Advice for second trip into Europe

[kevandali]

Hi all

 

About a year ago I came on here and got loads of advice on firstly buying and secondly going to Brittany in our van, the help was brill.

 

We went on our first ever trip, to Brittany, me, the wife and two kids 12 and 14 and thoughly enjoyed it, mainly due to the fact that we had been so well informed by you lot.

 

This July we are off again but not sure where, I would like some real general advice from all you motorhoming vets (not animal doctors) (lol)

 

The wife (bless her cotton socks) wants to go to Italy but I got the map out and wasn't sure how to get there and really started thinking it might be a bit far with two kids singing "are we there yet" every few miles.

 

So----- I, oops, sorry, we are thinking of going away for a fortnight, probably and hopefully France and the plan is to actually book about three seperate campsites that have a pool and facilities for kids using a triangular route using aires and wild camping for the rest of the time.

 

If any one has suggestions on what area to visit, and any decent campsites that they have been to I will then start to plan the trip.

 

The only stipulation that is a must, is that we are heading for the coast and not inland.

 

I know this post is a bit vague but I am full of confidence that you lot can help and will probably end up going to the first place suggested:-D

 

cheers

 

Kevandali

[Tony Jones]

Come on folks, a dozen of us have looked at Ken & Ali's post - where are all the replies? Here's mine:

Glad you've enjoyed your first trip enough to go back for more. Assuming you want to venture a bit further afield, and since you want some longer stops rather than just lots of overnights, I'd suggest the West coast. Heading for the Med is tempting, but you'd spend a lot of your fortnight travelling. France is BIG.

The areas around La Rochelle or Royan are easily "do-able" in a fortnight, with time to relax on your booked sites. Either of those areas would make a great "furthest point" on your 3-stage trip.

Have you chosen your ferry crossing yet? When we lived in Cumbria (Millom - where are you?) we always used Brittany Ferries, usually Poole-Cherbourg, which would enable you to make southern Brittany your first "major" stop. Then down to one of the West Coast areas I mentioned, and maybe break your "Seaside" rule by returning via an inland route, perhaps using somewhere along the Loire valley as your 3rd main stop.

That should give you and the kids a varied trip, with plenty to see and do for all of you at each stage.

For your "wild camping" nights in between main stops, I'd thoroughly recommend joining France Passion ( www.france-passion.com ), which would give all of you chance to meet some real French people along the way.

I'll shut up now and let someone else have a go.

But wherever you end up, enjoy yourselves!

Tony

[twooks]

Hi glad to read that you had a good time last year.  An option - if you are ok with ferry cost / time  - that we did a couple of years ago was:

Portsmouth > Bilbao, then drive back to the Channel ports, following the coast line, there are some great spots along the way.

Landes departemente is one long surfing beach with lakes and forests inland, lots of sites - big and small, then

Gironde, and you can either ferry across to Royan or drive around the estuary - we drove but on reflection I would opt for the ferry.

Charente - Maritime - Ile d'Oleron, La Rochelle

Vendee - we skipped and went to Loire Atlantique, Pornic Le Croisic

You are now in Southern Brittany, and can either continue along the coast or head for the home bound port.

Of course, July could be busy, but if the idea appeals we could quickly come up with some site options

[Guest Frank Wilkinson]

I go along with Peter because you've only two weeks and with two older children I'm sure that you don't want to be driving for three days non stop.

I too would recommend the west coast as the south coast will be too far to travel without boring the kids to death.

I like southern Brittany myself and then you could move down the coast as Peter suggested. It's a pity that you don't want to go inland as some of France's rivers, such as the Dordogne or the Tarn are superb for swimming and canoeing. I actually prefer river swimming to the salty sea.

All the really gorgeous villages seem to be inland as well. In future look at the Dordogne, the Tarn and my favourite, the Ardeche, although you may need a bit longer for the two last ones.

[Brian Kirby]

I assume you're going in the school holidays? 

What you haven't said is what interests you all.  A few clues might help some of the suggestions for places to see/stay.

Do you intend staying anywhere for more than a few days?  You just may have difficulty with bookings on the west coast sites for stays of less that one week.  A lot of the sites won't open untill Easter, and quite a few won't even deal with bookings in the meantime. 

I'd say use the next few weeks for planning, sort out the areas you want to visit, pick out a few promising sites (Caravan Club Caravan Europe 1 probably best), the see if the websites are operating and taking bookings. 

If not, they'll probably wake up after Easter.  Don't worry too much about that, the French aren't, generally, great bookers ahead and frequently don't book their summer hols until June!

