Family Holidays: Brittany family holidays and breaks

Take the Family holiday rating 4 stars out of 5

Why

Sharing a Celtic heritage with Britain (many of its ancient sites were built by the same people as Stonehenge), Brittany has almost as many barmy festivals as we do, in addition to a mad rocky coastline (and some beautiful beaches), crazy head-dresses (coiffes), tons of record-breaking lighthouses, some brilliant aquariums and fantastic food. Just watch out for the korrigans – shapeshifting local fairies who like to spirit away human children and replace them with changelings!

Lighthouse at Ploumanac'h, Côte du Granit Rose

Mile-long rows of standing stones at Carnac

Top left: Some of Brittany's famous mussels
Top middle: Island view
Top right: Lighthouse at Ploumanac'h, Côte du Granit Rose

Bottom left: Dinghy at low tide
Bottom right: Mile-long rows of standing stones at Carnac

When

Not, if you can avoid it, in August – the place is overwhelmed by French holidaymakers. And never in the depths of winter, when most hotels and restaurants shut up shop in the face of the inhospitable climate. Even at the end of May, the weather can still be diabolically grey and rainy. Still, if you’re canny and save up the indoor attractions for rainy days, a holiday here outside the peak summer months can be a great success.

Otherwise, late July sees the riproaring Festival Interceltique attracting Celts from all over western Europe to Lorient for music, Breton games and sports, fireworks and more besides. Or come in early July, for Guingamp’s Bugale Breizh or ‘festival of children in Brittany’, with traditional dance, puppet-making, games and wrestling.

How

Brittany Ferries run to St-Malo and Roscoff in Brittany (as well as to neighbouring Normandy) for those who want to take their own car – indispensable for a holiday here unless you plan to hire one. St-Malo can also be reached with Condor Ferries, or with Irish Ferries from Ireland. Take a look at our ferries page.

Otherwise, low-cost airlines service the region: Ryanair, Flybe, Aer Lingus and Aer Arann. Arrival points include Dinard, Rennes, Brest and Lorient. Or you can fly to Nantes, just south of Brittany.

For the environmentally conscious, Eurostar offers trains from London and connecting journeys from Lille or Paris to Rennes, Brest, Quimper, Lorient and Vannes, usually by TGV.

For car-hire within France, take a look at our family Car hire page, or try a good site for price comparisons like www.travelsupermarket.com.

Stay

This is a classic family destination, so self-catering options such as gîtes and hôtel-résidences (apartments attached to hotels so you enjoy the best of both worlds) are popular, although there are some good hotels too (many insisting on half- or even full-board in the busiest seasons). Try partners Wake up in France and Villas4travel, who both offer a vast range of options. Good campsites are dotted all over the region too, in particular Canvas holidays' Camping Chateau des Ormes or Camping la Grande Metairie, or for a well located apartment or lodge try P & V holidays.

Do

Spend time in St-Malo, which is far from just a ferry port. A combination of picturesque seaside resort, ancient walled pirates’ city and great shopping spot, it has a brilliant aquarium, the Grand Aquarium, especially good for younger kids.

Stop off at the gritty naval port of Brest, if only for a boat trip around its amazing Rade or natural bay, and a day (you’ll need it) at Océanopolis , one of the world’s greatest sea-life centres.

Explore the Côte de Granit Rose, a stretch of coast full of pinkish rocks carved by the elements into weird and wonderful shapes, occupying fabulous turquoise bays.
Family-friendly resorts here include Perros-Guirec, and you can spend time trying to recognize the site of the nameless village in which the Astérix comic books are set.

Stray into the inland valley of Huelgoat, with its strangely shaped rocks and even stranger legends, some of them related to King Arthur, Merlin et al. Even a child can move the 100-tonne Roche Tremblante if they touch it in the right place, while some claim to see fairies bathing by moonlight in the Mare aux Fées.

Venture over to the wild and windswept island of Ouessant, to see the most powerful lighthouse on Earth, the world’s only lighthouse museum and some unique dwarf black sheep.

Wonder at Carnac, the most important prehistoric site in Europe, with as many as 3000 menhirs (tall upright stones) that have been here longer than the pyramids in Egypt and are believed to have formed a lunar observatory. The majority now have restricted access, but there’s a good, child-friendly prehistory museum, Musee de Carnac, that puts them in context. They are close to the lovely seaside resort of Carnac-Plage, too.

Head for Rennes, to learn about Breton history at theMusée de Bretagne and about science at the adjoining Espace des Sciences with its planetarium and ‘Merlin’s Laboratory’ children’s discovery zone.

Nip over the border into Normandy, to see the glorious UNESCO-listed Mont-St-Michel. Chug out aboard a tractor-drawn cart into its spectacular bay of sandflats to see mussels growing on bouchots (sticks).

Eat

Brittany is most famous for crêpes and their savoury versions, galettes, found all over the region with every imaginable variety of filling. Crêperies can be a handy family standby because they are often, especially in seaside resorts, open all through the day (French restaurant hours are generally quite restrictive).

The seafood is also particularly good, especially the soupe de poissons, moules (mussels, cooked marinières or in a host of other interesting ways) and the cotriade (fish stew). If your kids are adventurous, share a seafood platter, and teach them the joy of using surgical instruments to find a tiny morsel of flesh at the very back of a claw. Local desserts include kouign aman (butter cake) and far breton (prune cake), but the ice cream is usually good too (try the seaweed flavour if you dare)!