travelling to France

[lmh242000]

We are travelling to the Vendee region next weekend just as the schools break up. We sail from Dover on Sat 24th July at 2pm. We are travelling with caravan from York. We have arranged a stop over near Rouen for the Saturday evening and one on our return.

We have 2 samll children. We were thinking of setting off about 4am to 5am on the saturday morning. My inlaws think we should travel down late friday evening and stay at services close to Dover. Can anyone offer any advice or tips. Thanks

Lisa

 

[DavidKlyne]

Lisa

Trouble with planning to stop at services near to Dover is that the number of Caravan/Motorhome places is quite restricted and often full of vans/cars. Also if you are that near to Dover you will have a long wait for your ferry unless you are able to change the time. If you have the time on the Friday why not think of a campsite about halfway between where you live and Dover.

David

 

[BigTim]

Hi Lisa

We have to travel a similar distance to you, from St Helens, and have used several options over our 5 or so years of doing this:

(1) Overnight at Maidstone Services. We've done that twice. Okay but limited number of caravan pitches and could be full as yours is a busy weekend. However this would probably mean you arriving rather early at Dover.

(2) South Mimms Services on the M25 clockwise. You should just catch it if you are coming down the A1(M) Large carpar with a number of spaces for caravan. Used once once. You could time leaving here so that you wouldn't be too early for the boat

(3) Little Switzerland Campsite in Folkestone. Done 3 times. A favourite of ours with Channel Views to die for!! See here for details and reviews, including mine (Tim and Cary)

(4) Little Satmar campsite, Folkestone. Done once. We were put on a large grassy area so that we and other channel hoppers could stay hooked up. Details here:

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/reviews.asp?revid=1538
The campsite option would mean that you could stay until 12 noon and then arrive at Dover in perfect time for the boat. If you arrive early parking to wait for your boat is a PROBLEM - nowhere in the Docks.

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/reviews.asp?revid=1539
Thurrock Service, clockwise on the M25 would be another possibility just before the Dartford crossing. I've not stopped here however.

There are other campsites near to Dover too - If you do an area search on ukcampsite.co.uk you will be shown lots complete with user reviews.

Another thing we and you will need need to consider if you are travelling Clockwise on the M25 are the holdups at the Dartford crossing - see here

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=7&TopicID=197200&PagePosition=1&ThreadPage=3&ReturnPage=Search&search=&searchIn=
The last post on that thread warns of 8 mile/2 hour queues southward at the Dartford Crossing on Saturday 17 July!!! We may consider going anti-clockwise on the M25 if traffic reports at that time say it's better but that's not such a good option for someone travelling from Eastern side of the UK

I hope this helps. Questions, questions but worth it when you get there. Have a super holiday.

Tim

 

[David.O]

Lisa

The M25 from the A1 to the Dartford crossing is hell. I would want that out of the way before you think of stopping. We are only 120 miles from Dover but always travel down the afternoon before we want to cross. missed the ferry once and had to wait some time before we could get another

 

[Kevin_374582254]

Hi we are doing similar trip the same day from Stafford, we are getting up early to get a 7.30ish crossing to calais then stopping overnight in an aire en route to arrive at st jean de monts on the sunday, whole thing is approx 14hrs of driving 4 of which are in UK, this is using the 'a' roads in france rather than the autoroute's as these can add approk

 

[ValA.]

Why not either:

1. Travel down Friday night and get an overnight ferry - then stay on the docks in Calais - that way you'll arrive on your site in Rouen before lunch-time and feel you've had a whole extra day on site.

2. Stay on a campsite/services near Dover Friday night, but bring your crossing forward so that you don't have so long to wait in Dover.

We live in West Yorkshire - and always choose option 1 these days.

 

[lmh242000]

Thanks everyone.

I have booked an overnight stay friday in Dover, and taken my 5 year old out of school, only one day. Wish I had booked earlier crossing now, we cross at 2pm Sat. Oh well you live and learn.

Thanks

Lisa