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We're looking to book a family holiday and we're looking at northern France. We're thinking of getting the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge so anywhere about 8 hours from there is good, Brest is the limit it looks like but somewhere near St. Malo / Cherbourg would be good.
We have a 2 year old and bikes so any recommendations much appreciated. We'll probably be hiring tents from the likes of Eurocamps so any recommendations for those types of companies ppreciated as well.
First question - what time of year ?
Plenty of great family / beach holiday spots along Normandy coast (Deauville/Trouville/Swiss Normanday/Calvados region) and in Brittany (eg Carnac). Castles of the Loire. Not so much up around Cherbourg aside from D-day beaches IMO.
There have been a few similar threads including recommendations for camping, we've always stayed in Gites/Hotel/B&B or on a boat.
I've stayed here twice -
[url= http://www.camping-haliotis-mont-saint-michel.com/english-version-camping-haliotis-mont-saint-michel.php ]Camping Haliotis[/url]
6 miles south of Mont St Michel.
Nice swimming pool, flat cycle path up to Mont St Michel.
We camped, but they have chalets/caravans to hire
about 25 miles drive to St Malo (which is lovely, and has a great beach)
We're thinking of going again this summer, just because it was a stress-free holiday with the kids.
Looking at June - avoiding the summer holidays whilst we can.
Nice part of the world, I stayed in a lovely village in between Nantes and Rennes, then St Malo itself. Quimper is worth a visit too.
Ferry to St Malo or Cherbourg rather than drive such a long way?
We have been to various places, camping and cycling in [url= http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/reviews.asp?revid=5628 ]Dol de Bretagne [/url]and camping and in a static near [url= http://campingdeschevrets.fr/ ]St Malo[/url]. Cancale nearby has oyster beds and ace sea food cafes.
The Dol site can be a bit English, the chateau has a cricket pitch!
Granville has a lovely stretch of beaches to the south.
Stayed on a nice site near Dol De Bretagne a few years back. Vic Sur Aisne site (les pecheurs?) last year was good too, did Euro Disney from it.
Avoiding July and especially August is a good plan ! You should get a lot more choice and less crowds.
The appeal of Zeebrugge is that we drive to Hull from Sheffield, then get the overnight ferry and do the majority of our driving in France rather than Britain, however the drive to Portsmouth is (optimistically?) 4 hours...
Routes from Portsmouth, you can get a fast Ferry to Cherboug (3hrs?) but then it's a drive down the peninsular. You can get an overnight boat to St Malo best option for central / West Brittany or to Caen if you wanted to do Normandy/central Brittany.
St Malo is cool as is Mont St Michelle if you avoid the worst of the crowds.
Overnight Ferry to St Malo looks like the best bet, the journey to Portsmouth can't be that bad... can it?
Maybe a little too far but we had a lovely time at Telgruc-sur-Mer, on the south side of the Brittany peninsula. Plenty of stuff to see and do, not full of tourists. Favourite area for the French to go to as there ain't a lot of foreign types there.
We stayed in a couple of nice sites in the Calvados region last year; Brevedent and Colombier. Both are nice sites with good facilities and make for a nice relaxing break 🙂
If we get the ferry to St. Malo it offers us the option to go further south.
Portsmouth - Caen, Cherbourg or St Malo is our favoured way to get to Brittany, starting from Doncaster.
Drive to Portsmouth is fine, about 4 hours. M1 to Northampton, A43 round Silverstone into the Midlands, A34 south from Oxfordshire to the coast.
We like the coast from St Malo west to Perros-Guirec as it's easy to get to and very French, though Carnac area is great too. Never been out to Brest, so maybe missing out. Pléneuf-Val-André is a great traditional beach town with good campsites around but I know there is a nice Eurocamp at Perros too.
Not camping but lovely cycling country - google Lenvos Gites. British owners, lovely places and outside of summer hols is pretty reasonable. Great fishing too if you fancy a bit plus acres of grounds, swimming pool etc.
Near Lac Du Guerladan (sp?) which has some 'proper' bike trails in the woods, right on the Brest-Nantes canal for nice flat riding through lovely countryside, 10 mins to Pontivy for shops, 5 mins to local village for bakery and an awesome creperie and less than an hour to the north or south coast - Vannes particularly was a brilliant little town. Nice harbour, great eateries, nice shops and market etc all in the old town walls...