Routes Bilbao to St Malo

[jack1]

Best routes from Bilbao to St-Malo,avoiding busy roads.”No Camping” Hotels etc mid May. Be grateful for any help. Thanks in advance

[mxg01]

Don't slavishly follow EV1 along the west coast of France. It goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid even very quiet roads. Those extraordinary lengths involve miles of detour when a few kms on a quiet D road is all you are missing.

Use cycle.travel and drag the route to towns of interest.

[Jdsk]

Don't slavishly follow EV1 along the west coast of France. It goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid even very quiet roads. Those extraordinary lengths involve miles of detour when a few kms on a quiet D road is all you are missing.

Use cycle.travel and drag the route to towns of interest.

Good advice.

Some previous thoughts and experiences:
viewtopic.php?t=155125
viewtopic.php?t=147719

Jonathan

[bikepacker]

Don't slavishly follow EV1 along the west coast of France. It goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid even very quiet roads. Those extraordinary lengths involve miles of detour when a few kms on a quiet D road is all you are missing.

Use cycle.travel and drag the route to towns of interest.

I would agree especially through Aquitaine. During the summer months this section gets very busy with many leisure cycling families, making progress very slow.

[simonhill]

I work out a vague route depending on where I want to go and what I want to see, then finalise it on a daily basis depending on available accommodation. Some areas don't have much or it it's very expensive so planning a route through there is pointless.

Personally I don't like EVs because I like towns and I like people. Google maps and directions are a useful starting point. I found cycletravel took me all round the houses (figuratively and literally).

[jack1]

Hi Simon, thanks for your message. Kind regards Darrell.

[DropperPost]

Resurrecting this thread to solicit opinion/advice. I was toying with the idea of doing this route at the end of February, i.e. ferry to Bilbao, train to Hendaye, then riding EV1 then Nantes/Rennes back to St Malo. I was thinking of credit card touring, and just choosing that night's stop on the day and booking online - cheap hotels or whatever booking.com throws up in the £60 range. I'd be planning on 8 full days' worth of cycling after leaving Hendaye, so approx. 60 miles a day, which I do comfortably around the steep terrain around me here.

Weather: anyone got any experience of the west coast in late Feb/early March? E.g. continuous drenching guaranteed? Ice/snow over the higher ground in Brittany? Any pearls of wisdom re. dealing with wet weather? I'm not a lycra fan, but I've got plenty of goretex jackets/trousers etc. What's the best strategy for an outfit which can be worn repeatedly and dry easily so I can carry as little as possible?

Booking accommodation as I go: workable idea? Which apps/websites do we recommend? (Not interested in shared dorms, and hoping to travel light so no camping.) Or would it be better to plan/book in advance?

Any recommendations for stops along the way - interesting attactions or good accommodation or good restaurants? (I'll be trying to tick off as many Relais Routiers or 'menu ouvriers' for cheap lunch as I can...) I'll probably take the earlier advice in this thread and divert from the EV1, but wasn't planning to stray too far from it as I'm opting for flat and boring, given the time of year, and it would be comforting to know I had the option of baling out onto the signed route if my navigation or road choice didn't work out.

Any problems I'm likely to encounter, e.g. stretches where food/accommodation might be sparse on a particular day of the week?

[roubaixtuesday]

Resurrecting this thread to solicit opinion/advice. I was toying with the idea of doing this route at the end of February, i.e. ferry to Bilbao, train to Hendaye, then riding EV1 then Nantes/Rennes back to St Malo. I was thinking of credit card touring, and just choosing that night's stop on the day and booking online - cheap hotels or whatever booking.com throws up in the £60 range. I'd be planning on 8 full days' worth of cycling after leaving Hendaye, so approx. 60 miles a day, which I do comfortably around the steep terrain around me here.

Weather: anyone got any experience of the west coast in late Feb/early March? E.g. continuous drenching guaranteed? Ice/snow over the higher ground in Brittany? Any pearls of wisdom re. dealing with wet weather? I'm not a lycra fan, but I've got plenty of goretex jackets/trousers etc. What's the best strategy for an outfit which can be worn repeatedly and dry easily so I can carry as little as possible?

Booking accommodation as I go: workable idea? Which apps/websites do we recommend? (Not interested in shared dorms, and hoping to travel light so no camping.) Or would it be better to plan/book in advance?

