France with kids: train, or long car journey?

[InsolentAnnie]

We want to go to France this summer; before we’ve always done Dover-Calais then towed our caravan down to southern Germany / Austria, but that’s not practical any more due to rocketing ferry costs for the caravan, and as DH no longer works in a school we can’t afford to spend 2-3 days travelling each end as we used to. We want more chance of better weather and we’ve even to Brittany a lot, so looking at south or south west coast. Don’t know the area at all though so not sure where to go!

We could go on the train, which is a viable option. DH likes the flexibility of having a car but hiring would add on £350+ for a week… However I don’t want to spend two days driving. Kids are 10 and 4. Alternatively we could go to La Rochelle area, but then it’s still 2ish days driving as we live in NW England, and the drive to Dover or Portsmouth isn’t fun! Could we do it without a car? We like exploring… I am really stuck as we’ve never done train before! We have 12 days in total. Also trying to keep the budget as near to £1k as possible…. Help!

1k to include travel AND accommodation?

Ideally :) Maybe a bit over. I’ve not plucked the figure from thin air - I’ve found decent sites with accommodation for €3-500 for the week, and train fares we can keep to around €500 I reckon - or ferry for a similar price, if we don’t mind going at more antisocial times. Not including fuel or tolls but basic price. Last year I found a week half board in a lovely apartment in Spain in August for £1800 for four of us - I just spend a LOT of time doing research! Last week of August is always cheaper, in general. My research this time is just sending me round in circles though, as I can find info on travel and accommodation options but not what it’s actually like doing the train journeys with kids, or staying on a campsite without a car, or driving really long distances with two kids, or where is good to go in France aside from Brittany and Vendee, and that’s what I need..!

Overnight ferry from Portsmouth? We always did this from the midlands to La Rochelle area

You can avoid tolls fairly easily to LR Le Havre is usually the cheapest route but not looked this year.

Wondered about that but ferry alone is £900! Plus we’d still have a 6hr drive…

Train for 4 of you from NW UK to warm bits of france and back for 500 euros will be impossible I think with Eurostar etc. I would look at Skyscanner and see where you could fly for your dates, then look at accommodation.

get interrail tickets. Kids go free and your UK travel is included (out and in).

there is often an interrail sale - look out for it as you csnget your passes in advance.

passes are €258 each (full price, assuming no sale) and free for kids; you’ll pay about €200 in seat reservations too.

You can get a gite cheaply…

You have to pay £30 each way each for a seat on the Eurostar with an interrail pass. Youngest might be free, but that's still £180. Seats are limited and need booking well in advance.

£1k in summer holidays? We have a mobile home in LR, we drive, get the tunnel, have the toll pass for the paeage. Ferries are more expensive. It's circa €150 on tolls return.

Unfortunately I think your budget is unrealistic.

Budget isn’t set in stone; if it costs more then we can adjust. I’m more looking for help on whether it’s better to go by train, and if it’s possible to do that and not have the car for a week (I need to be able to convince DH that this wouldn’t be a major crisis), or if the long drive to somewhere like the Dordogne wouldn’t be horrendous.

XDH had family in Bordeaux and we had to spend every flipping holiday there from when I was pregnant to when DC were toddlers and we divorced.

We used to fly or get the overnight ferry from Portsmouth if driving. It was handy having the car there so I could escape every now and then but flying was less stressful but took almost the same amount of time as driving. I never did the train but sounds like a good option.

We go to France 2 or 3 times a year, and have been all over - sometimes by train, sometimes we drive depending on how long we’re going for. This is because I’m absolutely terrified of flying. If I wasn’t, I would definitely fly because it’s so much cheaper. Sometimes you can get lucky with Eurostar or TGV tickets, but mostly they’re VERY expensive (Last summer we paid £1500 return for two of us to the South of France from NW England. We could have flown for less than £300). Driving also works out expensive with fuel, ferry or euro tunnel, tolls, and two or three night’s accommodation in hotels on the way down and back.

