Traveling to the pyrenees

[STEPHEN_374526904]

Hello this will be our first trip abroad with the caravan,we are looking to go to the pyrenees to catch a couple of stages of the tour de France next july.I have found a camp site called Pyrenees Natura,does anyone know if this is ok? and which would be the best way to get there, i was thinking the ferry to Bilbao.

 

[ValA.]

Personally I'd rather drive down through some beautiful parts of France, instead of spending the time on the ferry. You can get a ferry crossing with Norfolk Lines for less than

 

[STEPHEN_374526904]

Personally I'd rather drive down through some beautiful parts of France, instead of spending the time on the ferry. You can get a ferry crossing with Norfolk Lines for less than

 

[Olly]

Hello Stephen.

Regardless of the method of travel you eventually use, it would be a good idea to book the camp site sooner rather than later. Particularly as the Pyrenees Natura is so close to the route of the Col de Tourmalet stages which, as you will be aware, the race is climbing in both directions on the 20th and 22nd of July.

As this is effectively at the peak of the holiday season anyway and cycling fans will quickly take up any slack, then the dates between 18th and 22nd will quickly become fully booked.

 

[ValA.]

I'd probably do Calais/Abbeville/Rouen/Chartres/Orleans/Vierzon then Limoges, Montauban, Toulouse, then the A64 will take you towards Estaing. From there I'm sorry I don't know the local roads - as I said, we've not actually been - just thought about visiting. Depending on the timing of your ferries, will affect site recommendations, because it mainly depends on your time of arrival on your first day, and then how far you want to drive. However, on the route outlined you've got a choice of lots of sites in some nice areas. You could then always do a different route back and really see a lot of France.

 

[Olly]

For what it's worth, I thought you might be interested to consider a few comparative thoughts between your original idea of using the ferry to Bilbao as opposed to driving all the way to the Pyrenees. We have just done a fairly detailed cost comparison of a similar journey as a result of which we intend to do both - that is to go out on the ferry to Spain and come back in stages to Calais.

One of our considerations is that, being retired and therefore not limited to a two or three week trip, we neither enjoy setting the alarm to make early starts nor enjoy the routine involved in one-night stops as we journey south.

Another factor is that we are only half an hour from Portsmouth as opposed to a half day trip, plus the delights of the M25, as we head for the channel tunnel ( to keep the dogs with us in the car ).

So 'yes' of course the ferry costs more than the tunnel but to off-set that, here are the savings that using the ferry to Spain might provide -

We don't make a camp-site booking at Folkestone on the night before a Wednesday departure nor do we have the three overnight stops as we head south through France to arrive in the Pyrenees on Sunday. At say

 

[v.meldrew2]

Stephen

We have stayed twice at Camping Le Bergons in Luz St Saveur. You can see my reviews at www.ukcampsites.co.uk Just search 'bergons' on the site name. The site is at the foot of Troumalet, and will presumably fill very quickly for the TdF dates. We also stayed at Camping Arome Vanille in Luchon this year - (also on ukcampsites)- the TdF passed fairly close whilst we were there on its way to Troumalet.

As for travelling down, it would be fairly easy to do it in two days from the Normandy ports (Caen, St Malo, Cherbourg) using an overnight ferry. This year we did a day crossing to Cherbourg, spent two nights at the excellent Camping Haliotis at Pontorson near Mont St Michel, then had a night halt at Chez Gendron (listed under Mirambeau in CC continental handbook). Previously went via Bergerac and down the N21, but this is an extremely tedious route!

A few days (July 16th) after the tour went through Troumalet this year, 25cm snow fell on the pass!

 

[TimM]

We stayed a few nights at Pyrenees Natura in June and loved it. Beautiful location and very well run. We will definitely go back. But it is pretty close to some of the Tour De France stages and depending which bits of the pyrenees are used in the race, you may not be able to access the campsite very easily. Worth checking before you book.

I would advise booking this campsite anyway rather than turning up on spec. In June it was reasonably full and as the access roads are a a little steep and narrow and therefore slow, it would be a nightmare to travel up there and find they can't take you.

Regarding route, we took the Pont Aven from Portsmouth down to Santander which is a 24 hour crossing. Really good crossing and saw lots of Dolphins. We thought the ship was pretty good too. We stayed one night near Biarritz which allowed us to get to Pyrenees Natura just after lunch the next day.