Information about camping and camping holidays in Quiberon, South West Brittany

NB! Free parking still exists in France: If you at the bottom of Quiberon town there is a small pay car park with a one way traffic system around it. Go round that and take the last exit away from the beach road for 100 metres. It is signposted and you can't miss it.

When reading this you may think I am rather contradictory in a) the praise lavished on the area - and to be fair it is visually seriously nice, and b) my personal view as editor of JCF that once you have seen the town, admired the beaches and rocks thereon, then Quiberon is pretty boring, and having stayed there this summer (2010) for 2 weeks I place it on a par with Malta in the boredom stakes.

Methinks it is a superb venue for families with young children, but if you don't fall into that category then just try the place for a week to see what you think.

Apart from the rest of your journey from the ferry port, actually getting to your designated camping site on Quiberon seems to take forever - or at least it seems so the first time. Getting there from the port is exactly the same as for Carnac, and then you have to go down the Quiberon peninsular which is roughly 15 km. Most if not all of the camping sites on Quiberon are situated right at the bottom. Please take a look at the map which shows it all in context.

Nothing quite prepares you for the first time you go to the beach there - the western side is called the Cote Sauvage, or savage coast, and all the huge rocks littering the beaches make the whole place seem unreal and rather majestic. Swimmers should take particular note of any warnings and no swimming flags on Quiberon because it wasn't named Savage Coast for nothing!

The camping sites here are of a high standard and the Bretons who own most of the camps are superbly welcoming and friendly. That's nice of course but the one thing we found about the whole region was that everything seemed to be a tad dearer than other camping areas in France that we have been to in recent years.

We only found one supermarket which wasn't at all well sign posted, and we were disappointed in it when we finally arrived there. Campers and holidaymakers in mobile homes have to eat, and with the dismal financial position our economy is in we need to find somewhere to eat where it doesn't cost an arm and a leg at the supermarket.

However, any extra costs (minimal anyway) were well offset by the beautiful surroundings, the town of Quiberon and the truly wonderful camping holiday we had there.

The town of Quiberon though, is an absolute delight, and comprises of the upper and lower towns. The upper town has the bulk of the shops and the post office, council office etc, whilst the lower part is at sea level. The whole place is spotless as you might expect.

Shops at the bottom of the town are predominently aimed at the tourist market, and when we last visited there was even a Scottish shop. They were all lovely, and a bonus was that at that time all the car parking in town was free - the only pay spaces being just a few bays right at the bottom in front of the shops.

Evenings and weekends are when the bottom of the town comes to life, sand sculptures, musical plays, open air theatre etc - get there early to bag a seat on the beach!