FAMILY CYCLING HOLIDAYS WITH BRETON BIKES

What sort of cycling holiday do you want?

We are unique in offering cyclecamping, gite and hotel based cycling holidays for families, which you choose is obviously down to you but the following may help. Remember that the one big difference here is that the French love children. Not only do you not get asked to leave bars, or to quieten your children, but quite the opposite - you'll find children are often a positive advantage as people will smile and get into conversation with you, no-one gets snooty in restaurants, and people will coo! over your children every time they see them.

There is no better holiday for kids than a week cyclecamping. The family goes out together, on quiet safe roads, and explores the countryside see how we used to do it ourselves. At the end of a day there is a grassy campsite, with acres to run around in, lakes to swim or canoe in, play areas etc etc and you can quietly relax over a bottle of wine until exhausted, they collapse into their tent and sleep the night away. I don't exaggerate, last year we had two families who had five year olds who had never slept through the night who had to be woken up in the morning! I'm sure it's the fresh air as well as the exercise that does it! Remember that you can do fixed-centre camping, or a moving-on tour. The advantage of the former is that you can be supplied with a mix of equipment such as tandems and small bikes so that you can take the best combination for any particular day tour.

As mentioned above the French are very welcoming to children and this includes hotels. The hotels we use are carefully chosen to be in places where there is space for children and things for them to do. There is always somewhere to eat near or at the hotel and children will always find something they like. Personally, if you have small children then the one snag is that ultimately you only have a hotel room rather than the wide open spaces of a campsite where they can hurtle around and play without anyone minding. This very much depends on what your children are like - your choice:-) If you don't fancy either camping, or the limitations of a hotel then the obvious alternative is the Gite based week which is perfect for families with young children.

ROUTES FOR KIDS

Choosing a route when you have children can be a bit daunting if you don't cycle regularly with them. You have to try and find the balance between having to drive them to cycle far further than they are happy with, or just as bad, to find they've cycled the whole route in 30 minutes. The easy way to avoid this dilemma is to choose one of the fixed centre tours either camping or Gite based. The rides in the area are easy with lots on cyclepaths so ideal for kids on their own bikes. The 'Fixed Centre' at Gouarec, either camping in one of our frame tents or in our Gite guarantees the company of other families at the campsite in the school holiday, most weeks it being a small village of families with smaller children. Remember that with this option you have the larger Fixed-Center tents. If you want a moving-on tour we have several routes ideal for families of all ages with roads that are quiet, or mostly cyclepath, and the campsites have play areas and lakes to swim in - we're happy to advise you. It's worth remembering that if you choose camping then the route can be altered as you go along as you find your children's limits. On hotel tours you have to get from one pre-booked hotel to the next and so they don't have this flexibility. The best thing is to try some day rides with your children before you make a final decision on the route so you have an idea of what they are happy with.

Also see Dave Preston's page which has lots of information/anecdotes/photos from the families involved in the 2001 led trip!

WHITSUN FAMILY WEEK - week beginning 23rd May.

As you know we have half a dozen larger 'fixed centre' tents and 'Daisy the Caravan' based at Gouarec. At Whitsun we reserve these for families only, so that for this week a group of like minded families get together and have fun, the Gite is also only 200m and so any family there will find it easy to get roped in!

EQUIPMENT FOR KIDS

We have every conceivable facility for children: Baby seats, 1 and 2-seat baby trailers, trailer bikes, small touring bikes and perhaps best of all 8 tandems small enough at the back for a 6-year old. All of this is the best possible quality including the trailerbikes which are Burley 'Piccolos' - the best and by some distance the most expensive you can buy. We also have sleeping bags for children of all sizes. No-one does more for children... To see how we did it ourselves…