RE: The PistonHeads 'Brittany Raid' Tour
RE: The PistonHeads 'Brittany Raid' Tour
Thursday 24th February 2011

The PistonHeads 'Brittany Raid' Tour

Petrolhead Nirvana and PistonHeads launch another great 2011 road tour



Brittany, famous for its walled cities, megaliths and pink granite coastline is also home to some of the finest French architecture and cuisine. Whilst the area isn't particularly mountainous, there are some amazing twists and turns along the coast and through the forests helping to create some very entertaining roads to lead us around the region.

Best of all is the proximity to the UK. This means a weekend tour is perfectly manageable and you'll get to fully explore the area at a relaxed pace, covering a reasonable daily mileage. To make the most of this area in just one weekend, we head out from Portsmouth early on a Friday morning and return to Portsmouth early on Monday evening.

Tour dates: 15th-18th July 2011

Day 1 - 163 miles

Portsmouth to St Brieuc: We start the day with an early morning ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, followed by a warm-up drive down to the spectacular Mont St Michel for lunch. After lunch, we'll continue to follow the coast road to our hotel for the night, situated on the outskirts of St Brieuc.

Day 2 - 191 miles

St Brieuc to Lorient: Starting the day with breakfast and a drivers' briefing, we head further west into the Breton peninsula and up to the famous pink granite, which can only be found in only two other places on the planet - Corsica and China. From here we'll head south, through the forests towards Lorient, stopping for lunch on the way. After lunch it's time to head towards our hotel for dinner, drinks and some relaxation time.....well, it is Saturday night after all.

Day 3 - 187 miles

Lorient to Le Mans: Leaving Lorient and heading east, we thread our way along the quiet country lanes on our way to the car museum at Loheac - a fantastic place crammed with all manner of French racing cars and the odd rarity too. With over 400 cars to view it's one of the highlights of the tour. We'll stay there for lunch before heading to the overnight stop just outside the famous city of Le Mans.

Day 4 - 128 miles

Le Mans to Portsmouth: Heading north from Le Mans we go into the hills, stopping at a glorious lakeside beach, buried deep in the hills near Beaumont. Continuing north along some truly magnificent Tarmac (on some of the quietest and most picturesque roads in the region) we reach Caen in time for our afternoon ferry back to Portsmouth.

  • Prices Places on this tour are priced at £599 per person, sharing a twin or double room

Deposit payment of £250 required per person to secure your place(s) on this tour

  • What's included?

Two Tour Managers in lead and chase cars, return ferry journeys to and from Portsmouth/Caen, three nights hotel accommodation (including bed and breakfast). Sat-nav files, walkie talkies, info packs with route notes, maps and general info.

  • What's not included?

Drinks, lunch, dinner, fuel, tolls, breakdown cover (for your own peace of mind we make this a requirement on all tours).

To book, call the Petrolhead Nirvana office on +44 (0)845 838 7363.

By booking your place on tour, you accept our terms and conditions. Please make sure you've read our (not so) small print here.

To view the PhN website click here

Author
Discussion

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

77 months

Wednesday 23rd February 2011
quotequote all
For a second I thought it was Tracy Island in the picture. Y'know.. at a quick glance.

crugbun

498 posts

241 months

Wednesday 23rd February 2011
quotequote all
I'm sure I'm being stupid.... but what are the dates?


(yes yes dry sticky fruit in a odd shaped box)


ETA duh!... found them(PhN site).

SpeedYellow

2,533 posts

250 months

Wednesday 23rd February 2011
quotequote all
Yup.... noticed the missing date... doh! lol

Harsh

4,551 posts

234 months

Wednesday 23rd February 2011
quotequote all
Not quite Tracy Island, although that would be very cool indeed!
The Dates (as well as being the odd shaped fruit in a box) are July 15th to 18th (Friday to Monday)

Also one thing i don't think was mentioned in the article was the early booking discount of 10% which brings the price down to £539pp


bigburd

2,670 posts

223 months

Wednesday 23rd February 2011
quotequote all
Oh so tempted...as I am with all the PH/PN trips...need to check the budgets though!

omgus

7,305 posts

198 months

Wednesday 23rd February 2011
quotequote all
bigburd said:
Oh so tempted...as I am with all the PH/PN trips...need to check the budgets though!
Yep, it's a lovely area, and as with all PH/PN tours at the moment i could afford either the trip OR the petrol but sadly not both.

However once my finances are sorted, hopefully before next years trips it will be drivingbiggrin


Kong

1,503 posts

194 months

Thursday 24th February 2011
quotequote all
Looks like great fun, driving to Brittany has been on my list for a while. But this seems a tad expensive..

£599 x 2 people
£150 petrol (at 30mpg)
£200 (at £25 pppd) food/drink

£1550 for a couple to go on a 3 day weekend! Thats not including French tolls and the cost of driving to Portsmouth so it could easily be £1700+.

You could have a 10 day hoon round the alps for less!


Harsh

4,551 posts

234 months

Thursday 24th February 2011
quotequote all
Kong said:
Looks like great fun, driving to Brittany has been on my list for a while. But this seems a tad expensive..

£599 x 2 people
£150 petrol (at 30mpg)
£200 (at £25 pppd) food/drink

£1550 for a couple to go on a 3 day weekend! Thats not including French tolls and the cost of driving to Portsmouth so it could easily be £1700+.

You could have a 10 day hoon round the alps for less!
Hello again Kong,

As always, a fair question although your maths are slightly off in this case and don't take into account the standard of hotels and the service you get from coming along on a trip.

You could do this trip on a shoestring, stay in F1 style hotels, worry about where you leave your car etc but at the same time you could spend £5,000 doing the same route.