@Menomeno “Sometimes you can get lucky with Eurostar or TGV tickets, but mostly they’re VERY expensive (Last summer we paid £1500 return for two of us to the South of France from NW England”

this is why an interrail ticket is so amazing. Wd have been just over 1/3 that cost, and flexible too.

op - there’s lots of Eurostar availability for interrail passes but the seat reservations ARE pricey as another poster said.

I wish I’d known the interrail trick years ago - wd have saved us a lot of money!

Easyjet Flights London to Nantes 20-30th August £420 for 4 people without luggage. Then hire a car. We did this a few years ago and we were staying inland from La Rochelle. It will certainly be quicker than driving. 😊

We have booked a week in the south of France Inc flights for about £1100 - 2 adults, a teenager and a preteen. We aren't hiring a car, we plan to use the rail network for day trips etc. as it suits our style.

We are going mid june though so taking the kids out of school - but neither child is in a crucial year.

We drive to the Dordogne every year with our 4 children....you could do it in one (long) day's drive, but we usually go over on the Friday and stay halfway. But that will compromise your budget. It would depend on where you stay but I would think having a car would be necessary but we tend to rent a rural gite so need to have a car.

I would be very impressed if you can do the whole trip for 1k...we spend about that just on food for 2 weeks.

Flying is probably the cheapest. Could you fly to Beziers or Montpellier? Lots of places on the coast there with good, cheap bus services so you could avoid hiring a car.

@No1HolidayPlanner Flying is cheapest from London, but much more expensive from up here - flights that are £50 from London are often £150 from Manchester. If we drive to London first then it takes 4-5hrs, if we get the train down we may as well carry on through the tunnel!

Hi, we have been to France nearly every year for the last 6 years. We drive and do a mixture of camping, more recently in pre-erected tents with toilets since we had our little boy, and hotels/apartments. We tend to go for 2 weeks and stay a few nights in different places, making the journey down and back up part of the holiday. Areas I would recommend: Dordogne is lovely but I would say you definitely need a car...others may disagree though, just our experience of driving around to explore different villages etc. We have also been to Montpellier/Marseilles/Nimes and last year we stayed in a campsite in Provence and drove down to the Camargue area which was just lovely. There were lots of campsites near the beach and plenty of places to stay in the small towns and villages on the coast. Nimes is a great city to stay in to reach other places by car but I imagine train too - I know a lot of people travel to the coast as it's mentioned in all of the tourist leaflets. Hope some of this ramble helps!!

Hm honestly I think it’s quite tricky trying to explore without a car, especially with small kids and in the summer heat. You can do it of course but you end up waiting for a bus/train in the heat, and then having to get from the station to whatever you want to see, so the whole trip is just more tiring. We tried this in Italy and wished we’d hired a car as it was just too hot (even in May) and slow to visit many places.

If you are happy to mostly stay in one place with the odd bus/train day trip then you can manage without a car but I wouldn’t plan on a lot of exploring.

Having said that, is cycling a possibility? The area around La Rochelle is prime cycling territory as it’s quite flat and there’s bike hire everywhere, so you could possibly go without a car and use bikes to explore locally (obviously would be limited in how far).

How light do you pack? That will make a big difference to how enjoyable the train journey down is. If you're used to taking a house on wheels then lugging a heavy bag will not feel fun.
Train logistics to the south of France is pretty straightforward even without the direct train from London to Avignon (RIP). You can get around without a car if you base yourself somewhere walkable with half decent buses. Play off occasional taxis (or bolt etc if you're in an area with plenty of drivers - maybe check that when choosing accomodation) vs the cost of car hire and fuel. It'll probably work out cheaper to go without car hire, but it is a complete change to how you're used to holidaying.

Train is a much more relaxing journey. Everybody can read/play games, not just the kids. If you can find decently priced tickets go for it!