Overnight stay in family-friendly hotel between Roscoff and Saint Jean de Monts

van damme

Myself, the wife and 3 kids are heading over to a campsite in Saint Jean de Monts in early August, but we need to book 1 nights accommodation (a Friday night) as we can't check-in to the campsite until the Saturday (and the boat gets into Roscoff on the Friday morning).

Can anyone recommend a reasonably-priced family-friendly hotel somewhere along this route?

Was thinking somewhere around the Saint-Nazaire but I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks!

roundymac

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roundymac

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EazyG

I am in similar situation, myself the wife and and our one yr old child are heading over to Saint Jean de Monts in early July, but we need to book 1 nights accommodation (a Friday night) as we can't check-in to the our accomodation until the Saturday (and the boat gets into Roscoff on the Friday morning).

We were thinking about staying in Nantes as it is close enough to St. Jean de Monts and lots of hotels and its not far off the motorway route.

Is it best to stick to the motorways to avoid a really long drive?

Does anyone know any nice town or village to stay overnight in along the way not too far off the motorway?

Or perhaps we should just drive the full distance and stay in a hotel in St. Jean de Monts?

All opinions welcome

EazyG

Myself the wife and and our one yr old child are heading over to Saint Jean de Monts in early July, but we need to book 1 nights accommodation (a Friday night) as we can't check-in to the our accomodation until the Saturday (and the boat gets into Roscoff on the Friday morning).

We were thinking about staying in Nantes as it is close enough to St. Jean de Monts and lots of hotels and its not far off the motorway route.

Is it best to stick to the motorways to avoid a really long drive?

Does anyone know any nice town or village to stay overnight in along the way not too far off the motorway?

Or perhaps we should just drive the full distance and stay in a hotel in St. Jean de Monts?

All opinions welcome

10-10-20

Roscoff down to StJdM is only 5hrs according to viamichelin and the route suggested by it is the best.
I stopped off in St Nazaire on the way back up two years ago and visited the WW2 historical sights there. Mind-blowing.
Nantes is fine to stay in, nice city center to walk around and any number of hotels available around the ring-road.

This year we will travel from Cherbourg to Royan on the Friday evening (old Celtic-Link, now Stena) and stay over in some B+B just off the motorway on the way down.

Borzoi

It would be a long drive to either Nantes or St jean dr monts in one go.

I can suggest Quimpers as not too far from Roscoff - nice French sea side holiday village. Don't go to lorient, it's not touristy. Nantes is great, very lively compared to most French towns, but 2 nights there would be enough

EazyG

Thanks for the advice, was just doing a bit of research on the drive on via michelin, think it might be nice to stop off in Huelgoat for lunch maybe and then down by lorient, vannes and spend our overnight stay on the friday in Saint Nazaire. Is this a very ambitious drive for first venture into France?

quadrifoglio verde

Myself and two other boardsies are just back from a road trip last week. We did cherbourg to Milan and back over six days. For the bulk of the journey we stuck to rural roads unless we needed to make up time.
Did cherbourg to Dijon the first day without any issues.
I'd highly recommend driving through rural France and avoiding the motorways. Especially as you've so much time on your hands.
The scenery Is just amazing and the roads are nothing like ours. So easy and fun to drive on, the surface is like a race track. We didn't encounter a pot hole until we reached Italy.

You've two days basically to do the journey, take your time and take the scenic route. If you find you don't enjoy it, you can always reroute fairly easily onto the motorways. But it's worth taking the rural routes. You'll pass through so many towns and villages that you'll want to stop off in all of them for a wander around.

As for driving in France in general we all adapted fairly well to the other side of the road. No issues whatsoever but then again it's kind of difficult to drive against the flow of traffic and not cop on.

van damme

Hey EazyG,
What we decided to do in the end last year was drive most of the journey after getting off the boat on the Friday and stay close to St. Jean de Monts. the drive is easy enough - we did stop twice along the way when the kids were getting irritable, but overall it went fine.
We stayed in a lovely little village called Le Barre de Monts which is only a 5 or 10 minute drive from St. Jean de Monts.
Here's a link to the hotel we stayed in (I think we paid about €95 for one night, but that was for a family room for 2 adults & 3 kids)...
http://en.hoteldebretagnefromentine.com/
Also, there was a lovely market on the Saturday morning just in front of the hotel - we stocked up on lots of meats, veg and fruit before checking into the campsite in St Jean de Monts on the Saturday.
Best of luck!

