Euro road trip with 2 young kids - itinerary suggestions

[nodiggetynodoubt]

We are hoping to have a road trip next summer holidays. Either tunnel or ferry to France for around 10 days. With a 6 and 4 year old in tow.

I don't really know where to start! There are obviously endless possibilities and I'm a bit overwhelmed!

Just wondered if any seasoned travellers could offer some vague itinerary suggestions based on our timeframe and having the kiddos.

TIA

Which ferry? Plymouth, Portsmouth, Dover, Harwich?

I would go via eurotunnel personally. It’s just (normally) quicker and easier.

if doing France I would head to one of the following depending on how long you want the trip to last,

normandy (but the weather might not be as good)

the vendee (great massive beaches)

or my fave, go right to the basque part of France (san Sebastian in particular) - but this is a big drive, will require a couple of stops overnight if travelling with little ones.

theres loads of cheap road hotels in France if you need to split the trip up x

When you say 'a road trip', what do you mean?

• drive somewhere in France and stay there for x days; or
• drive from place to place, having a few nights in each?

For the ferry, Portsmouth is probably the easiest but Plymouth doable too

Driving place to place. Seeing as much as possible without making it tedious and tiring from trying to do too much

Thanks for the suggestions

Okay. TBH, your kids aren't a great age for lots of driving around and with only 10 days it's not like you have a lot of time. I'd probably head to somewhere like Brittany (one of my absolute favourite bits of France), and maybe hit the north, the Crozon peninsula and the south for a few days each. Take the ferry to St Malo, if you can. There are gorgeous beaches wherever you go and lots of lovely towns to stop in, have a wander, have lunch and an ice cream and a paddle. St Malo is nice and interesting, Dinan is a medieval town with gorgeous, timber-framed buildings, Camaret sur Mer has huge, empty beaches, Quimper is nice, Vannes and Auray are gorgeous, and the Quiberon peninsula is wild and rugged.

With slightly younger kids we chose to split 2 weeks into two bases, and explore from the base rather than constantly repacking and moving on. Used Dover- Calais crossing. Stayed first week in eastern France near Lac du Der for a lakeside holiday- really good lakeside beaches and excellent weather. Then drove through Luxembourg to western Germany in Eifel mountains. Used that as a base to explore into Belgium and Netherlands, and also German villages, lakes, forest etc. Involved a few 5 hour ish drives, which kids coped well with. Kids liked ticking off countries, especially things like 3 country corner, and having breakfast, lunch and dinner in different countries.

@maranella 's itinerary sounds awesome though!

That sounds amazing. Thank you 😊

That sounds fabulous. Thank you 😊

This website might give you some ideas and inspiration: Brittany Tourism

Brilliant. I'll check it out. Thank you 😊

We're just home from a camping trip to The Netherlands, we loved it. Our kids are 9, 7 and nearly 3. We took a tent and bikes and went to Efteling (fab theme park, fairytale theme) and explored some local towns. Stayed on a campsite with brilliant kids facilities - swimming pool, bouncy castle, mini disco...
That area of The Netherlands is only 3 hours from Calais, very easy journey. Of course you could base yourselves in a hotel or Air BnB if you don't fancy camping.
Air BnBs are brilliant for that age, we've done that in Stockholm, Florence and various UK cities with children around that age.

That sounds like a great itinerary - may copy that one.

Agree with two bases if you can as feels like 2 holidays. We often do this as saves money if make sure the 2nd one is a higher standard. We stayed in Alsace once which meant we could visit Basle/Basel and Freiburg so another 3 country trip.

I also did efteling as well with kids aged 8 and 4. They loved it! You can use it as a base and then add another stop for another week elsewhere.

You could also do Europa Park from there, if you wanted to.