recommendations for cheapish but ok hotels to break journey to south of France pls

[basildonbond]

that's it really - we're driving to near Bordeaux at the end of July, taking the shuttle on Friday night and planning to stop somewhere an hour or two out of Calais en route to the south

any good chains to recommend or places to avoid?

thanks

First and foremost : avoid Formule1, tramps crash there when they are flush, poor sods, sometime they don't make for pleasant room neighbours, (speaking from experience from business trip where I nobly wanted to keep costs low for the Cie; never again.) Hate to think of DCs in this place.

I have no qualms calling myself an expert on the Calais to Bordeaux route, so:

An hour down from Calais it's Le Touquet, very pretty and worth the few extra miles to the coast, all sorts of hotels for every budgets, with a little premium for it being Le Touquet, you'll need to book in advance, although you can just roll up at the Westminster, where there always seem to be a swanky suite available, but it costs a bomb now.
ibis are ok(ish) anywhere. There is a nice one in Rouen I think, but it's a good 3 hours from Calais.

Further down is Le Man with all the usual suspects just off the motorway exit but a very long way after an evening crossing.

Have a good trip!

Would second the advice to give Formule 1 a wide berth. DH booked one for a night on the way home fom France last year - never again! (That refers both to Formule 1 and letting dh book a hotel!)

Ibis are usually ok - cheap and cheerful. Mercure slightly more upmarket. Or look on the Logis de France website once you've worked out the general area you want to stop in.

Arras is about an hour's drive away from Calais, heading South. Has a nice town square with plenty of nearby hotels if you want to pop out for a quick drink after arriving so you can start to feel you are actually on holiday...

We have stayed with www.hotelbb.com many times. If you need a family room they are excellent. There are huge number, there is normally some sort of eatery nearby.

They arent luxurious but they are comfortable.

Novotels are good if you are family with 2 children (their rooms sleep 4). If you have one child Ibis would probably do but they only have rooms sleeping 3.

I usually book a Novotel - we stayed at Rouen Sud last year and that was fine. They normally have pools, playgrounds, indoor play areas and the food is pretty good - with a decent kid's menu (ie NOT all nuggets et frites) Kid's get a free breakfast too. On the website you can search along a route. Check tripadvisor for reviews.

This year we are staying in the Ibis at Porte de Vincennes, Paris as the Novotel near there was really expensive.

If you have 3 DCs then there are two ways to handle this:

1. book 2 rooms and split DCs between 2 parents

or

1. book a family room and an extra twin/double. Strip the extra room of bedding, towels etc and make up an extra bed in the family room!

Many of the chain hotels will be close to chain restaurants like Buffalo Grill or Courte Paille. We have found these fine for a simple meal en-route when you dont fancy the full gastronomic experience.

We stayed in a BnB a couple of weeks ago on our way back from Burgundy - thanks to Gnome for recommending the chain on another of these threads!
It was more than adequate - comfy beds, big shower, plenty of space for all 4 of us and breakfast was fine. And the whole lot including breakfast came in at £66 quid.

We also like Logis, and have stayed in Ibis in the past although Ibis don't seem to do rooms big enough for the four of us.

My parents always stay at the Etap at Rouen and eat at the courte paille. My mum is from Bordeaux so they do the trip a lot!

We just did it and on the way down stayed at Calais at the Premiere Classe which was perfect. Comfortable, connecting rooms, basic but fine. However on the way bacck we were at the premiere classe Rouen Sud and it was shit. Rooms stank of fags, bed covers with fag burn marks on. Horrible. Much older than the calais one and lots of people who lived there in a room so I'd avoid that one!

Ibis or campanille are always fine. Rouen will be your stop though I'd have thought, it is about 2 hours from Calais, 6hours from Bordeaux.

thanks for these - there are 5 of us (2 boys 15 and 12 and dd 9) so it's always a bit of a challenge sorting out rooming arrangements in hotels - they always seem to assume a family = 2 parents + 2 kids ...

will check our route and see what fits in best

Ibis were very good value just next to euro tunnel , huge family room, we had a shocking stay at a campagnile , still have not replied to me.
Good premier inn on this side next to tunnel with Macdonald s and beefeater next to it.
Agree with others on formula 1, terrible.

Glad to have helped Ali!

Basildonbond - our DCs were similar ages to yours last time we stayed in a B&B a couple of years ago and we certainly found the family rooms in B&Bs plenty big enough for the five of us with the extra bed made up from the 'spare' room.

B&B have a few different arrangements for family rooms: mezzanine for DCs, partitioned room, simple large room. All have a shower room, many if not most have air con.

When DCs were very small we only booked the extra room so that we could get an extra pillow, towels and get breakfast for 5 in the morning. This would mean that the bed wasnt touched. Cleaning staff must have thought we were tidiness freeks!

One tip though - get booking now, over the years we have seen many tired looking families turning up only to find there is no room at the inn. We only did this the once and had to spend an uncomfortable night in the car.

We have done similar a few times now.

This year we are doing Calais to Mansle - we have chosen to break the joureny (as have a relatively long UK drive too). Chartres is our town of choice this year.

We have generally used Etap. They have always been clean, slightly out of the town -so easier to navigate - and have a car park(sometimes we have had to pay to park at Etap but not much).

Lastyear we stayed in Blois though and used an independent hotel - which was also nice and a bit of achange. Before going I found out about parking in the town and used a Vinci car park. I was slightly nervous about parking up overnight with all our stuff in the car -but it was fine. The nicest multi storey I have ever used!

As for room arrangements - the first year we went there were 5 of us. Me, DH - DSs1(13), DS(12) and DSs2(9). We had two rooms in the Etaps - most sleep 3 - but some are jsut twins. You can see on the website whcih are available. Me and DS took one room. DH and DSSs took the other. DSS2 didn't come last year, so the two older boys had their own room next door to ours - and will be doing the same this year.

As above - book in advance. I would never not book. it is tiring doing all th driving and finding the place - I wouldn't want to have to start looking for more accomodation at that stage.

Happy planning!

Hubby and I have stayed Formule1 and had no problems - thought they were great - very cheap, clean and handy (pre kids tho) but we saw lots of families staying there - we stayed Dijon, Troyes and Beaune - all good....surprised others have had negative experiences - my dad has also stayed with no problems or complaints