France/Northern Spain for 13 days

[Pupsiecola]

Hi all,

Start and end point is Calais (via tunnel). We'd like to include a couple of days at Poitiers for a visit to Futuroscope (went pre-kids, 15 years ago and would like to go back).

Would like to head to Northern Spain and definitely include St Sebastian. Happy to do a week in a villa in a good base for the nothern Spain bit. Some Air bnb for the rest.

We don't know these areas at all. Any advice please?

Thanks.

San Sebastián can be difficult to find accommodation and also expensive. You could drive there for a day trip (go early so you can park centrally) or take a bus there quite easily from Bilbao and other places. Alternatively you could stay on the outskirts of the city, away from the coast. The inland countryside there is very pretty.

I'd definitely spend a day in St. Jean de Luz, a quiet, pretty beach town near the Spanish border.

Skip Biarritz - it's quite underwhelming and some parts are dirty.

Great beaches in the Spanish Basque country include Zarautz, Getaria, and Lekeitio.

Hondarribia is quite nice too.

Bilbao's a lovely city for sightseeing and food/drink, and not at all expensive. You can also visit the beaches close to the city like Plentzia, Getxo and Santurtxi.

Pamplona too if you want to go inland, or Rioja wine country such as Logroño.

I've been to Biarritz and thought it was surprisingly lovely, St Jean de Luz too. And it was raining. We were only there for a short stay though. Maybe OP pick out particular areas and post asking about them.

We are a family of 7 and love Bagnères de Bigorre which is near the mountains, about 2.5 hours to Spain. Infact we have spent so much time there we now have a town house in the centre of Bagnères de bigorre as my lot are all big cyclists and its perfect for this. There are the Thermes which is the spa, with outside jacuzzis and panoramic views which we love. But its a very pretty place with outside swimming pools nearby, lovely restaurants and fantastic saturday market. Always try to include a saturday so you can do the market. If you want any more info on this particular area let me know. We are letting our house out when we are not using it so ask for any specific info should you want to. The hautes pyrenees is a beautiful area, im sure you'll find it works well with the Spanish element of your trip.

Thanks so much for the replies. That does sound interesting french. Can you please ping me the details of your house?

We want to visit San Sebastian just for a day really, to visit our eldest ds' Spanish exchange hosts. Would be lovely to all meet up for a leisurely lunch. So we are trying to tie that in to the trip. So thinking that Poitiers is a good midway spot. We'd like a pool and a nearby (perferably walking distance) town with some various options for meals out. Boys are 15 and 13. Reliable weather would be good too but I need to research this to see if it's possible in this area. We've had two summers in Samoens in the Alps before, and the weather's been very hit and miss.

Weather in the Spanish Basque country on the coast is similar to being on the south coast of England in Devon or Cornwall at the same time of year. It can get hotter (in 2016 they had a heatwave in early July and temperatures were into the 40s C but that was not typical!) There can be brief showers of rain especially late afternoon but you can expect plenty of beach days but cool enough for walking, jogging, hiking, cycling, playing tennis, sightseeing, etc.

Oh and your DS might end up learning Basque on his exchange trip to DSS!

Slightly detailing your thread op but is futurescope good? We drive past it every year and wonder. I have two seven year olds?!

Futuroscope used to be great, but haven't been there in over 10 years. Don't know anyone who's been there since then. Maybe check Trip Adviser reviews?

Thanks for the replies.

Futuroscope - been there twice but many years ago. It was really good then. Looks like they've expanded it lots with rides etc. (It used to be very much about the moving image. For example we saw a brilliant 3D feature length film there - this was about 16 years ago).

Hi, im a bit new to the MN - used to have time to browse and loved it but not much time since having twins! And that was five years ago.... Sure, no problem to send our house details. I will do it tomorrow if thats ok as its an hour on here and its on my computer downstairs! But yes, i think your plans sound good. Breaking up a holiday i always finds gives it a real feeling of adventure. We too are staying at our Bagnères place at some point and then doing a spanish diversion. I always get quite a buzz leaving France to go into Spain in that you are in a new country. Fortunately my kids do spanish at school as well because my spanish is limited to about two words!