Brilliant Camping Holidays in Brittany

If you’re a fan of Cornwall, you’ll love Brittany! For a family camping holiday in France with hidden coves and gorgeous beaches, traditional seaside towns, incredible food, and fewer people than its neighbour across the sea, it’s little wonder that Brittany is so popular. 

Another big plus is the ease of access from the UK, with ferry ports at Caen, Cherbourg, St Malo and Roscoff all giving easy access to families travelling with their own cars.  A quick, easy journey to northern France!

You can choose from three superb Siblu holiday parks that are perfect for a relaxing family camping holiday in Brittany: Domaine de Kerlann, Le Conguel and Les Pierres Couchées. Aside from its gorgeous beaches and hidden coves, Brittany is also known for its Celtic culture, its delicious regional delicacies and its mild climate. So much to explore! 

As we’re talking camping holidays, let’s start with Brittany’s gorgeous coastline of craggy cliffs and hidden coves that shelter sandy beaches and tiny, traditional fishing villages. There are ports where you can watch yachts bobbing off the coast, beaches boasting rock-pools which beg to be examined, and stretches of pale sand that are as exotic as anywhere along the south coast.

There are lots of must-see cultural highlights too. The region is home to the incredible megalithic standing stones at Carnac, the world-famous island abbey at Mont St Michel, the vast L’Orient Celtic Festival and the Festival de Cornouaille in Quimper, and fascinating attractions that include Océanopolis, one of France’s biggest and most fascinating aquariums. 

There are lots of options if you and your family are travelling to Brittany by ferry. Brittany Ferries offers several routes, which we have outlined below. For up-to-date information, prices and to book, please visit their website, at https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/.

Route options are:

• Portsmouth to Caen
• Portsmouth to Cherbourg
• Portsmouth to St Malo
• Plymouth to Roscoff
• Poole to Cherbourg

Brittany Beaches

Brittany’s coast is filled with stunning, little sandy coves that are surrounded by handsome cliffs, and most are quiet, even in the heat of summer. 

Domaine de Kerlann is within a few minutes of five fabulous beaches. They are Tahiti Beach, which is a beautiful stretch of sand at the bottom of a hillside path. Port Manec'h is an estuary beach that is great for young children, and you can hire paddle boards, canoes and dingies. Rospico is a white-sand beach with a shallow river running into the sea - great for paddling children. There are also sandy stretches at Trevignon and Raguénès. 

Le Conguel is located on the narrow Quiberon Peninsula, with sandy beaches all around. The closest is Plage du Conguel, just metres from the park. The area’s most popular beach is the Grand Plage at Quiberon, but the bay side of the peninsula is dotted with lots of sheltered coves and beaches to discover. The ocean side of the peninsula is known as the Côte Sauvage and strong ocean currents mean that swimming is not allowed from these beaches, but the coastline provides a stunning backdrop for walks.

Pierres Couchees is lucky enough to have a beach on its doorstep, and it’s a stretch of sand that is perfect for relaxed walks, wind surfing and kite flying. For bathing, we suggest heading to Porninc for lots of small and beautiful options. 

Brittany Attractions

For those who love to explore, Brittany is packed with cultural highlights and attractions. Perhaps the most famous site is the 3,000 standing stones at the small town of Carnac. The stones were erected between 6,000 and 2,000 BC and stand in perfect alignment. 

Much of Brittany's history and tradition is closely linked to the ocean. Oceanopolis, in Brest, is home to 50 aquariums with over 1,000 varieties of fish living in polar, temperate and tropical zones. For a historical view of the region's nautical past, go to the Musée National de la Marine, which is located in Brest's castle. And for yet another view of Brittany's sea links, the Keroman submarine base in Lorient was built by the Germans during WWII, but is now the resting place for La Flore, a French submarine that you can tour.

Brittany Towns & Villages

Brittany is filled with wonderful small towns and seaside fishing villages, but there are also walled medieval citadelles, built to guard against invasion from France, that make for fascinating day trips. 

One to build into you journey to or from the ferry ports of Cherboug and Caen is St Malo, once a stronghold for pirates. Vannes, in the south of the region, is another that takes visitors back to ancient times. Concarneau is also a spectacular walled town and one of Brittany's most important fishing ports, drawing huge numbers of visitors in the summer.

Away from the imposing walled towns, pretty Pont Aven is famous for inspiring the artist Paul Gauguin to create a whole new painting technique called 'synthetism'.

Brittany Festivals

Brittany is blessed with a series of brilliant festivals throughout the holiday season. They start with the Festival of Brittany, in May, with a whole host of event and activities taking place across the region. 

In July, the town of Vannes spend three days bringing its medieval past to life in the Festival of Vannes. Later in the month, the region's links to its closest English neighbour are celebrated with the Festival Le Cornouaille in Quimper, where competitions to find the best bagpipe players, bell-ringers and dancers are among the attractions. 

Brittany's most famous event, Lorient's Celtic Festival, takes place over 10 days in August, with more than 700,000 visitors attending.  One of the region's most famous attractions, the megalithic standing stones at Carnac, is made even more impressive in August, when they are illuminated every evening and there are night-time walks to discover their history.  

August also sees the annual Les Filets Bleus celebration in  Concarneau, named after the blue sardine nets that play such a traditional role in the fishing village's past.

Brittany Food & Drink

Brittany's greatest food specialism is the crêpe, and you'll find both sweet AND savoury options on the menu (we wholeheartedly recommend one of each to balance things out). The sweet treats continue with the Breton Far, which is a creamy dessert made with egg yolks, and galettes, which are small, rounded biscuits made of salty butter. If this all sounds delicious, they are best washed town with a glass of the region's famous cider.