3 DC under 5 - driving to Vendee (from the NW!). Help please!

[howyadoin]

My head is spinning from all the route options. Going for an week to ten days (depending on how long the travel takes us).

Kids will be 1, 3, 5.

I suspect we will (try to) do the trek from Cheshire to either Portsmouth or Dover (5-5.5hours) of an evening so that the kids sleep, assuming this works in with tunnel or boat times.

Any pointers!? I'd rather pay more for a faster, easier journey (if that exists). Have read about the fast sailing and all the sea sickness stories, I
suffer from sea sickness (although admittedly have never tried out the sea sickness medication)...

When ours were that age, DH would drive on his own and I would fly with the DC, and he would pick us up at the airport over there. Individually stressful but much less than a long car journey with the kids!

We are a bit further south, but have taken the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Caen (with a cabin). Then its about 4 hours drive. Never had a problem the crossing but obviously that is no guarantee!

We're doing similar from North Yorkshire with the same aged kids in a few months, previously we've done it with the eldest 2 by leaving after tea, kids have fallen asleep in the car round 7. We get to dover about half 10 and stay over in Dover that evening (kids have previously gone straight back to sleep at hotel) then get morning ferry, it is longer than the eurotunnel but the kids love it. Wasn't as bad as I anticipated but will see how it goes with 3! Good luck!

Do overnight Portsmouth Caen with a cabin then you can sleep, dock about 6am and you’ll be there by 2- 3 pm latest

We always take the Portsmouth- Le Havre ferry overnight

We live in the Vendée from Manchester I would drive to Portsmouth and take the St Malo Ferry overnight. It is then a 3 hour drive to the South Vendée.

On the way back we prefer to drive to Caen and take the overnight ferry as the St Malo crossing is daytime and you have to leave the Vendée very early to catch it.

I definitely wouldn’t do the NW to South Coast journey at bedtime unless you are staying in a hotel and can transfer them with ease out of the car. It’d be difficult to time with ferry crossings and they’ll likely be up for hours in the middle of the night after 4-5h sleep in the car.

Id personally do Portsmouth to Caen or Portsmouth to St Malo overnight. Haven’t done the first one in a while but the second one leaves at a reasonable hour, want to say 8pm or something along those lines. I’d leave NW in the morning and have a good break in the journey for lunch before nap time for the younger two.

We go from the NW and when they were little, we did home to Ashford arrive around 7, Premier Inn overnight. 530am Maccies breakfast and 7am tunnel, stop en route when needed (French Aires are really good and regular). We go far south, so stopped at Macon about 4 for an overnight then carried on next day.

I remember doing similar planning a few years ago - we left home at bedtime so my son would sleep (heading for Dover I think) and he didn't fall asleep until we were 10 minutes from the bloody hotel near the port 😳 of course he then woke up when we took him inside and was full of beans til about 1am.

I guess my point is that in some ways you might want to avoid overthinking it and just do what's cheapest, as they don't always play ball 😂

Would Newhaven to Dieppe be any better, I wonder? That's quite a nice small port to leave from, with a big Sainsbury's right opposite and Dieppe is perhaps slightly more en route?