[michele]

Try ,

La Yole Valras Plage Gironnde Region. Sorry just sat and typed a whole load and then pushed the wrong key and lost the lot.

 

This campsite is fantastic and we started to go there over 7/8 years ago.

The kids are like we are not even there they only fight over the mirror to get tarted up for the night life. So relaxing honestly you won't be sorry.

Well that is if you are into losing the kid's ..Only joking family friendly full security on the gate site so no stangers allowed in.. Have a look.

And good luck...

[Guest JudgeMental]

 

Italian lakes are a good option but 2 weeks a bit tight.

 

If you can add 2 or 3 days to cover travelling it will give you 2 full weeks somewhere decent - but be warned all sites I mention fill up early as they are extremely popular.

 

I to like southern Brittany but for better weather you need to go further south. A good family site is “La Garangeoire” on the Vendee. ”les Ecreuils” at Jard - sur - mer is also a good Vendee site but a lot quieter. A better one still, expensive but worth it IMO is “camping Interlude” on the Island of Ile de Rae just of La Rochelle. It’s right on a great sandy beach and good area for safe, flat cycling.

 

From Vendee its only a half day drive to the Dordogne, another good family area and my children’s favourite. Which would complete your triangle spec.

 

Or Lake Annercy is also a great place and one of our favourites…….

 

I could go one but will stop here!

 

 

 

 

[Tony Jones]

I agree with Michele, La Yole at Valras-Plage is excellent, especially with 12 & 14 yr olds, and I'm glad someone else pushes the wrong buttons on this forum, not just me!

 

Only thing is, La Yole is a bit pricey, and I still feel anywhere on the south coast is a bit of a trek in a fortnight, given that you want to spend some time in 2 or 3 different places.

 

On my previous reply I mentioned the Royan area - some years ago we stayed on a really good site, with lots of activities for the kids, at La Palmyre. There was a decent zoo nearby as well, if either of yours are into that.

 

Tony

[Mel B]

Hi

 

We did a circular coast/inland France trip a couple of years ago, our trip briefly consisted of:

 

Sat - Arrived at Dunkerque and drove round to Cap de Nez viewing point (not sure if you can still stop here now) then via Wissant to Boulougne Sur Mer (where Speedferry lands) and parked on the dockside aire for the night.

 

Sun - Down to Dieppe and to Le Touque Paris-Plage (very posh place but very nice beach) eventually ending up at St Valery-en-Caux for the night - lovely little port town with a brilliant aire next to the sea and beach but very busy.

 

Mon - On to Bolbec, Port du Tancarville, Caen where we had a potter round the abbey/castle ruins and town, then to the little quiet village of Villiers-Bocage and stopped at the aire next to the sports centre.

 

Tue - Off on motorway and stopped at aire near Polmb with lovely views of the surrounding vast area, then on to Le Mont St Michel - brilliant. Then to Le Vivier Sur Mer, Cancale, through Ile de Landres to the viewing area - lovely place and stopped for lunch and a potter round the headland - beautiful. Then to St Malo, lovely old port and walled city and scrumptious ice-cream! Then on to Dinard to campsite which was 2 minutes walk from a very quiet beach.

 

Wed - On to Rennes town and had a nice potter around, drove off and through Rochefort en Terra, a very pretty village, on our way to Malansac and stopped in aire next to village boules shed.

 

Thu - Drove to Nantes for a potter then on to La Rochelle for another potter - well worth a visit as very interesting and pretty place and took the electric 'ferry' across the harbour. On to Touras but had to ask local chap where the aire was who jumped in his car and we followed him there - right by the sea on a quiet beach - beautiful.

 

Fri - On to Rochefort - nice town with lots to see, then off to Santeur another lovely place to visit with Roman ruins in the middle to look at. Off to Ragan but didn't stop, just drove round (very posh place) and then on to aire at Meshers - it looked like we'd never find it as we were going down a rough bit of road and then at the end the harbour appeared and was a hive of activity with lots of cafes and an aire - highly recommended.

 

Sat - Drove to Pons for a potter about, lovely village with magnificent views of the countryside and a marvelous tower and Hotel de Ville. Off to Cognac and had a tour of the Hennesy distillery - well worth a visit, even for the kids. Can highly recommend the Pure White cognac which you can only buy direct from the distillery itself. Then went to a lovely campsite on the outskirts of Cognac with a pool and next to the river (watch out for mozzies) - lovely.

