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Loads of you must have done it, we're thinking about options!
We have a mid-size (LWB Transporter) campervan and four, including kids age 6 and 3. Driving from Newcastle to Tignes, maybe Morzine for a total of two weeks away,
intending to camp when we're there.
We're interested in an overnight ferry (Newcastle-Amsterdam or Hull-Rotterdam) , but that leaves a bigger drive that probably won't get us there in time to set camp. Overall less driving and leaves us a short hop from home on the return is attractive.
Do we break up that big drive by a day of fun on the way through France (Troyes?) then another evening drive before we unload sleeping kids in to a Formule 1 for the night?
What do other folk like doing that might be worth us considering? Any good places to stop off en route? Tips for the ferry? Morzine vs Tignes?
TIA
From York we leave say 3-4 pm and get through the Eurotunnel stopping in Coquelles about midnight. Then straight to Les Gets / Morzine the next day.
French autoroute infrastructure makes UK motorways look really second rate. You do pay for it to be fair.
That’s in a Kodiaq and you’re starting another 90 miles further north. On second rate UK roads.
The Les Gets to Amsterdam / Rotterdam run is not as restful as the purely French roads. We used to do Zeebrugge but that ferry’s gone now - unless someone knows different.
The Ibis Styles in the centre of Chalons-en-Champagne is good, right in the centre of a nice wee town, but it’s an underground car park so check you’d fit.
Ibis / Novotel at Tinqueux is ok (nothing more) but is two minutes off the autoroute and right by a huge Carrefour for stocking up.
We first did it with a 3 & 8 year old. Still doing it now they’re 11 & 16.
I've done it loads of times from Sunderland in a LWB T5. It's pretty hellish. We once arrived on the campsite in Les Gets exactly 24 hours after we left. It's the return leg that breaks your spirit.
It's fine to torture yourself but I wouldn't do it with kids. We're wondering how we're going to do it next year and I thinking about driving down a few days early and collecting Mrs and Jr from Geneva airport.
La Bresse and Lac Blanc bike parks are both good places to stop and break up the drive. They're about half way between Morzine and Calais.
Do we break up that big drive by a day of fun on the way
Fontainebleau. Simply the best bouldering in the world. stop off on the journey through France And our kids loved it long before they liked climbing...
We live in West Yorkshire.
Set off around tea-time on a Friday and headed to Hull and got the overnight to Rotterdam. That was quite a nice crossing, got a big club cabin thing that slept five. Left the boat around 9am and (perhaps foolishly) had decided to do it in one run. We took about three or four rest breaks on the way down. Rolled into Morzine around 9:30pm. It wasn’t a “fun” drive but the roads were nice and quiet apart from the top end where it was a bit M25ish.
Com8ng back, we had another overnight ferry from Rotterdam and being super cautious, we set of very early, around 4:30am. Had a good drive back up and got to the ferry around 5:30, so plenty of time to catch the overnighter.
Would I do it again, probably not. I would probably look to break it up but the advantage was that we didn’t lose many days with stop-offs. So a bit of pain to get there but it’s such a good place, I’d sort of perversely suffer on the journey to have an extra two days there.
We were five up, two adults and three kids, 13, 17 & 19 in a Touran packed to the rafters with three bikes on the roof!
We stayed in ibis budget sud Metz. It was clean and cheap and lots of commuting families used it. Was a reasonable halfway from Amsterdam. Which for you means a great short trip home as opposed to 8hrs at best traveling from the south of England.
DFDS Newcastle to ijmuden is more expensive than the tunnel but if you don't mind that it's a better crossing. Plenty of folk were taking their own food and drink and picnicking on deck although that's frowned upon.
We do as @igm . Leave teatime, booked on the midnight eurotunnel with the aim of getting the earlier one (they do this with a non flex ticket just don't advertise it!). Do a few hrs in France then a late stop in any bit of quiet woods, random lane etc etc. Then you've broken the back of it and it's c5hrs the next morning. I can't really justify the £1k+ for yhe hull ferry unless we are heading east.
It's really not too bad even w kids, weirdly 6 and 3 too, weirdly in a lwb transporter. Last year we did back from albania, now that was bad!
We did Fife to Morzine this year with kids aged 9 and 11. We drove to Whitstable on the first day and stayed overnight with friends. Early eurotunnel (6:30am ish?) the next morning and drove 5 hours ish to Fontainebleau (from recommendations here). Spent 2 nights in Fontainebleau including a full day in Paris after getting the train in (40 mins and 5 euro pp). The drive to Morzine from there was about another 6 hours I think.
On the way back we left Morzine at about 7am and just blasted up to Calais in one hit with short lunch stop. Arrived at 5pm ish. Then tunnnel to Folkestone and another 2.5 hours to Peterborough to stay at my brother-in-laws. Next day we finished the journey home.
