ beach and stunning even on the windless day we saw it.

And I’ll say plainly: Sauzon was too quiet for me. Pretty, colourful, and it felt like a village rather than a holiday. That’s a matter of taste and yours may differ. The coffee at WAM Café was outstanding, which in France is not a given.

Where to eat

Chez Jojo does the best street food I have eaten in my life. Scan the QR code and order rather than queueing — it’s written on a sign nobody seems to read.

Apéro at Chez Lucienne every evening, sitting on the wall by the water because there are never enough benches and nobody minds. Le Goéland for seafood, where the chef comes out to talk to you.

The one miss was our own hotel’s restaurant, which I’d skip.

Full write-ups in the complete Belle-Île guide and the best places to see on Belle-Île.

Getting around: buses are infrequent and don’t reach the far coast. Hire something for at least one day
Costs: ~€133 for a small electric car in high season
Book ahead: dinner at Le Goéland
Bring to every beach: water, food, a bag for rubbish. There is nothing there

Day 11 — The one that didn’t work

Morning ferry back. Then the day I’d been most excited about, and unfortunately, the day I’d change.

The Quiberon cycle loop, and why it disappointed me

Everything tells you to cycle the peninsula. A French television programme told me it takes about an hour and a half. We hired electric bikes (~€30 a day) and set off east and north in high spirits.

The first stretch was lovely. Pointe du Conguel is a nice flat walk with sea in every direction and Belle-Île on the horizon.

Saint-Pierre-Quiberon is charming, white houses with coloured shutters, and Café Caillou does excellent vegetarian food and an iced chai I’ve been ordering ever since.

Then the signage vanished. We ended up on blocked roads, then on roads full of traffic. And on the west coast — the dramatic side, the reason you come — the cycle path runs so far inland that you can’t see the cliffs at all. You’d have to stop and walk every two minutes.

For a place marketed this heavily as a cycling destination, that was a real letdown. If you go anyway, take normal bikes rather than electric ones; they’re lighter and easier to take beyond the marked paths, which is exactly what you’ll need to do.

Carnac, and a very good dinner

The standing stones are extraordinary. There’s a little tourist train that runs through them and on through the town, which is a decent way to see a lot quickly, and it’s what we did. The town itself did nothing for me.

We finished at La Trinité-sur-Mer with a cocktail at La Marée Douce, then dinner at Chez Jaouen — a seafood place we’d booked after seeing it in a documentary.

It looks like a school canteen from 1985. The shellfish is superb and absurdly well priced, there’s an all-you-can-eat seafood bar at lunch, and people were queuing at seven in the evening. Book, or arrive at opening.

Then on to Vannes, which is home for the rest of the trip.

Sleep: Vannes, four nights
Book ahead: Chez Jaouen. Seriously
Costs: ~€30 per bike per day
I’d change: swap the cycle loop for a fourth day on Belle-Île

Day 12 — Auray, Vannes and a castle at golden hour

Auray itself underwhelmed me. Its port, Saint-Goustan, is lovely — go straight there.

Vannes was the opposite, and one of the nicest surprises of the trip. Lively all day, a beautiful old town, and completely deserted at night. Don’t go into the old town looking for dinner; it empties out. Do go during the day, when you’ll have it almost to yourself.

For an architect the find was the Hôtel de Limur, which runs changing exhibitions on how the city and the region were built. When we visited it was villas and châteaux, with plans and models. I could have stayed for hours.

We stayed at the Hôtel La Marébaudière — big room, slightly dated, walkable to the old town, its own car park, and air conditioning. After eleven nights without any, I cannot tell you what a difference that made to how we slept.

There were roadworks outside in 2026, so our ground-floor terrace wasn’t as peaceful as it should have been.

Next time I’d look at staying on the water in the Gulf itself instead, somewhere like Best Western Plus Le Roof, that looks incredible (we’ve seen it from outside).

Late afternoon, was time for a castle visit! Suscinio castle is just next to Vannes and it”s a beautiful visit. Very hands-on and excellent with children, but genuinely enjoyable as an adult too, with good views over the gulf.

Next door there’s a bird observatory with wooden walkways over the water and hides to watch from. Keep quiet and they come remarkably close. At sunset, it was one of the calmest hours of the trip.

Everything else is in how to spend a day in Vannes. (comming soon!)

Book ahead: nothing, but check Suscinio’s closing time — you want the last hour of light
Don’t miss: the bird observatory next to the castle
I’d skip if short on time: Auray town. Its port is the part worth seeing

Day 13 — The Gulf of Morbihan islands

We booked a tour that runs a commentated 1h30 loop, drops you on the Île d’Arz for two hours, ferries you across to the Île aux Moines, and lets you take any boat back to Port-Blanc.

Parking there is large and we found a space easily arriving around ten.

One complaint, and it’s the reason I’d book differently. I thought I’d chosen something special, then discovered everyone boards the same boat — only the stops differ. It was very crowded. Next time I’d pay for a smaller catamaran. We’ve seen this one and we really regret not taking that tour!

Île d’Arz is the wilder one, few buildings, natural paths. In two hours we covered about half of it and stopped in the village for a coffee. Birds everywhere, and blackberries at every turn, which I ate my way through shamelessly.

Île aux Moines is bigger, richer and prettier in a different way — grand villas, a lovely harbour, good beaches, and far too big to walk in a few hours. Hire bikes at the port like we did or take a tour that only stops on this island, and take more time to enjoy it.

There are almost no cars, so cycling here is a genuine pleasure, and we covered every path in two hours with beach stops.

That evening we went to a marché de nuit, the night markets that run all over Brittany in summer. Local makers, local food, live music, and it ended — as they always do — in a group dance. People in traditional dress, and us joining in badly.

Best night of the trip, and it cost nothing.

More in visiting the Golfe du Morbihan islands. (writing it right now!)

Book ahead: the boat, and consider a smaller operator than the obvious one
Arrive: by 10am at Port-Blanc for easy parking
Do: hire bikes on the Île aux Moines. Walk the Île d’Arz
Ask locally: where the night market is that week. They move around

Day 14 — West, to a beach with a story

A long final day, and a personal one.

Doëlan first, a small harbour that feels properly Breton. There’s not much to do but walk and drink a coffee, and the views justify the drive.

Then Le Pouldu, where my husband spent a few months as a student.

We spent the day on Plage de la Bellangenet — showers, toilets, bars beside the sand, clear water, a good atmosphere. After two weeks of wild beaches with no facilities whatsoever, it was a genuine treat.

We ended at the Rivière d’Étel, at the Île de Saint-Cado, a tiny island joined to the mainland by a bridge. We arrived for sunset, which was the right call.

The wrong call was arriving that late. I wish we’d come earlier and hired a canoe to paddle around it, and if you build this day yourself, give Saint-Cado the whole afternoon rather than the last hour of it.

Drive: ~1h15 each way from Vannes to Doëlan
Don’t miss: Plage de la Bellangenet if you want facilities for once
I’d change: arrive at Saint-Cado early enough to get on the water