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Original poster

Driving to South of France from North of England

32 replies

Moonagedaydreem · 18/05/2019 09:47

We are a family of four planning to drive from Yorkshire to the French Riveria. Has anyone done this? We're thinking of driving to France via the tunnel and stopping over somewhere maybe an hour or two from Calais. Then setting off early next day and driving to another destination for another night. Maybe Lyon? But that drive seems like it might be too long.

I'd like to know how others have done this. How you broke up the journey, where you stopped for the night, interesting places you stopped at for a coffee/toilet break etc. Any hints and tips welcome. DC are 10 and 14.

TIA

OP posts:
ellerman · 18/05/2019 10:00

We travel from further north and recently started to leave home around 5/6pm, drive to south of Manchester, stay in cheapest travelodge, then get over to France much earlier the next day and get much further south. Could you get to the crossing the night before, stay at Ashford or Folkestone and cross early the next day?

Ricekrispie22 · 18/05/2019 13:01

We drive to Portsmouth. Stop for dinner and leg stretch/run around. Take overnight ferry to St Malo (departs at 8.30pm and arrives 7.45). Then stop for two nights at Futuroscope.

yikesanotherbooboo · 18/05/2019 13:17

You can do it on that time frame but the driver(s) will be tired at the start of the holiday. On the other hand stopping for a second night is a bit of a pain and feels to us a bit like wasted holiday time.

HoozTurnIsIt · 18/05/2019 15:10

What about going over to Zeebrugge from Hull and driving through Holland and Belgium. That would make the first part of the journey more fun and you could stop off in France for the second night.

GoAndAskDaddy · 18/05/2019 22:58

We did it last year .....sailed overnight Hull-Zeebrugge. Had an overnight stop at Beaune and was relatively painless. French motorways are great but apparently busy on certain Saturdays (maybe 1st one in August). Definitely recommend this crossing but not the cheapest option.

thegreatcrestednewt · 18/05/2019 23:11

Why not get the train and hire a car when you get there? Or fly and hire a car? Driving for 2 days is not a great start to a

We always get the train to south of France and Spain. Takes 4.5 hours from Paris to Perpignan!

AnotherEmma · 18/05/2019 23:13

What thegreatcrestednewt said.

ssd · 18/05/2019 23:16

Fly from Newcastle to Nice with easyJet, cheap

ssd · 18/05/2019 23:17

Or Leeds or Manchester

mrswarthog · 18/05/2019 23:18

We've been doing this for the past 6 years each summer from the North West. Leave 5am ish, take the tunnel, drive for 3 hours, have lunch. We usually then go through to Dijon/Macon and stay there, arriving late afternoon/early evening. Up & out early next morning & arrive late afternoon.

andadietcoke · 18/05/2019 23:19

Yes - we did this as kids and did it with our kids last year. From Manchester we drove down to Calais and crossed, and stayed about 2 hours south of Calais. We did a day at Disneyland and then did another three hours in the evening after leaving Disney. Then the next day we did about six down to Sainte-Maxime. As kids we'd stay somewhere around Reims.

Ces6 · 18/05/2019 23:20

We do Southern England to Italy so about the same distance. We stop usually in Reins and near Lyon or sometimes just one night.

Soontobe60 · 18/05/2019 23:22

We've done Manchester to Perpignan driving once and flying once then hiring a car. The cost of flying plus car hire was less than driving with 2 adults plus 2 kids. I prefer driving down though as driving in France is so nice.
Late evening drive down to Dover and early morning ferry. Drive half way down then overnight stop at a nice place. Set off mid morning and arrive by tea time. My aunt ( whose place we stayed at) used to stop overnight near Dover then do the crossing and drive throughout the next day with a coup,e of stops for food.

andadietcoke · 18/05/2019 23:22

Another option is to put your train on the car. It's expensive though. It's the Motorail and goes from Paris to Fréjus or Nice - there are a few other places in the south but they're the only ones french friends have used.

ssd · 18/05/2019 23:24

Jesus that's one big car Grin

AnotherEmma · 18/05/2019 23:24

😂

Trixibell79 · 18/05/2019 23:26

North Yorks here, we’ve driven to Portsmouth stayed overnight in Premier Inn family room and got the overnight ferry to St Malo, driven a good few hours then stopped overnight in France in Formule 1 type place in a family room with the 5 of us. Much better taking everything you need in your car than fly and drive and also car seats an added expense to hire and usually crap quality. Our kids were 7, 5 and 18 months when we did this and it was fine. We didn’t go right to the South but a fair way down.
This year we aren’t doing the overnight ferry but a day ferry instead and are still breaking the journey up with stops. So much more relaxing and the kids think it’s really exciting and part of the experience!

Princesspond · 18/05/2019 23:33

We drove from the south of England and stopped at Reims and Lyon. We deliberately took it slowly to enjoy seeing some places on the way so it wasn’t just a journey. We went to latter part of August to avoid the popular French holidays. I really enjoyed it, I find the French (toll) roads really easy to drive on. (Get a toll tag).

We’ve stayed before at cheaper formule’s but this time stayed in better hotels so could treat ourselves to room service meal when we arrived Wine

RottnestFerry · 18/05/2019 23:38

We did it once but stayed overnight just this side of the tunnel and again further down in France.

It was a very bad winter and all driving was on snow. I much prefer to have my own car in holiday than a hire car.

RottnestFerry · 18/05/2019 23:38

on holiday

Purplemond · 19/05/2019 15:32

we usually set off at 6am to drive to the tunnel then have a 4-6 hour drive the other side and do the rest of journey the next day.

Cuddlysnowleopard · 19/05/2019 15:45

Bear in mind, it is easier to cross by the Tunnel early morning, than evening in the holidays. We used to cross at 7pm, but had a couple of nights when we couldn't get across until 2am..

I'd stop near Folkestone, then get early crossing. Dijon is then perfectly doable. We usually stay at a Novotel with a pool.

stucknoue · 19/05/2019 15:47

Done it from the midlands several times, we took the overnight ferry to Le Havre, then stopped in Lyon (not the quickest port but had to drop ddog off en route!)

OxanaVorontsova · 19/05/2019 15:48

We do it regularly- drive to Ashford, stay over for early morning tunnel then drive to Dijon or Lyon (depending on ages of kids / how used they are to travelling) stay over accommodation next day

coffeeandbiscuittime · 19/05/2019 15:58

We do this every year, towing a van. Travel to Dover, get the early morning ferry across. Then drive and find somewhere to camp at about 6pm for the night. Get to our destination the next day , with enough of the day left to enjoy it.
We also did it without the caravan in Feb, originally booked a cheap hotel in calais for the first night, but decided to change ferry times and drove straight through as we had expensive bikes on the roof.
My tip is to make sure you have snacks/ lunch/ drinks as there are loads of places to stop on the way, but its sometimes a pain searching out supermarkets when you are short of time and the big rest areas tend to be expensive.
i never share the driving when towing, husband sleeps on the ferry crossing and has power naps at rest places.
We have kids of a similar age - but they are accustomed to travelling long distances as we also lived and travelled extensively in Australia.