Where is nice in France, that we can drive to from Calais?

[TeaspoonPocket]

I'm planning a family holiday to France, we want to take the car on the ferry. Worked out a plan involving overnight sailing, then drive to Loire valley, but autistic ds has just said he's not happy with having to sleep on a ferry, so now I'm having to rethink.

I think the best option is maybe to go Dover-Calais? It's a bit out of our way but would be a quick crossing. But I don't know France at all! Is there anywhere within 2-3 hours of Calais that you would recommend as a good holiday spot?

Portsmouth to Cherbourg then you can get to Normandy and Brittany within a few hours. We are a few hours from south coast too and have stayed in a. Travel inn the night before an early crossing.

Euro Camp sites are good and if you book direct you save £££ . We did lots of this when chn were younger. So flexible as you can book any amount of nights and the sites are usually really good with pools and close to fabulous uncrowded beaches with free parking. South Brittany was a fave. It’s great to take your car and I can imagine for your autistic child that would feel secure. We didn’t camp in a tent but fabulously appointed caravans.

Newhaven - Dieppe is a good route. It gives you a few hours to get to the Loire Valley. Alternatively, Calais to Normandy is a straighforward run.

Excellent advice; I agree with all of that.
Brittany is wonderful and you won't have to go far when you get there.
It's great to get a cabin for a day crossing.

We went to a great zoo in the Loire

The 4th most beautiful zoo in the world | ZooParc de Beauval (zoobeauval.com)

The Loire valley has cycling, boat hire, chateaux.

We use Yelloh Camping

Campsites Yelloh Village : camping rentals for your holidays

Some nice ones in the Loire.

There are fast sailings from Portsmouth to Cherbourg in the summer
https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/ships/high-speed-ferry

We travel a lot in France but we always spend the last couple of days in Wimereaux which is about 30 mins from Calais. Lovely beach, nice small town and good links with trains and buses if you want to explore

Agree with PPs to aim for Cherbourg or St. Malo as arrival port. Some beautiful places to visit in Brittany and Normandy without having to drive for too long.

Since OP has said her DS doesn't like long car journeys, I'd really suggest keeping the driving on the French side to a minimum. Look at somewhere like Barneville-Carteret, which is about 40 minutes from Cherbourg. My main caveat would be weather-wise, April / May would probably be better than February 😬

and there's even a zoo fairly local! Though not one I've been to myself. https://www.attitude-manche.fr/visiter-que-faire/top-sites-incontournables/zoo-champrepus/ Couple of days on the beach, day trip to Guernesey, day trip to Mont St Michel, day at the zoo, job done.

I love driving in France. DS was using Google Maps for me last year and deliberately took me on rural roads to get us to Tours as he knows how much I love rural French roads. We ended up counting how many Maries we could see!

Came on to say the same.

Wimereux, le Touquet, Fort Mahon Plage

Fecamp, beautiful seaside town about 2.5 hours along the coast from Calais. Loire Valley is 3.5 ish hours from Fecamp.

Oh my, that looks stunning!

You could fly to Bordeaux or Bergerac, hire a car and stay in a Eurocamp. You won’t have to drive far for everything you’ve said you’d like.

The centre parcs in belgium is about 3 hours drive from the ferry I think? It is brilliant and a totally different kettle of fish from the UK ones.

I showed him that zoo, and now he is very keen on this holiday!

(And now it must be that zoo and no other of course...)

He's even prepared to stay in a hotel so that we could go Poole-Cherbourg. The hotel idea was rejected initially.

So, lots of progress today.

Pleased to hear it!

Just a heads up that in high season Mont St Michel is very much heaving with Other People so you might want to plan around that (we went early morning and it wasn’t too bad when we got there but hideous as we were leaving).

There is a smashing little reptile zoo called Alligator Bay just near it though.

We had a short stop I St Malo when we went to Brittany. Really lovely walled town. Little beaches , cobbled streets and cafes.. nice for a few days

Fair point re Mont St Michel getting very busy. Maybe some of the WW2 stuff around Avranches instead if they have an interest in history.

Mont St Michel is so magical though. The church at the top was a highlight.

Not in France at all but you said they both like zoos. Europes best zoo is in Belgium. It’s on my bucket list, apparently you need two days there! https://www.pairidaiza.eu/en#pairi-daiza-resort

@ProfessorInkling

You could fly to Bordeaux or Bergerac, hire a car and stay in a Eurocamp. You won’t have to drive far for everything you’ve said you’d like.

Have you done this? We're looking at this idea for summer.