To drive to the alps with young children?

[BubblesBubbly]

Thinking of going to the French Alps-Hautes this summer for 2 weeks. It's cheaper to drive than fly, plus we can take lots of stuff including bikes. But it's 16hrs.

AIBU?

How young are the children? With an overnight somewhere on the way it would be fine.

How old are the children? Can you (massively) break the journey up?

They're 9 and 5. We could yeah! But don't really want to make the journey part of the holiday. Maybe one night stop over somewhere

Off topic but where are you staying? We’d like to go to the Haute Alps too (DD is 3, DS is 1).

How young are the children? We've done it a number.ber of times but are children were 9/10. Plenty of music and videos made the time go by.
Going by car certainly makes things cheaper as we took loads of food etc with us.

Of course. We drive from Italy to the UK and back every summer and have done since the kids were babies. It works out a lot cheaper and we actually enjoy the journey.

@Rainatnight we're going to Orpierre, East of Avignon. Climbing holiday.

We did overnight journey and swapped drivers so each could have a nap. We sucked it up and did one full journey with only toilet/leg stretch stops.

With overnight stop(s) this is doable. Look at the route and plan to stop off once for some fun/playtime and once for overnight. Look at forums for good routes. Then a stop again the next day before your destination. And be prepared to make more stops. Not sure of their age but when we did 8 hour drives we allowed a DVD player and all dvds taken had to be acceptable to all three kids ( we did a lot of stuff like home alone, big etc that were innocuous stuff for all ages). Play stuff eg play doh. I did little treat bags as prizes for games eg eye spy, adding up car number plates. Always food bags with snacks that would ruin car and one euro to spend in the service station on anything no parental veto ( usually rubbish sweets)

9 and 5 is fine. Book a night somewhere to break the journey there and back and it will be fine.

I would do it. We go fairly regularly to see family there, until now we have flown but next year when the kids will be 7 and 4 I think we will brave the drive. Will save on flights and also no need to hire a car at the other end.

We used to do that in the other direction regularly. Stopped when I narrowly avoided my DH crashing into the central reservation of the M25 as he dozed at the wheel. You need an overnight stop. French motels are cheap.

Totally do able but stop somewhere. Around Reims is a good place, or if you can get further South, around Dijon. There are plenty of cheap hotels near motorways, often with pools which means the kids can let off some steam.

Okay, so not too much of an issue then! Thanks!

I was kind of expecting no way!!!!!