What do you do for overnight 'en route' stops?

[empee]

Hi

Will shortly take our first caravan holiday as a family - probably in the UK for now but planning for the continent in the summer so got to thinking how differently we'll do it now that we have a caravan (Been a few times for skiing and once in a static at Interlaken)

Afer a 5 hour drive to the tunnel we normally stop over in a hotel at Folkestone or a couple of hours beyond Calais but now that we have a van we have our own 'hotel' - but where to stop? Seems a bit over the top to bother with setting up on a site when all you want is a few hours sleep before moving on, but what about the horror stories of people being robbed in service areas? My own brother awoke in his caravan in France a couple of years ago to find his wife's purse and his wallet and shaver missing from the kitchen worktop despite never hearing a thing in the night.

I'm considering pressing on to Paris where we could book a couple of nights on a site and surprise the kids with a day at Disney

What does everyone else do?

 

[Rod_5041370]

There are loads of small caravan sites in France, just about every village has a municipal site.

If travelling via the autoroute, there are usually municipals close to exits.

The aires (rest areas) could be unsafe and tend to stink of urine during hot weather (truck drivers seem loathe to walk to the toilets!), although I have used them for "forty winks" during the day.

I use the Caravan Club European book to locate a site and usually pull in at around 4 pm as some can get quite busy in the evening with overnighters arriving.

In 30 years of touring I have never pre-booked a site.

Rest areas always seem full of trucks with refrigeration units running all night, so stay on a site and have a good nights rest!

 

[ValA.]

We stop on an Aire (usually Baie de la Somme which has dedicated caravan bays, with picnic tables and litter bins, and showers in the service block) for our first night - but mainly because we arrive so late in France that campsites are not open. We choose to travel and arrive at this time, because it suits our working arrangements. We've been doing this for about 15 years without any problems, but obviously we take relevant precautions such as putting anything of any value away where it's out of reach. We DON'T leave purses and wallets or anything else likely to tempt a thief on the kitchen worktop, just as we wouldn't leave anything like that on the kitchen table at home! There are so many places to tuck things in a caravan, and it would take a very determined thief to find anything of value in our van. They'd be welcome to the cornflakes in the cupboard, or the teabags - but that's about all they'd find easily!

On our second night we ALWAYS stay overnight on site - because you discover some absolute gems this way. There are some lovely sites in rural France, and some of them have become firm favourites. For an overnight stop on site you only need to hook up, level, put your step out and then fill your kettle, and use the on-site facilities for toilets, showers, washing up, etc so you don't need water connected, or waste. This takes minutes.

 

[chrissie2]

I would agree with what the others say here. Additionaly, if you want a bit of a rest and and nap during the day, one of the 'Aires de Reste' may be a better bet than the full scale service station areas. These are more like picnic areas, and some can be quite peaceful, while still allowing the kids to stretch their legs a bit.

Staying on a small site overnight gives you a chance to look at the surrounding area: we have many times in this way discovered areas we want to go back to, and explore in greater detail, and having stayed for one night, have on a later visit planned a longer stay to make the most of it.

 

[Chrisbee]

I like to stop on a site overnight. As the others have said, it only takes minutes to set up if you use the site's facilities. Mrs Chrisbee likes to go into the local town/village to eat on the first night. She says it gets the holiday off to a nice start (and I wouldn't dare argue with her).

 

[WatsonJohnG]

We have friends(2 outfits) who left Calais at the same time as us heading for Macon Municipal Camping

We made it just as a storm broke

They didn't make it and stayed on an Aire

They were both robbed while sleeping during the night

We always stay on asite ,often Municipal

The only exception we make to this is at Roscoff when going on a morning boat and we double lock the van door

 

[audiorob]

Another alternative is to stay overnight in the UK, take a cheaper early morning tunnel and then take a leisurely drive through France - you can even arrange a prompt stop for your first french breakfast. Our experience driving from tunnel to near Avranches last summer was the inconveneince of the tolls in either direction. At one point we edged forward for over 1 1/2 hour to pay our less than