What to do on way to Dover?

[Strawberry881]

We will be travelling from north of England down to Dover to get the euro tunnel in the summer. Ideally we would like to have a couple of days to stop somewhere on the way. Where would you recommend staying overnight?

We have kids age 10, 7 and 3. Looking for things to do from Midlands down towards Dover. And places to stay for family of 5 if possible.

Thanks

The obvious would be to have a few days seeing the sights in London. But which route from Midlands to Dover are you planning?

Not sure really. We were thinking of Leeds Castle and Canterbury area.

London is a good suggestion but I’m not sure whether it’s too much hassle with the car? Any hotels for 5 people plus car parking? Thanks

Cambridge or Bury St Edmunds? Cambridge may be more well-known but Bury is a lovely place too.
Or if you'd prefer somewhere in Kent itself, Rochester or Canterbury?

I don't drive so it's possible that these suggestions are impractical, but they're what sprang to mind.
Wouldn't know about accommodation, I'm afraid.

Warwick castle and Cadbury world were my stop offs when the DC were young

Lots of Premier Inns with parking in London.
Stratford on Avon is en route (kind of) if you take the M40 but if you take the M1 you don't pass anywhere much of note without going quite a way out of your way.

Thanks we are sorted for the Midlands I think. Just looking for the midlands to Dover stretch please :)

Unfortunately we can’t do premier inns because we would need 2 rooms according to their website so makes it quite expensive. Thanks

Dover Castle is excellent.

Howletts or Port Lympne wildlife parks and if you have a couple of days combine with Leeds Cadtle or Dover Castle?
With regards accommodation, I've often found YHAs have combinations that work for odd numbers, often with en suite facilities. It's a reasonably cheap option for a 'road trip' night. Lots also have cabins etc as well now. I know there's one at Canterbury.

Oh that’s really helpful thank you.

Defintely looking for anything suitable for kids but also any one offs - anything that we couldn’t do at home

I’d do Chessington , they have a hotel and then move on to Dover and do the Castle which is excellent , if you have enough time do Walmer castle as well which is by far the nicest EH place in Kent .

Thank you very helpful!

Where are you travelling from? We would drive from Liverpool to dover in one stretch.

Pressed send too soon...
We then get the ferry and do an overnight stop just outside Calais.

We could do it in one go but we thought it would be better to stop for at least one or even two days as I’m assuming our 3 year old would find being in the car longer than 3 or 4 hours quite difficult

Looks like a 7-8 hr drive with no traffic, eek, assume there’ll be lots of traffic due to summer holidays

We stopped off at Canterbury a few times before getting on the euro tunnel. (Unrelated) I've found Accor a good hotel chain for accommodating over interconnecting rooms- maybe look at options for rooms that will work for you in a wide area around South East? If heading London way, you could head for Greenwich as easy to drive into. You could visit the Royal Observatory and/or Cutty Sark, get on an Uber Boat in to more central London, do the Emirates gondola ride over the Thames. Lovely park too.

Or depending on where in France you're going you could stop on Calais side, I recall looking at a couple of holiday parks not far from the crossing. You could get to Folkestone early to be able to have a wander around the terminal building, and can wander around the train (although nothing much to do) to get the kids out and stretching their legs.

Thanks these all sound like good ideas I’ll investigate further