French MOTORAIL: Good/bad experiences? Tips/advice?

[BubblingUnder]

Thinking of taking 3yr old and 8m old on the motorail to south-ish France in July. Has anyone done this? Where/how do littleones sleep?

Hiya

We have never taken Motorail personally as we have 2 small children and whenever we have been considering it, friends who have done it before have massively discouraged us!

Very very expensive, especially in July and August, too much hanging about, noisy, small cabins where if you are not 6 people, you will be sharing with strangers, poor catering facilities on board......

Bunk bed type beds, communal toilets far away from cabins etc no room for travel cot and no room for babe on bed with parent....

Need I say more?

Have you considered taking Eurostar and then the TGV and hire a car at the other end? Whereabouts are you going?

x

Oh blimey! Yes it is unbelievably expensive, but we couldn't think how else to get there (Lot valley) with our mountains of stuff.

The problem with hiring a car is worrying about carseats. We once flew to Spain with our 3month old DD1. Went to pick up our hire-car at the airport only to find that there was no carseat available despite my phoning umpteen times to check that it would be there and would be the right size etc. I've heard that carseats aren't taken very seriously in France and i don't want to risk getting stuck again. Can't face carrying two seats as well as the cots, toys, buggies etc, etc.

Hmm... don't know what to do now.

hi have you searched on this? there are a few threads. we did the motorail last year with 6 & 3 yo. there was far too much hanging around for my liking on dis/embarkation and none of us slept well at all. i'd say it took us a couple of days to get over the journey - which still takes two days. this year we are driving.

what aznerak said! even with the cost of a couple of nights in hotels en route it is still saving us £1,000!

We have not yet used motorail but have travelled by french sleeper with children aged 6 and 3. you can book a first class couchette which will give you four beds in compartment rather than 6..then you won't have to share. If you can afford the motorail price I would have thought this would be a great way to travel. Our children slept very well on the train. As we did not take the car the drawback for us was having to cross paris with 7 pieces of luggage!

I wondered if you would see this thread bk!

We have been on it last summer - 4 adults + 1 x 11 month old.

There is a LOT of hannging around at both ends which was the most annoying thing for us as the terminals do not have a lot of seats/facilities. They are literally little sheds.

I'm not sure about the sharing a cabin thing - I don't think you have to anymore - you get one cabin per car.

It is noisy and pretty warm on board.

I think it's pretty well organised.

There is only one dining car but we just took all our food and drink on board with us.

The gap between the bunk beds is pretty narrow so our 11 month old slept in his carseat propped betweeen the bottom bunks which meant it was pretty well reclined and also fairly comfortable for him. Your 3 year old could sleep on one of the bottom bunks no problem.

The bunks you don't use fold back against the wall so you get a bit of extra breathing space i.e. not all 6 have to stay pulled down.

It is SUPER expensive for the accommodation and I have heard things about cars being broken into etc. But, on balance, for us and the amount of stuff we wanted to take it definitely worked out pretty well.

I'm not sure I'd definitely take it again but I'm not sure I definitely wouldn't IYSWIM.

I think it's worth a try......it's only two nights out of your life after all!

G

I did it in 2006 with my dd and dp. It was all v. expensive and v.efficient. Went to Avignon. Very early arrival time though.

You do know none of you will sleep a wink?

We did it for the experience, but can't say I would opt for this again. Go to Ibis and Formula 1 hotels en route instead!

Thanks BossyKate, -did a search as you suggested and am now properly freaked out. One thing spending a fortune for a brilliantly convenient and luxurious journey, but quite another if we face a night of exhaustion at best and knifepoint robbery at worst!

We used to take the motorail when I was a child. All I remember is endless waiting around, being crammed in a cabin listening to my dad snore and my mum stressing out and being very fed up. I love flying now (sod the planet) as can't believe how quick and easy it is in comparison.

That said, I am a really bad traveller, I hate sitting still for long periods of time, even now, so perhaps your kids would fare better than I did.