are we bonkers to consider driving to Bavaria from London?

[StataLove]

We've found a lovely farm in Bavaria where we can stay for a week. It's perfect! The trouble is that we'll need a car there and car-hire together with flights pushes us over budget. We've been looking into the option of driving there. We were thinking of adding on a couple of days either side anyway so if we split the journey up into 3 days either side, is it doable? Our kids are aged 4 and 7 so wouldn't really want to spend more than a morning or afternoon driving each day (4 hours or so). Has anyone done this??

I would imagine that it is doable, although depending where you are setting out from it may not be desirable.
Have you taken into account road tolls and ferry charges?

Ferry, yes. Road tolls - no!! I'd better look that one up.

To my knowledge there are no motorway tolls in Germany.

It is a looooong way. And Gm motorways are a bit of an acquired taste - unlike in France, people drive very fast and get grumpy very quickly if they think you're in their way.

On the upside, there are lots of nice places you could visit en route. But with the cost of petrol as high as it is, and forecast to go higher, the saving of driving vs flying doesn't look quite so convincing.

Which ferry route were you planning to take?

We used to do London-Harwich-hoek van Holland, and then drive to the Rhineland via the Ruhrgebiet, which is doable in a day, but quite a long day (the ferries are much longer than the Dover-Calais crossing).

Alternatively, we used to Dover-Oostende. I don't think there's a massive difference in distance.

DH does lots of driving to Germany, not my cup of tea but he loves it, says the motorways are great and gets really mad when he drives on motorways here now as the cars just sit in the middle lane. There the right hand lanes really are used for overtaking only apparently.

We used to have Polish neighbours who regularly drove back to Poland in what was imo a bit of a banger but they managed just fine, even with a baby,

Flying/driving are about the same. It would be about £300 at least plus getting to and from airport to fly. The big difference is we wouldn't have to hire a car when we got there which will be pricey once insurance is added - at least £400 for 10 days.

The eurotunnel is less than £100. We thought of taking ferry to either Belgium or Amsterdam - or Calais as there's not that much difference. And then £200 for petrol (or is that an underestimate??). We'd also need to add a supplement to our own insurance which I'm not sure how much it is.

I've had a quick look and there are plenty of fantastic places we could stop on the way so it could really be fun - which is not how I'd describe Ryanair! starting to get really tempted...
I thought with a car as well we could stop on the way at out of town hotels - Etap hotels do family rooms for 50 euros a night so doable on a budget.

Thanks for all the tips!

Not sure about the petrol estimate, depends how economical your car is. I managed London to S. of France last year on two tanks of petrol, so four in total. But at current prices it costs about £80 to fill the tank, so £200 would be an underestimate. But if you have a super-efficient car it might work.

If you go via Calais you'll probably pay a French road toll at some point, but that might be offset by cheaper ferry crossing. Unless Calais is much cheaper I'd probably go via Oostende or Zeebrugge, and then you can drive Ghent-Brussels-Liege-Cologne and down to Bavaria. Alternatively you could go via Luxembourg, but those roads will be slower.

Look at the route planners on the ADAC website and see what they recommend.

Hmm, not super efficient - Toyota corolla - just normal. We'll probably need to put the roof box on the top so less efficient even more. So will need to up petrol estimate to about £300. Thanks, that's helpful.

The drive should be no trouble at all. About 11 hours in the car plus breaks. Personally I would do it over two days each way. Top tips for a pleasant drive:

• portable dvd players for DCs
• stop every 2 hours to change drivers and give DCs a runaround
• plan your journey and book your overnight stop in advance

We took a three week holiday down the west coast of France, across Spain, around to the Alps and back through Luxembourg. At the time the DCs were 1, 2 and 5. We are perhaps hardier than many and look upon the journey as part of the holiday.

We drive to Germany. It's approx 3 hours to Dover from here, then we've about 4 hours on the other side. Bavaria is further down but you're closer to the port this side. We either use the tunnel or Norfolk line, the crossing is about £50 if you're careful when you book and keep an eye on the prices. Norfolk line goes to Dunkirk and there aren't any tolls on the French side, then you hit Belgium. We go down towards the Luxembourg border so roads are a bit slower. We've got a diesel Corolla Verso and spent just over £100 on diesel last year getting there and back plus driving round the area, not sure that helps you for petrol. 3 years ago we did it in a petrol Corolla but can't remember how much more we spent on petrol, sorry.

DVD players are essential in my opinion. With DC your age I'd be tempted to break it over two nights probably. The holiday farms are fab and great value, well they are where we stay, not sure about prices in Bavaria. Perfect for your age DC's. We struggled with our DD who was 9 or 10 when we went to a farm as she was too self concious being the only English family amongst 15 other German, Belgium and Dutch families but reckon it would be better with smaller DC's. Also you can get some much smaller farms than the one we stayed in. We now have compromised and found somewhere where the owners have children the same age as mine and they all wander off and entertain each other, it's great.

thanks - really helpful.

Another vote for Norfolkline - cheaper than the Tunnel and a marginally shorter drive. Nice boats.

Definitely doable. My parents dragged us all over the continent from about aged 4/5 and we loved it, DH and I are planning to do the same with our boys :)
We drove to northern Italy last year when DS was only 18 months old - it is so much easier than flying because you have got all your stuff.

We had to pay a small extra premium on our car insurance, I think it was about £50 - that is against the usual premium of £450ish for the year for ours.

fantastic! think we're going to do it...

Yes. My parents drove us to Bavaria, well, all over Europe. We're driving to Lake Garda this year.