Saint-Malo Flights

I travelled via Aeroport Dinard Pleurtuit St Malo when I visited Saint-Malo for a weekend break in June 2008.

This tiny airport is located 5km south of the town of Dinard and has no public transport links to either Dinard or Saint-Malo. Visitors are therefore required to make their way to their intended destination either by taxi or by hire car.

The first thing I noticed when my Ryanair flight from East Midlands touched down on the runway was how small the terminal building was. Indeed, there is just one luggage belt in the arrivals area, and one officer standing by the door checking passports.

Having passed through the passport control, you will find yourself in the arrivals hall. This consists mainly of hire car company booths, with no sign of even a simple tourist information desk. There are leaflets available, and there is a phone with a list of hotel names and telephone numbers beside it, but there is very little else to assist any new arrivals.

I expected, rather naively, to be able to leave the airport building and jump straight into a waiting taxi. I thought, in common with most airports, that there would be a queue of parked taxis. But there wasn’t. Nor were there any phone numbers of taxi companies displayed in the airport.

It seems that most people on my flight had chosen to hire a car, while others had had the foresight to pre-book an airport pick-up service. That left about twenty of us standing outside the terminal next to a “taxi” sign, wondering when the next taxi would show up. None did so in the first 20-30 minutes and I was starting to contemplate walking to Dinard, even though I didn’t have a map of the area or any idea which direction to head in. That is how desperate I was starting to feel!

Finally, a taxi arrived to drop off passengers who were catching the next outbound flight. The first people in the queue asked the driver to take them to Saint-Malo and others further back in the queue asked if they could share the taxi. The passengers were happy to share, but the driver wouldn’t let them – as that would obviously deprive them of an extra fare! If you’re ever in this position, try to find somebody to share a ride with before the taxi arrives and pretend that you are travelling as one party.

After about an hour’s wait, I finally found myself in the back of a taxi heading for Saint-Malo. The driver spoke English very well, and we chatted during the 20 minute trip to my hotel. The journey cost me 24 Euros.

At the end of my stay, I asked the hotel to arrange for a taxi to pick me up. This seemed to be the best option given my experience upon arrival in Saint-Malo and the fact that I hadn’t noticed any taxis or taxi ranks in Saint-Malo town centre. The taxi arrived bang on time and the journey to the airport cost me 35 Euros. This higher fare may have been due to the fact that it was a Sunday.

As I had checked in for the flight online and I didn’t have any luggage to check in, I had a bit of spare time while waiting for my flight. I made my way upstairs to a rather nice bar/restaurant with an outdoor seating area overlooking the runway. There are no shops at the airport, so most passengers end up in the bar.

As at June 2008, the following routes were operating from Dinard:

Ryanair – to East Midlands, Birmingham, Bristol and London Stansted;

Aurigny – to Guernsey.

A small airport in the heart of Brittany – make sure you have plans on how to get away, or you could be waiting some time for a taxi!

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