Overall it worked well. The worst bit was the first day driving down to Kent as we had some traffic issues and got diverted through country lanes etc off the A1.
In future I wouldn’t stop in Fontainebleau, I’d just do Calais to Morzine in one hit as we did on the return. We specifically did it this time as we wanted to take the kids to Paris. However it was a really nice place to visit so would recommend it as a stop option.
For us it makes sense really to drive through the UK as we have friends and family that live en route that it’s both convenient to stay with and good to see them, so killing two birds. Also, when you can use Tesco clubcard points to cover the Eurotunnel then the Hull ferry becomes even harder to justify. Just make sure the kids have got DVD players / iPads etc!
If doing Calais we like to stop at camping st Louis https://www.campingstlouis.com/
Means we're rested for the drive back. We've stayed until 7pm then got an evening crossing. Means getting back to the borders at 3 or 4 am but much less unpleasant drive.
Worst was an early morning crossing into the M20 being closed. Took 4+hours to get to the M25 which was near enough gridlocked.
Not the same as we’re Herefordshire but have driven to morzine and aosta for holidays on a few occasions. Did the Caen overnight ferry once going out but found that made for a v long day left to aosta. Other trips we Airbnb’d between Troyes and Dijon then onto the ski resort by lunchtime. Going across the Jura from there is an option to make it less boring.
We tend to come back in one go which is a long boring day but ok with two drivers. I don’t think I’d attempt that if we were from the NE.
Car DVD player and cheap eBay dvds of great classic films works well for kids.
Consider Newhaven-Dieppe ferry. Longer overall but less driving time, and you get an overnight break. The only downside is the ferry is 2-3 times a day so you need to build in contingency time so you are not late. Also for a T5, just check the height limit of the underground motorway under Paris.
Everyone says avoid Paris but the west side from Dieppe was quiet both days for us, I think its the east side you'd do from Calais that is bad.
Might not save time but Newhaven to Dieppe ferry is overnight sometimes iirc.
Worth noting you'll pay fairly high autoroute tolls in a camper
Just a thought about ferries. Midweek Rotterdam / Hull was great. Loads of space on the ferry and not so busy. Return Hull / Rotterdam on a Saturday was packed out and I'm now enjoying a Covid Christmas and New Year after dodging it all the time up to now ...
There is a good free and quick route I use via Luxemburg for cheap fuel instead of the Autoroute. A bit longer though but could offset some of the ferry cost. For Swiss motorways, dont bother with teh sticker, just choose a quiet border crossing spot.
We do Central Scotland - Hull - Rotterdam - Alps and return once or twice a year. Usually stop off in Basel to see friends on the way down, blast back up in a oner on the way home.
As above, La Bresse (and Lac Blanc close by) are fun bike parks and nice places to be for a stop over.
P&O hull/rotterdam preferred as it leaves much later and arrives earlier on both sides. P&O boat we find a lot nicer too. Agree on 5 berth club cabins being a good thing. One time we used DFDS Newcastle Amsterdam but the earlier departure and large number of crashes on main roads made it a bit squeaky bum and not a pleasant time pressured drive.
(also bemoan the loss of the Zebrugge ferry - if nothing else the beach at Zebrugge is epic fun with dog and kids in any season)
The curry on the P&O boats is generally also delicious! (I think lots of Malaysian crew). And has not been affected by the recent management shenanigans.
As per others, drive is pretty easy, only consistently stressful bit is around Brussels R0 ring road. 'kin el, between Belgian drivers (indicate whilst manoeuvring, really don't look at all. if a Belgian car is indicating, it is committed to the action regardless of whats going on around it. Eek!) and the huge number of roads merging and de-merging with a really large volume of traffic it ain't fun. Every time it's a bit tense, but thankfully short.
HTH, really never fancied driving to calais etc as UK roads are ****ed as soon as one road has a problem they all do. If you get into Rotterdam there's a huge number of relatively similar timed options through France, Germany, Belgium etc.
Similar to above, I find the worst part of the journey the UK leg, once across the channel it feels more relaxed.
This is more noticeable on Sundays when HGV trucks are not permitted to drive on French motorways.
We set off from the Lake District for the tunnel, if we arrive early usually can get on an earlier train, then drive a few hours into France for a hotel overnight.
Following morning onward to destination.
On the return we would usually try one big push from France to Zeebrugge for the overnight ferry to Hull, its more expensive but its a nicer way to finish off the trip and not much driving once off the boat in the UK.
With the Zeebrugge ferry no longer running it narrows your options, perhaps driving up to Rotterdam and sailing to Newcastle makes sense?
