St Malo to Santander

Looking to ride St Malo to San Sebastian and taking the ferry back from Santander over the course of a week.

I gather there's a few of you who have done this or similar, grateful for thoughts on the following

100km a day pretty achievable over this ground with relatively loaded touring
What was the weather like in September, likely to be tenting but debating using bivvy bag
Any of you caught the ferry back from Santander to Portsmouth. Is a long trip (over 30 hours), apparently without 'the trimmings' of Brittany Ferries' cruiser ships and not cheap but I am looking to reduce my air travel
Any other thoughts, gratefully received.

Cheers

Gus

Hey! I am doing this (kind of) in August - St Malo down the west coast of France, then down through Spain, then carrying on south for a bit. But eventually I will come back north and get the Santander-Portsmouth ferry, also to reduce air travel.

1. Planning 100m/day, which imo is very doable with early starts to get most of the cycling out of the way before the heat hits.
   
2. The ferry journey will probably be pretty horrible - I haven't got a cabin, just a seat. Bring some olives to help you get through it. If you get a cabin you'll be totally fine. They're pretty comfy and you get a shower!
   
3. Also debating tent vs bivvy. I think I'm leaning towards bivvy atm.
   

Velo Odyssee (sic) Euro Velo bike path pretty much all the way :) , easy rolling terrain , lots of campsites and beaches . Nice route but Santander is awful and be careful where you cross from France into Pay Basque as its easy to end up on the motorway .

Yeah, big debate is how inland I go...bit concerned it's going to be flat as a pancake and relatively featureless. Really loved the rolling countryside of Normandy and hoping for more of the same.

I'm planning this trip too - probably late September. Intend to camp - is there much opportunity for wild camping?

Hey! I am doing this exact trip. Getting the overnight ferry to St-Malo on 5th September, then returning from Santander on 25th, so I have 20 days or so to do it at a leisurely pace with the option to stay anywhere I particularly like for a night or two extra.

Are you riding fixed? What dates are you doing?

I'm off on the 8th and ferry back around the 18th so will be doing it a rather less leisurely pace although gears will help. I'll probably simply cycle to San Sebastian and train from there to Bilbao and Santander (would like to ride but not enough time).

Have you got route mapped or playing it by ear? May well see you on the road

I've planned absolutely nothing, worryingly. I'm staying somewhere near St-Malo on the first night and weirdly a friend from school lives in Sion Les Mines (just south of Rennes) so may go and see him on the second night. After that I'm going to do a combination of couchsurfing/warmshowers/camping/wild camping along the French coast, playing it by ear. Hope it is as easy as I'm expecting it to be! Have you got a route planned?

Would be good if our paths crossed at some point. Could drop you a message with my number...

I'm still planning late September, early October so hope you can report back before I set off. I'm planning wild camping as much as possibe

Messaged @ginllfixit and @WeeDougie about trip although not sure exact route.

There's the Eurovelo route but gather it's a bit 'around the houses sort of thing

http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-1/countries/france

I was planning to do the Euro Velo route - I've downloaded all 8,473 stages onto my useless Garmin Touring Edge Plus, which I am currently intending to rely on....

yours pessimistically (as far as route finding is concerned) and optimistically (as far as having fun is concerned). I'm not much looking forward to the ride to the ferry this side...

The ride to Portsmouth was probably the worst and longest day (i think my navigation skills got better from there on). I gave myself 7 days to get from St Malo to San Sebastian which I managed but it wasn't a relaxed pace. It's been a really wet September so make sure you've got some clothing that will be comfortable to ride in the rain in. Wild camping wasn't a problem for me. I soent a fair bit of the mid section on the Velo route but at both ends I did my own thing.

@WeeDougie if you've got any questions, fire away

Bit of a thread dredge, but I'm planning a similar route.

Unsure on the best way to get from EV1 Biarritz > Bilbao.
Thinking about going up through Beasain / Onati.
Anyone got any thoughts?

Low traffic tarmac preffered.

About to go Santander to Roscof, and my route goes through there but other way. Will let you know how I get on..

Thanks. It's definitely the hilly part of the route.
Good luck on your trip!

So I've just come back from cycling from Caen > Bilbao.
Got the overnight ferry to Caen and then powered it down to Spain where I chilled for a bit.

To answer my own question, I've still no idea about the best route into the Basque Country. Everything got real confusing as soon as I entered Spain, with some of the best and worst riding.

I went from Irun to San Sebastián, and then to Bilbao via Oñati, and was pleased I did. The mountains were beautiful and had some great climbs / descents.