volchitsa

What about the "B and B" chain of hotels? They're not B and Bs, and while not necessarily "lovely family hotels" in that they tend to be modern and often - not always - on the edges of towns rather than the centers, but I've used them for work and they'd be fine for an overnight stay for a family, in fact I've done it myself since - clean, good sized rooms (which I sometimes find an issue in France) well organized, staff generally very helpful. I wouldn't stay for a week with family, there isn't much in the way of sports or outdoor equipment, never come across one with a pool for example, but as an overnight stop they're more than adequate. What you don't want with an unknown town/hotel is somewhere that turns out to be unpleasant, and ime you don't get that with B and B.

I guess if you really want to start spoiling yourselves right from the start, it's maybe not what you want. If you're interested l could hunt out their website for you, you can choose which places are likely to be on the route and check out each hotel.

volchitsa

Nantes is a brilliant town to visit btw, but you'll need to leave the car at the hotel. That's where the giant granny that came to Limerick last year is based. The granny is often on tour I think but you can visit the mechanized elephant and other exhibitions all year round.

(Not sure if there's a B and B hotel there btw, I didn't stay in one when I was there)

10-10-20

EazyG wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, was just doing a bit of research on the drive on via michelin, think it might be nice to stop off in Huelgoat for lunch maybe and then down by lorient, vannes and spend our overnight stay on the friday in Saint Nazaire. Is this a very ambitious drive for first venture into France?

You're underestimating the French road network
The tricky part of the direct route is from Morlaix to Lorient as none of it's on dual-carriageway. The mountains on this route are pretty and the towns are small and agricultural. One tip which I might add is that lunchtime in rural France normally hits a hard-stop at 13:30, or earlier and Huelgoat may be one of those towns.

But no, I don't consider a 5 hour drive overly ambitious for a first time in France (We used to drive to the same location from Cherbourg in the 80's, a 7 hour drive, without any of the motorways). Your primary need is to keep your 1 year old fed and entertained, and with a bit of luck he/she will sleep for part of it.

zagmund

We stayed in the Park & Suites Atlantis (or Atlantique) on the edge of Nantes a couple of times before. It's very handy for that drive - just off the motorway, north of Nantes. There's a big shopping centre in the same complex so you can stock up on all the necessities & there are also a good few places to eat there too. The rooms were great - there's a kitchenette so you can rustle up a little something when you arrive/when you want.

There's a tram stop abut 100-200 meters away and this will bring you right into the centre of Nantes. We almost did the "elephant" thing before - the queues were pretty long and to be honest kids get as much fun out out of it from just walking along around the elephant as it trundles around the area spraying people with water.

z

EazyG

Thanks for all the great tips and ideas guys, so many options, will def do a bit more research on places to stop along the way, but I'm convinced to take the more scenic route, I have driven quite a bit in Italy from Pisa to a little town called Barga up in the mountains and also to the cinque terre and I drove the highway 101 road trip from San Fran to L.A before so am no stranger to long road trips, I've never had the pleasure to drive abroad in my own car so looking forward to that part! Rural roads don't bother me either sure have had plenty of practice going out connemara and the ring of kerry!!

P. Breathnach

There is little comparison between driving in Brittany and driving in Connemara! We're not talking winding country lanes, but good-quality single carriageway with many straight sections with good visibility for overtaking (it's a big advantage if your front-seat passenger has a good feel for the car and your driving style, because she might be making the first call on an overtaking opportunity).

I like Huelgoat, but it's not strong on dining opportunities. A couple of good creperies. But a stop there might be a wasted opportunity unless you have a carrying sling for the child, because its main attraction is a short walk (30-60 mins) through the woodland that gives the town its name.

Consider Ibis hotels. Because their main market is the business traveller, they give discount rates at weekends.

Lorient, St. Nazaire, and Nantes all took a pasting during the war, so have less appeal to those of us who like old buildings and medieval relics. My choice for a stopover would be Vannes.

EazyG

Well, finally decided to go with stopover in Vannes, booked a hotel called Golfe Hotel it's near the Golfe Du Morbihan harbour and not too far to centre about 2km I think, thanks so much for all your advice and tips really helpful