 

Sun - On to Jarnac for a potter, then Angouleme on top of a hill, lovely views. Then on to Grottos du Brantoume, an extremely beautiful village - you must not miss this if you are nearby! Lots of shops, houses etc built into the rock, lovely stream running through, beautiful church etc. There was a fete/market on the day we went so it was great. Off to Perigneux and went to aire on banks of river near to the cathedral on the edge of the town, the town is lovely at night and well lit up.

 

Mon - On to Grand Roch where there are caves in the 'cliffs' - the kids will definitely love this - crystal formations, weird rocks and houses built ito the rock. On to Roch St Christophe, whole trogladite 'village' built into the rock on ledges high up - spectactular place so don't miss it - the views are also wonderful. Found a lovely little campsite at Tornac with a pool, loads of Dutch people but very nice and friendly.

 

Tue - Drove through Terrasan-Lauvilledren on way to Brive and through to Limoges, didn't stop as too big and commercial, on A20 again to St Benoit du Soult for a potter then to Egujon Lac and on to Montcocu Plage campsite, well placed right by the lake, quiet and cheap, they were just completing a cafe when we were there, it has a lovely little 'beach' area in the river - an absolutely lovely little place, could happily have stayed there for a few days.

 

Wed - On to Argenten sur Creuse for a potter, very pretty on the river, on to Chateaurous dn through Verzon and found a brilliant little shop, bought loads of cheap bits and pieces (pans, clothes, etc) and found Auchan shop at Vierson so stocked up. On to Livet for campsite, next to the river, lovely place (some pitches have a tree growing in the middle of them!).

 

Thu - On to through Orleans, Etamps and to Versailles, managed eventually to get parked (not easy!) and went into the Palace - if you can time it right you can have a ride round the gardens on the little train and get on/off as you wish, you can also go in the Palace itself if you wish. Off to Paris, managed to find a campsite on the outskirts which was very nice indeed next to the Seine and near some parks, got a good discount with our ACSI card - 17.50E instead of 27.50E! Drove into Paris on the night time (yes we were that stupid!), absolutely brilliant but chaotic, got some lovely photos of the sun going down behind Notre Dame.

 

Fri - Off on the bl**dy Paris Periferi then eventually on to Amiens, Doullens, St Pol-Sur-Ternoise, Therouame and Ardres (for vets). Headed for campsite at Guines with a pool.

 

Sat - Off to Calais Auchan supermarket for booze etc then to Ole Plage and Gravelines and stopped at beach to let dogs out - very nice and clean. Off to Dunkerque and had a look round before going to port for ferry home.

 

Phew! What a holiday!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[michele]

God MelB i bet you need a holiday after that jaunt.

mel please send me piccy of Paris i have never ever been only around it .

 

My old man has not got a romantic bone in his body . Well :$

[Tony Jones]

The trick I've found with trips like Mel's where you move on every day, is only to drive for HALF the day.

Either spend the morning exploring near where you slept, or move off in the morning but knock off at lunchtime.

This 2nd option has the extra advantage of allowing a proper continental-length lunch & siesta, followed by a bit of leisurely exploration nearby & time to choose where to eat out.

That way, you can move on every day but it still feels like a holiday!

 

Tony

[Guest JudgeMental]

 

Mel & Tony, sorry to interrupt your blossoming love affair :-D

 

But you are drifting oft thread a little...... :->

 

"we are thinking of going away for a fortnight, probably and hopefully France and the plan is to actually book about three separate campsites that have a pool and facilities for kids using a triangular route using aires and wild camping for the rest of the time."

 

IMO this schedule is impossibly tight, kids will make friends only to have to move on within a few days. With my teenagers (if they are happy I am happy!). we tend to have a few weeks in different locations.

 

 

 

[michele]

Judgemental,

I could not agree more after all ifthe kid's are happy that's less strss to deal with .It makes for a relaxing time........

[Tony Jones]

Guilty as charged, your honour.

We'd better stick to what we've actually been asked.

Tony

[Vernon B]

My vote would be the west coast as well; ideal for your kids and (don't think its been mentioned so far) you'd be able to work Futuroscope into your itinerary. If you are planning to go to this region in the school hols I'd say prebooking sites would be essential.

 

Savour this one - won't be long before the kids will want to do their own thing - motorhomes aren't cool at 16.

 

Enjoy, Vernon

[kevandali]

Vernon B - 2007-02-01 3:58 PM

"motorhomes aren't cool at 16."

Counting the days!!

 

Just checked back expecting one or two replys, :-) what a pleasant suprise. Will have to check with our Al as I reckon southern Brittany is looking good as we went across to Brittany the last trip but didn't venture too far south as we zipped across to Disney World towards the end of the hols.

