Ideas for a non flight holiday with kids

[PostladyPat]

Hi. I'm trying to find recommendations for self catering in France? I want to keep the air miles down so was planning to drive with the three primary school aged kids for our first hot holiday. Any ideas welcome! Or other suggestions for a non Uk hot holiday via car.

France is a big country. If you want hot, you need the bottom half. Where are you driving from? What crossing are you planning? How long are you happy to drive for? Do you want to do a stopover? Languedoc for example is 10-12 hours normal drive from Calais. Dordogne is less. Brittany much less, but hot weather less guaranteed.

@MissAmbrosia

France is a big country. If you want hot, you need the bottom half. Where are you driving from? What crossing are you planning? How long are you happy to drive for? Do you want to do a stopover? Languedoc for example is 10-12 hours normal drive from Calais. Dordogne is less. Brittany much less, but hot weather less guaranteed.

Hi. Driving from North East England and happy to do a stop over.

Annecy is lovely - a lake in the mountains. There’s lots of different gites, holiday parks etc in the area.

Duinrell in Holland is a mumsnet favourite and easy to get to from Calais. Hot weather not guaranteed though.

The French (and European) Center parts are cheaper than the UK ones and may be worth considering.

Tip - if you have Clubcard vouchers, you can use these for the tunnel (not sure about the ferry).

We drove down France and stayed on the coast north of La Rochelle. Gorgeous beach at Les Sables d’olonne. Best family holidays we had.

That's a LONG drive.
What about getting the ferry to Bilbao in Spain, and driving from there?

Oh following as also been mulling this over. Further complicated by having an electric car. I've also been looking at trains, have a look at the man in seat 61, I don't injure the Web address but tells you everything you need to know about trains. I think it said kids go free on trains in France.

Blummin typos!!

I looked up ferries to South of France and was a bit taken aback by the cost. Think it was £2500 for the 4 of us!

Thank you all, food for thought. Hasn't considered the ferry to Spain. Bit wary of getting a train and then having no car but guess we could hire one

If North East why not do ferry from North Shields or Hull over to the Netherlands? They have euro camp places and a theme park for primary aged kids called Efteling. Rotterdam and Amsterdam are also excellent and v family friendly.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

If North East why not do ferry from North Shields or Hull over to the Netherlands? They have euro camp places and a theme park for primary aged kids called Efteling. Rotterdam and Amsterdam are also excellent and v family friendly.

Thanks, wasn't sure how hot it would be but will have a look.

Portsmouth to St Malo ferry and then drive down to the Dordogne for some heat? You could take an overnight ferry, although your quality of sleep might not be too great.

We used to take coaches to Europe as kids and then my parents hired a car when we arrived. Good memories of those trips.