...but then I rode into Bilbao on what was basically a dual carriageway? There's clearly a cycle scene, so I presume there's a better way, but do check your route!

Anyway, I had a lovely time.

Was travelling solo and relatively light - took a Bivvy but stayed in campsites & budget hotels. Started with the EV routes, but detoured a lot.

For anyone interested, here's a rough outline of the route I went:
(I imagine people may want to go slower than this)
https://cycle.travel/map/journey/432225

Ouistreham
Domfront (+100km)
Ménil (+125km)
St Martin de la place (+96km)
Parthenay (+110km)
La Rochelle (+131km)
Saintes (+86km)
Bordeaux (+129km)
Parentis-en-Born (+111km)
Biarritz (+137km)
Donostia / San Sebastian (+57km)
Oñati (+78km)
Bilbao(+79km)
Ferry port (+18km)

Notes on route
• When I got to La Rochelle, the weather was meant to be thunderstorms and I hated the section of EV1 I was on, so I made the decision to avoid the ferry at Royan and go inland - to Bordeaux via Saintes.

In the end, the thunderstorms didn't appear (yet) but I didn't regret it, the roads were fast and Saintes was beautiful. (Could also maybe avoid La Rochelle entirely and go from Niort to Saintes)

• If you're getting the Ferry back from Bilbao, be aware the port is a LONG way out of town. You can get supplies in the towns nearer the port, so you don't have to carry from Bilbao. And I think maybe there's a train / tram too?

• This is my first time following the EV routes. They're obviously designed to be as accessible as possible, but they can be quite snakey and indirect.
If you're a confidant cyclist, it's worth checking if you really need to be following this wiggly route to avoid a minor road?

• Bring a towel (or buy one from Decathlon)

Issues overcome:
1 puncture, 1 broken Carradice rack, 1 chain spaghetti, 1 day of headwind, 3 days of solid rain, 1 hotel booking cancelled because of bike

Creatures Seen:
Red Squirrels, Deers, Llama (domestic), Grass snake, Big Snails, White Storks, Herons, Golden Orioles, Hoopoes, Dolphins

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We started from St Malo 12 days ago. Weather was atrocious. We crossed on the Royan ferry, it was fine.
We followed a lot of the EV route, I’ve yet to check my recorded ride but reports from home suggest a lot of swearing about which direction we were going and why we did 3 sides of a square whilst they were following us using strava beacon. I must admit I left the routing to someone else who hates drivers in France and took every chance to be on segregated paths.
I turned around at Biarritz and got the tgv back to st Malo via Paris and Rennes.
Being shoulder season (only started the week we arrived) many campsites were just starting up so very limited on facilities for food etc.
the real icing on the cake was the road blower, tarmac truck and road roller turning up at 8.15 to re- tarmac the sites road system.
The highlight was crossing at Rochefort using the cable bridge.

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those are some random pics! but thanks both for posting, i’m planning something similar but
i’m the other direction

Another thread dredge - looking into a week's holiday next year doing Portsmouth - St Malo, then down to the Vendée to stay with a mate, pootle around there a bit then possibly train back. Anyone got any tips for the St Malo > Rennes > Nantes route? Tarmac and nothing rougher than tightly packed gravel preferred. Planning on staying at least two nights on the way down there (one just south of Rennes, the other maybe just north of Nantes or in the city at a bike-friendly hotel). Cheers.

No tips other than if you're going to St Malo, throw in the short loop to Cancale before heading down Renne way.

Absolutely lovely, and you can have a dip in the sea overlooking Mont St Michel.

Looks doable, though the dip in the sea might be tricky to manage given I'll be on my own and don't fancy leaving bike/luggage/electronics/passport to the mercy of passers-by. Would you pootle round the coast road or head directly there?

We followed the EV4 route there through St Malo which was pleasant.

There is a little beachy bit with a ramp just to the south of the town where you can parkup and dip with the bike in eyesight, and it's lower down as there is a sea wall. Granted there were 3 of us. (You can see it on Gmaps at 'Port De Cancale')

I have done St malo to vendée (im from there) 2 summers ago, family touring.
Personnaly i'd take a more western route via ploermel for instance to hit the coast earlier and see more sea than cows
Unless you really want to see Rennes and Nantes.

You can cycle the st-nazaire bridge, which is cool.

Current route has me not far from Ploërmel and heading over the Pont St Nazaire. I'm not particularly fussed about going to Nantes again and, although I've never been to Rennes, it's not high on the agenda either. If I re-route via Ploërmel, I can head to La Baule the next day, then follow the coast. That does sound much better.