I did it on the motorbike in September. Newcastle ferry is nice and easy on a Tuesday evening, couple of pints, food, reasonable kip and you are in Holland. I pottered down through Belgium/Luxembourg and stopped in Epinal. Thursday lunch in Lausanne and in Chamonix mid afternoon. Coming home I did in one hit, left Chamonix Friday morning at 9, bombed to Dover onto the tunnel and made it home to Hexham half 2 saturday morning. Frozen and knackered. Probably do again in summer.
Done Alps twice without kids and two Europe road trips with child.
When going directly to the Alps it's been set off midday from Sunderland and get the tunnel from Folkestone around 6-7pm. Pop out the other side and drive through the night with a couple of coffee stops. Arrive around midday next day.
With child we usually leave around 8-9am and take a leisurely drive to Folkestone for around 3pm. Come out the other side and go to Arques. There's a decent municipal campsite there which is great for a stopover. Next day get on the road again and drive the rest of the way to wherever we were going.
We do Leeds to the Alps or Pyrenees couple of time most years. As other have said the UK part is the worst bit so the over night ferry is great. We usually do it in the way home as driving from Hull or Newcastle is soooo much nicer than driving north from Folkstone or Dover.
On the way down we usually go A1 to Folkstone leaving about 4pm getting a crossing about 9/10 ish then driving another hour and stopping overnight . Then do the rest the next day.
Been doing it with 2 kids since they were babies so they well used to it by now.
We've now got a Merc viano and don't pay any more for tolls than the car used to be.
I've done Bristol to the alps in one hit before now, but I'm going to make my life a bit easier this easter and break the journey. Leave early ish, get a lunchtime train, then stop probably in Troyes. We should get to Samoens early afternoon the next day, giving time to buy food and hire skis etc. On the way back I'll probably drive to Calais and stop there, getting a train the next morning.
Last year we did back from albania, now that was bad!
That's a monster drive, with kids as well!?
Was that work or fun, sounds like a great adventure.
Since you're in Newcastle, I'd take the ferry to NL and then aim to do the majority of the journey not in France (to save on tolls).
Autoroute tolls can easily cost as much as the fuel.
How much roughly for a small / be van in Tolls?
Autoroute tolls can easily cost as much as the fuel.
Agreed.
But the flip-side is you get fast easy driving roads. Leaves me happy to do a channel to alps run in a day.
It’s not unknown for the York-Eurotunnel bit to take as long as the Eurotunnel-Alps bit. And the Alps-Amsterdam roads are more like southern England’s high testosterone, over crowded mess than the relaxed French bit.
I love the French toll roads, in my opinion they're worth the money. They're a dream to drive on and you can cover big miles in a day. They save literally hours on a big drive and there's loads of rest areas to use or sleep in.
Since you’re in Newcastle, I’d take the ferry to NL and then aim to do the majority of the journey not in France (to save on tolls).
Exactly. We always take 2 or 3 days to get to the Alps, we did it once through France to get there (Calais/Troyes/Dijon), and I hated it, so our usual route is Belgium/Luxembourg,Germany/France. Its a nicer route,and can be done without any tolls. Just the Tolls cost as much as a night in a Travelodge type place, so you can take it easier, stop off somewhere, have a relaxing night, and get to the destination the next day calm and refreshed, as well as seeing places you’d never see, especially if you get off the main roads.
We always take 2 or 3 days to get to the Alps, we did it once through France to get there (Calais/Troyes/Dijon), and I hated it, so our usual route is Belgium/Luxembourg,Germany/France. Its a nicer route,and can be done without any tolls.
Crikey, that's the exact opposite of my experience. Belgian drivers are lunatics and Germany always seems to be busy. Well worth paying French tolls IMO.
I suppose it depends how much time you can get off work. We always want to get there asap and start riding. Bollocks to meandering around the country for 3 days!
Yeah Calais to Samoens is about 8 hours drive, couple of quick stops for toilet, food, fuel. Set off about 7am from an overnight hotel and you're there for 4 in the afternoon.
Obvs further into the Alps takes longer but can easily get to most places for 5/6 ish.
Overnight ferry home is a very nice way to end the holiday though.
Crikey, that’s the exact opposite of my experience. Belgian drivers are lunatics and Germany always seems to be busy. Well worth paying French tolls IMO.
I'm with you - done Amsterdam-Alps many times and the German leg is an absolute nightmare. Much prefer staying on the French side and back via Lux and Belgium, staying overnight in Alsace or Metz if time and whim permit.
How much roughly for a small / be van in Tolls?
You could Google to get the exact number, but it'll be whatever you'd spend on fuel (as well).
How much roughly for a small / be van in Tolls?
At least £100 each way
viamichelin does a tolls calculator and a fuel cost to.
https://www.viamichelin.co.uk
^viamichelin's toll calculator is accurate.
AHH cool site thanks