Day Trip to MSM from Paris - DIY or join a group
Oct 5th, 2022, 05:46 PM
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Day Trip to MSM from Paris - DIY or join a group
I have one day allocated for a day trip to Mont Saint Michel from Paris. I always have been adventurist trying to do it yourself and learn it (sometimes the hard way). Is doing it yourself advisable or foolish because of train connection issues or other issues? I know the best way is going there at least for a weekend.
Oct 6th, 2022, 12:59 AM
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I agree with Michael. It is quite a distance from Paris and a tour would help you get there at a good time and relieve you of the burden of planning. I agree that this would be an efficient way of doing MSM.
Lavandula
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Oct 6th, 2022, 12:44 PM
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Any tour will be at least 8 hours on a bus. It would cost more, but I'd consider catching an early TGV train to Rennes (could arrive before 8:30 am.) and rent a car. Likely arrive at MSM before 9:30. Reverse course at the end of your time on the Mont. It would reduce the travel time by half.
Oct 7th, 2022, 10:45 AM
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That's a tough one as it is so far from Paris. I've never been tempted to do that, but the bus tours take about 14 hours apparently. But at least it's easy and you don't have to figure out logistics, parking etc. The drive is probably at least 5 hours each way. It would not be wroth it to me. I have noticed some people on forums like this claim they would never even do a day trip by train if it took more than 1.5 hrs each way, which I don't comprehend at all. I'll do one for a train trip up to 3 hrs. After all, a lot of that time you'd just be wasting anyway. A lot easier than staying there.
here's one example
https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/m...nt-michel-tour
So they schedule a little over 5 hrs for the return trip.
I used them for a different day trip and they were excellent.
I would not be interested in renting a car for one day and trying to figure out the logistics of the rental and return, and the drive and parking. I also wouldn't be interested in about 9 hours on a bus drive. I might 4-5 hrs if I really wanted to see some place and thought the countryside might be interesting views, but that long? no.
An alternative would be at least one overnight, Take the train to Rennes late afternnon or so, stay overnight, and then do a day trip from Rennes to the Mont. There are some, but I imagine maybe only in French. Here's one, and they also visit St Malo
https://www.tourisme-rennes.com/fr/o...cote-emeraude/
THen you could take the train back to Paris afterwards if you wanted, the train trip is less than 2 hrs. There is a train at 6:30 pm, you get back to Paris a little after 8 pm, fine for dinner. I've actually done something like that and booked a relatively cheap hotel for the overnight and then never checked out of the first hotel. Sure, I paid for two hotel rooms for one night, but one was real cheap and it was worth it (not for this trip, I did that elsewhere in a similar situation). I just took a small duffel bag or something for my overnight, something to sleep in and a few toiletries, etc.
On the other hand, if one was doing an overnight, you could take take the train all the way to Pontorson and stay there, and then take the short bus to/from Mont St Michel yourself without a group tour. ther is one hotel (the Ariane) right near both the SNCF gare and the bus stop to Mont St Michel.
None of that would be worth it to me to see one old abbaye, but everybody has there own interests of course. When I did that it was to go to the Verbier summer music festival in Switzerland just to hear Martha Argerich in person. Totally worth it to me.
here's one example
https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/m...nt-michel-tour
So they schedule a little over 5 hrs for the return trip.
I used them for a different day trip and they were excellent.
I would not be interested in renting a car for one day and trying to figure out the logistics of the rental and return, and the drive and parking. I also wouldn't be interested in about 9 hours on a bus drive. I might 4-5 hrs if I really wanted to see some place and thought the countryside might be interesting views, but that long? no.
An alternative would be at least one overnight, Take the train to Rennes late afternnon or so, stay overnight, and then do a day trip from Rennes to the Mont. There are some, but I imagine maybe only in French. Here's one, and they also visit St Malo
https://www.tourisme-rennes.com/fr/o...cote-emeraude/
THen you could take the train back to Paris afterwards if you wanted, the train trip is less than 2 hrs. There is a train at 6:30 pm, you get back to Paris a little after 8 pm, fine for dinner. I've actually done something like that and booked a relatively cheap hotel for the overnight and then never checked out of the first hotel. Sure, I paid for two hotel rooms for one night, but one was real cheap and it was worth it (not for this trip, I did that elsewhere in a similar situation). I just took a small duffel bag or something for my overnight, something to sleep in and a few toiletries, etc.
On the other hand, if one was doing an overnight, you could take take the train all the way to Pontorson and stay there, and then take the short bus to/from Mont St Michel yourself without a group tour. ther is one hotel (the Ariane) right near both the SNCF gare and the bus stop to Mont St Michel.
None of that would be worth it to me to see one old abbaye, but everybody has there own interests of course. When I did that it was to go to the Verbier summer music festival in Switzerland just to hear Martha Argerich in person. Totally worth it to me.