We look after everyone on our tours and provide great value for money. There are 11 tours on this years calender, ranging from £224 per person up to £2,300 per person from 3 to 11 days going to Wales, Norway, and America (as you may have seen.)

Most of our tours get sold out and we like to offer something different from the norm, in fact, Scotland, Wales, USA and the two Alpine tours are pretty much sold out already for this year so we can't be that pricey.


If you want to do something like this we could always arrange something for you without the support of tour managers, route notes, .itn files, walkie talkies etc and using cheaper hotels...it might not be as much fun going on your own but it can be done. Just give us a call if you want us to help you out mate.


M666 EVO

1,129 posts

185 months

Thursday 24th February 2011
quotequote all
Kong said:
Looks like great fun, driving to Brittany has been on my list for a while. But this seems a tad expensive..

£599 x 2 people
£150 petrol (at 30mpg)
£200 (at £25 pppd) food/drink

£1550 for a couple to go on a 3 day weekend! Thats not including French tolls and the cost of driving to Portsmouth so it could easily be £1700+.

You could have a 10 day hoon round the alps for less!
Or buy a SOTW rolleyes

Does look like a fantastic weekend but alas I can't afford it...

Happy Eater

438 posts

218 months

Thursday 24th February 2011
quotequote all
These tours always look great fun.
It just a case of priorities - mine is moving house, mountain biking (PDS) at the moment.
I am very very tempted by Scotland Tour next year.

The only tour that looks expensive is the Norway tour - but (big but) you try visiting Norway on the cheap - it is impossible, it has to be one of the most expensive countries in the world!

Just remember - cost is what you pay, value is what you get!

Dommett

81 posts

199 months

Thursday 24th February 2011
quotequote all
Harsh said:
...although your maths are slightly off in this case...
I thought you were gonna say "30mpg on one of these trips, you'll be lucky" biggrin

These trips are expensive in the same way a you could spend £3k on a perfectly good car, so why spend £30k on a premium car, you get what you pay for.

That said I would love a cheaper alternative, perhaps hiring out complete campsites and having the lead vehicle full of tents & sleeping bags - one for the French vineyards in summer though instead of scotland!

VerySideways

10,267 posts

295 months

Thursday 24th February 2011
quotequote all
Dommett said:
That said I would love a cheaper alternative, perhaps hiring out complete campsites and having the lead vehicle full of tents & sleeping bags - one for the French vineyards in summer though instead of scotland!
Says the man who is booked on the Scotland tour in September smile

Harsh

4,551 posts

234 months

Thursday 24th February 2011
quotequote all
Tom you're totally correct, there are always alternatives,

We do try hard to find a balance between cost and luxury and the cost is in the main down to the style of hotels we pick, we do our best to make them fit the style of the tour, So Scotland is about local rustic charm, location and good food, Alpine is about location and the length of time we are likely to spend there and Norway is about trying to make sure we get best value for money, which as everyone knows is a very tough task in Scandinavia.

The Brittany hotels we chosen for their location, style and the way they fit with the relaxing long weekend trip we've created.

Whatever we create some will want more luxury and some less depending on their budget, we've tried to hit the middle ground on this trip as we do on all the tours we run.

Camping trips are easier to organise (assuming there are suitable grounds in the right locations) but are very wearing on the traveller. setting up and disassembling, sorting dinner/breakfast, keeping the cars safe every single day takes away valuable driving and relaxing time.

Most of the people who have done one or more of these tours tell us they are cheap for what we provide, for us the proof is in the fact that people rebook year after year....and that's down to the hard work preparing and looking after people while they are on the trip.

See you in September smile

azrael

29 posts

223 months

Thursday 24th February 2011
quotequote all
These trips are a luxury and aimed at a standard to match. There is no point in complaining about the price.

For a lot of people they are too expensive, but for the target audience, they are a holiday free of the hassle of organisation and all about the R&R.

NickZ4

54 posts

186 months

Saturday 26th February 2011
quotequote all
Could you let me know if you have any spaces right now? And if there are any trips planned for sooner than the summer? In addition what is the premium for travelling on your own? As much as it would be nice to go with someone, would prefer to leave the mrs at home - at one with my machine and all that!

Harsh

4,551 posts

234 months

Saturday 26th February 2011
quotequote all
NickZ4 said:
Could you let me know if you have any spaces right now? And if there are any trips planned for sooner than the summer? In addition what is the premium for travelling on your own? As much as it would be nice to go with someone, would prefer to leave the mrs at home - at one with my machine and all that!
As this trip has just been launched we do still have space on it. Most of the others are now almost sold out.

To have a look at the trips we're running have a look here
http://www.petrolheadnirvana.com/

The Scotland and Wales trips in April and May are pretty much full, the two Alpines are 90% full (maybe 2 spaces left on each) and USA is full with a waiting list as we are trying hard to source more cars but it is a real struggle at the moment.

The supplement for traveling on your own would depend on whether you were still happy to share a room or whether you wanted one to yourself, we can arrange both of those options.

ironictwist

7,127 posts

228 months

Saturday 26th February 2011
quotequote all
azrael said:
These trips are a luxury and aimed at a standard to match. There is no point in complaining about the price.

For a lot of people they are too expensive, but for the target audience, they are a holiday free of the hassle of organisation and all about the R&R.
Bingo. It's why I'm booked on 2 this coming year. I turn up & enjoy, I don't have the time/inclination to arrange anything like these myself & in all honesty I far prefer the idea that I see & enjoy the better bits rather than potentially missing them out when doing it all myself.

As others have said, you can ALWAYS do it cheaper. But I wouldn't want to considering the huge number of benefits I get from doing it this way smile

Davel

8,982 posts

281 months

Saturday 26th February 2011
quotequote all
Looks good for a bike trip too!