Brittany by Rail Tour

Although Rennes is a lovey town and I very much enjoyed my day off there, I did feel that it might have been better to have 3 nights on the south coast of Brittany and three on the north coast. We seemed to spend a lot of time on the coach instead of at the very interesting places we visited. The Paimpol & Pink Granite coast in particular was spent mainly on the coach , with a visit to the market in Paimpol and 30 minutes to see a bit of the pink granite coast, and then a very long journey back to Rennes. ...more ...less

Terry Regan is a first class tour manager with an encyclopaedic knowledge of France, the French and all the places we visited. He made a major contribution to the success of this tour and was very attentive to the needs of the group. The itinerary covered a good selection of towns in Brittany. ...more ...less

Well organised tour with an excellent tour manager. Varied itinerary. Nice to be able to eat out and experience the ambience of the city. Plenty of restaurants within easy reach of the hotel, many of them recommended by Terry.

Our party of 12 people were all in agreement that we had a exceptional holiday in Brittany. Special mention to our guide, Terry and the driver for the week Yannick, both of whom became friends to all.

This was another successful holiday with Travel Editions, and we enjoyed it. However, there were a few issues. We realised that this would be a different type of holiday, i.e.a city chain hotel rather than a family run establishment in a smaller town or village, and we had adjusted our expectations accordingly. Our main concern arises from the timing of the trip over a bank holiday weekend. Rennes is not particularly a tourist town. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as you do feel you are seeing the real France, and it was not an issue on the days we had trips out, but the choice of Sunday for the free day was unfortunate as basically everything was closed. It was difficult even to find a café open. We were given no suggestions as to what we could do and, although we were able to occupy ourselves with museums and a walking tour from the tourist information office, we would have liked an opportunity to take relaxing breaks and refreshment. The hotel also seemed to be geared more towards business guests than tourists. It was conveniently located, the room was comfortable and the breakfasts good, but there were no facilities for relaxation and no pool or garden. There was basically no opportunity to relax at the hotel or in the town. One suggestion might be to make the Saturday the free day, when Rennes holds its famous markets, and shops and cafes are open. Secondly we don’t understand what the Cote de Granit Rose added to the holiday. We spent practically the whole afternoon in the coach and barely even saw the coast. We certainly never saw the pink rock formations which a quick search of google had led us to expect, and which was surprising as your tour information suggests this might be one of the highlights of the holiday. We expected one or two quick stops at viewing points and then a longer stop for a more detailed view and a drink. In fact we spent 45 minutes at a small resort without even a direct view of the sea, where the only bar was shut for lunch, and the one cafe already full. We spent over 4 hours in the coach that afternoon. It was not an impressive end to the holiday and (having consulted maps, guidebooks etc since our return) we really have to wonder whether we were even taken to the right place. If it was the right place, then perhaps we should have been given some information as to where to go to see the rock formations, because they certainly weren’t immediately visible. Steve was an affable and helpful tour guide and clearly very experienced, but seemed to put in less effort than we might have expected. He was good, but your previous guides have been excellent. ...more ...less

A busy trip with very knowledgeable TM to scenic and interesting places. Air-conditioned coach very welcome.