Any recommendations for stops along the way - interesting attactions or good accommodation or good restaurants? (I'll be trying to tick off as many Relais Routiers or 'menu ouvriers' for cheap lunch as I can...) I'll probably take the earlier advice in this thread and divert from the EV1, but wasn't planning to stray too far from it as I'm opting for flat and boring, given the time of year, and it would be comforting to know I had the option of baling out onto the signed route if my navigation or road choice didn't work out.

Any problems I'm likely to encounter, e.g. stretches where food/accommodation might be sparse on a particular day of the week?

On accommodation, booking.com is near ubiquitious now. Searching google maps is a good sweep up for other options.

But I would recommend for France using Chambres d'hotes, generally lovel helpful small places. And in particular if you can find one that does Table d'hotes you can get terrific value food and interesting conversation (your hosts eat with you). You'd likely need to book at least a day in advance though.

We did the St Malo - Nantes leg of your trip this year, stayed in Chambres d'hotes in Redon and out in the countryside near Rennes, let me know if you'd like me to dig out details,

[DropperPost]

But I would recommend for France using Chambres d'hotes,

Yes please, and is there an app or website you'd use for chambres d'hotes or is it all through Booking.com?

[roubaixtuesday]

But I would recommend for France using Chambres d'hotes,

Yes please, and is there an app or website you'd use for chambres d'hotes or is it all through Booking.com?

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/ you can filter for eg table d'hotes on the website Most are also on booking.com

We stayed (and ate) at these two in Brittany

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambres- ... 902_en.htm (has a hot tub!)

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambres- ... _83904.htm

[DropperPost]

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/ you can filter for eg table d'hotes on the website Most are also on booking.com

We stayed (and ate) at these two in Brittany

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambres- ... 902_en.htm (has a hot tub!)

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambres- ... _83904.htm

Great - thanks. I've just given it a test-run for the Bayonne area, and it came up with a few nice-looking places with swimming pools etc. for around 50 euros, so that's definitely a worthwhile alternative to Booking.com.

[roubaixtuesday]

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/ you can filter for eg table d'hotes on the website Most are also on booking.com

We stayed (and ate) at these two in Brittany

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambres- ... 902_en.htm (has a hot tub!)

https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambres- ... _83904.htm

Great - thanks. I've just given it a test-run for the Bayonne area, and it came up with a few nice-looking places with swimming pools etc. for around 50 euros, so that's definitely a worthwhile alternative to Booking.com.

They tend to be nice family run places IME (and I suspect take a much smaller cut than booking.com too)

[CatLeChat]

Since there seem to be a few people on here who've already done this route, would any of you recommend using one of the guide books? I usually don't follow them, but have heard people talk about missing things nearby without them.

I'm planning on doing the route at the end of April and camping, so it might be helpful to have somewhere to check campsite opening dates without having to spot one on cycle.travel then search it on Google because the name has changed and the link isn't there and then try and find the opening dates, which often seem to be hidden in the depths of the page. I also love food, so can see myself perusing the restaurant recommendations.

I can read French so I've got a selection to choose from, so any recommendations (including paper or kindle) would be welcome

[bretonbikes]

Don't slavishly follow EV1 along the west coast of France. It goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid even very quiet roads. Those extraordinary lengths involve miles of detour when a few kms on a quiet D road is all you are missing.

Use cycle.travel and drag the route to towns of interest.

I couldn't agree more, some sections are mind-blowingly boring and most French towns are actually fun to cycle through and are part of what you want to see! Likewise Google cycle route option will get you down some very dodgy tracks rather than along quiet and direct B roads.
You also want to avoid Nantes section by getting one of the little ferries over the Loire west of Nantes and picking up the route the other side - it'll save a day and much, much nicer cycling.

If you scroll down to the bottom of this article you'll find a few tips on this though the rest of it concentrates on the >Roscoff section sadly. https://www.bretonbikes.com/homepage/cy ... n-brittany

[simonhill]

"mind-blowingly boring"

Riding a cycle path through sand dunes and coastal pine forests is great at first. Lovely smell and all the trees. After a few hours all you see are the trees. After a few days......

I experienced this riding down the coast of Portugal
Baled out after a couple of days.