 

Thinking of going in the first two weeks of July and might even be able to stretch to 18 days, will have to wait and see.

 

Will ingest all the brill info and will be sure to come back with some more querries/questions later on.

 

Good point about kids being happy= us happy, might cut it down to two prolonged stops and not three?

 

Cheers

 

Kevandali

[Mel B]

Keep yer wig on Judge!!!! (lol)

 

I only put in the posting what we actually did so that Kev could pick and choose if any of it seemed interesting to him especailly as doing a triangle will entail some length of inland travel. It was not a suggestion of what he should do, just some meant to give him ideas! :-S

 

Michele - I'll have a shuftie over the weekend and send some piccies to you.

[twooks]

Pick n choose is important, Kevandali have seen some of Brittany and are still looking for a mainly coastal trip. Simplest triangular coastal route has to be around Brittany; Calais to Brest and back is about 1400 - 1500 kilometres while a linear coastal run - Bilbao to say St Nazaire then straight to Calais is about 1400 kilometres.

 

[olley]

Vernon B - 2007-02-01 3:58 PM

Savour this one - won't be long before the kids will want to do their own thing - motorhomes aren't cool at 16.

 

Enjoy, Vernon

 

You must be joking a free holiday, we can't get rid of ours and shes 20 :-D goes with us every time, usually takes a friend and then we get turned into a taxi service, days its the beach, nights its the disco's. :-S :-S Wife says we will miss her when she doesn't want to come. *-) *-)

 

I definitely agree with staying in one place, as long as its the right place, if you see what I mean. Go somewhere they don't like and you are in for some serious earache.

 

Olley

 

Ps. its true we will miss her when she doesn't want to come with us anymore. :'(

[michele]

Well , I for one believe it to be true . Mine fight over the playstation laptops DVD's IPods but go where they want your ok .

 

Good Luck ;-)

[kevandali]

twooks - 2007-02-02 8:56 PM Bilbao to say St Nazaire then straight to Calais is about 1400 kilometres.

This sounds quite good twooks, if we were to get the ferry to Bilbao would we need any extra documentation to get over the border?I will save your trip, Mel till we have lost the kids, sounds great.If I understand correctly, we could sail to Bilbao hugging the coast on the way up to St Nazaire and then get the ferry back from Calais, covering roughly 1500 miles.One other question, if this is possible would we have to buy to seperate ferry tickets or would one company supply both tickets?Also *-) are there any decent campsites/swimming pools enroute.Just to throw another question into the pot, once in Bilbao, what about a small circular route and back from Bilbao?What do you lot think?Thanks again for all the help, guys and girlsKevandali

[twooks]

Hi Kev, No problems at all - all euros - and 'nationality' same on both sides ie basque - beautiful country although the Spanish bit may be a bit wetter.  

There are lots of trip potential around Bilbao, we got a book on Bilbao which gives about a dozen drives off and about, coastal and inland.  Alternatively you can head west - passed Santander - [there's a campsite always seems to get good reviews - will see if I can track it down] and a short run to the east brings you to San Sebastian aka Donostia, which we enjoyed, there's a large campsite just outside with a good bus link into the town.

If you decide to stay in that area I will see if I can find the guide book -

Rumour has it that Spanish is the easiest foreign language to learn - never got much past the usual -               Hola, dos cervecas, dos cafes, and of course Cuba Libre and gracias - but every little bit helps.

[twooks]

Found it,    CAMPING PLAYA JOYEL  at NOJA about 38 km from Santander see here:  http://www.vayacamping.net/     and another good camping site is http://www.campinguia.com/en/   you're looking for Galicia, Cantabria, Euskadia basically.

The ferry trip is expensive, and eating on board is expensive we tended to take advantage of the breakfast and take food with us and then spend much of the time either out on deck or hogging the best seats in the observation lounge. Never saw a whale but suggest you take binoculars with you just in case you do. Can also recommend Sturgeron and travel bands.

Last time we went we did the return trip and spent much of the time in the Aquitaine, - Biarritz and Landes and a little bit of the Gironde.

Enjoy, the planning and adding and discarding is all part of the fun!

 

[twooks]

PS, Spain does have more stringent requirements re driving, you are advised to carry 2 warning triangles not 1 - although strictly speaking it's only Spanish drivers who are so required by law, and all of you MUST have and use fluorescent jackets.

[Guest JudgeMental]

Mel B - 2007-02-02 8:10 PM

 

Keep yer wig on Judge!!!! (lol)

 

you.

 

Madam! I am a natural brunnette

 

and curls are my own as well - don't you know!