Where's nice and within 3hrs drive from Calais?

[DunderMifflin]

We're planning on using our clubcard to get a free Eurotunnel journey to France again this year - last year we had a gorgeous gite but it was a 7hr drive down to near La Rochelle.

Does anyone have any suggestions of holiday areas in France that don't take quite as long to get to!

It would be great to be near nice beaches but also not too far from large'ish towns so that we can have a change of scene - we loved La Rochelle and particularly Saintes.

st malo is meant to be nice

Deuville and Trouville are lovely.

Le Touque is very nice too.

Both easy drive from the Tunnel.

Le Touquet is lovely...fabulous beach, lots of restaurants, very cycle friendly.

Dinard is locvely - mediaval walled town with fab castle - agree with St Malo, le Mont St Michel and Le Touquet!

We stayed just outside Saint Valery sur Somme last summer on the way back towards the tunnel, very beautiful town and I had the best seafood I have ever tasted in Le Crotoy just across the river. It was about an hour from the tunnel and there are apparently some nice beaches nearby but as it was raining the whole time I couldn't say!

Oops - I mean Dinan, not Dinard!!! x

Normandy

Dinard or st lunaire.

Very close to Calais, we stayed in the seaside town of Wimereux (in a tipee...).

Loved Le Touquet and Montreuil Sur Mer.

Agree with LostinWales, the Somme Bay is beautiful and gives you easy access to lots of other places. If the weather's poor there are decent indoor pools at Quend and Boulogne. The beaches are miles and miles of beautiful sand. Montreuil is lovely

If you want to go further on that way three hours will get you to Dieppe at a push, there are some great places tucked in the bays along the top of Seine-Maritime, we stayed in Veules-les-Roses.

granville/normandy

I live near Essen in Germany - and it takes me just over 4hours to get to the tunnel.

So that given you could try Brussels / Maastricht / Bruges / Ypres / North sea coast from Zeebrugge upwards a bit (- Dutch/Belgian centreparcs are very good apparently) Mons in Belgium is lovely - so don't just think France!!

What about in-land france too - Eurodisney/Paris for a long weekend?

An easy reckoner for distance/time is 100kms (60miles) for an hours journey - so if you look within a 300km radius of calais you should be fine journey timewise.

Le Touquet has nice beaches. We stayed in St Valery-sur-Somme last year which is a lovely town but, being on an estuary, the beaches weren't good. You might be able to get as far as Normandy. The coast around Deauville is very nice.

Oh yes, we have also been to Belgium. We once stayed in Nieuwpoort which was only about an hour from Calais. The Belgian coast is very sandy but quite samey really.