help with sorting out two weeks in La Rochelle area this August ?!

[thedayismine]

Not sure if we have left this too late really but we hoped to do a gite type holiday in the Dordogne or La Rochelle area .
We haven’t done this type of holiday since our DC arrived but think they are a good age now -7 and 5.
We are happy self catering but as ever it would be nice to have a town or village we can eat out in fairly easily.
We were hoping to do overnight crossing Portsmouth to St Malo and then return on a daytime crossing.

I am struggling a bit with knowing where to start on location / accommodation ideas and really need to get a clear idea on required budget before we get too carried away as we may need to do some thing cheaper !

Assuming this kind of holiday is pretty popular can anyone help navigate me to some good ideas and options as I can’t find the days of time I would ideally like to research.

TIA

I probably wouldn't go as far south as La Rochelle. The coastline just north of it has some really good resorts for a family holiday. Saint Gilles Croix de Vie and Les Sables d'Olonne are both excellent towns to be based. A high proportion of the holiday accommodation in this area is mobile-caravan style holiday parks which isn't my cup of tea. I prefer to be based slightly outside of the towns and my family loves this www.hoseasons.co.uk/holiday-parks-in-europe/port-bourgenay-village-pbou

Have you looked Brittany Ferries holidays? If you’re going by Brittany Ferries anyway it can be better value to book accommodation through them as well.

Before you start looking at areas and accommodation i would first check that the ferry has availability.

Agree with pp. Book your ferry first. You may have to rethink your route as that is a very popular one.

Thanks all will look at ferries again and see where that gets me.
Suspect we are in for a shock on how much this trip will cost anyway- we normally go away at easter and half term only !

Have you looked Brittany Ferries holidays? If you’re going by Brittany Ferries anyway it can be better value to book accommodation through them as well.

Sorry, I know you posted a couple of days ago, but I would second the above. We book with Brittany Ferries every year and it works out better value to book your accommodation and ferries together with them if you want to take a crossing to anywhere other than Calais. They have gites/apartments/accommodation on campsites etc. We always book a gite, but they tend to be a bit further from the beach. If you're booking this year, availability will be limited though, so I would try for the end of the summer holidays if you can as it's usually quieter.

For future reference, they do 20% off deals starting in October so you can get some really good value holidays.

I also agree on checking ferry availability - if you are looking at the overnight ferry on a Friday night, arriving on Saturday morning the cabins usually get booked up within weeks of them going on sale (September the year before!) I have a code you can use if you do find a crossing that suits you. I don't want to put a downer on the whole idea, but if you find somewhere with availability be very careful - you have to question why they have school holiday weeks still free! I have a gite in Brittany August 2019 is already almost full up.

Thanks for these extra replies . Still not sorted - just got loads going on at the moment so haven't had chance to spend proper time looking.
Am definitely starting to wonder whether we should park this until next year when we would have more choice .
Brittany Ferries holidays is a good shout.