France holiday from Greater Manchester

[mightyducks]

Looking to go to France next year for a holiday but never been before and looking for any recommendation on where in France to go without too much driving? Probably looking at getting the ferry from Dover - where can we get to that’s nice and guaranteed some sun without more than two days traveling?

Is there a reason you don't want to fly?

If you want to avoid driving you could do Eurostar over to France and hire a car once you get there?

You can do a direct train to Euston, quick walk down to St Pancras and then straight on the train over to France.

Probably no where in 2 days, assuming day 1 travel to Dover. Day 2 travel in France 6 hours drive tops? You may not get far enough for the kind of weather you want (depends what you mean?) You need to get south of the Loire valley for more 'guaranteed' good weather. That would be easier if you got the ferry from Portsmouth to Caen or St Malo.

Or consider the train or flying...

Need to keep the cost down , we will be four adults, and want to take bikes

Okay so cheapest will be dover-Calais ferry or tunnel but the longest drive south (so extra costs in accommodation if stopping over). You could either drive south to somewhere like Lake Annecy area in 8 hours or drive West to the Vendee in 7 hours. Really depends on your family, driving etc. I would stay over in Dover, get an early crossing then a long drive or if only one driver, you could stop half way for a night or 2. Also factor in how long you are going for. A week isn't very long when you've such a long drive either side

You really want the south of France. To keep costs low, book the Eurostar to Paris and TGV to Marseille (for instance) as far in advance as you can. (Like now, if possible.) Organise car hire later on.

Assuming you stay overnight close to St Pancras, so you can take an early train the next morning, it’s just one day’s travel from St Pancras to southern France. Really easy and relaxed.

I'm not sure how much you'd have to take your bikes to pieces to take it on the Eurostar...

Hadn’t thought of that! The info is here:

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/luggage/bikes

I think I’d rather do that anyway, if it keeps the bike safe.

Day 1 you could drive to Folkestone, get Eurotunnel across and then drive a couple of hours and stay.
Day 2 drive to the area around La Rochelle, Ile de Re and stay there. It’s great for cycling, loads of bike paths up and down the coast. Atlantic sea so good waves if you are strong swimmers, but calmer bays too. Usually good weather. We’ve been several times with bikes staying on campsites in mobile homes and it’s always been good fun. I’m sure there are also lovely homes to rent if you prefer that.

Totally agree with this.

you don’t take your bikes apart if they are going on your car. Out holder takes three so we take one apart and put it in the roof box. You can get trailer things which are great but you will pay extra length on train.

Plymouth to roscoff or St Malo ferry overnight then you can be near the vendee in approx 4 hours drive or near La Rochelle in about 6 hrs.

We did this for years. Early crossing from Dover to Calais, drove to Dijon first night, then down to the Ardeche on the second day. Or you could not go as far south and stop near Lake Annecy. Or west to the Atlantic coast near La Rochelle, but my personal favourite was the Ardeche so we returned there most.

If looking to head to the La Rochelle/ile de re area I would have recommend driving to Portsmouth, getting the overnight ferry to st malo which cuts out a lots of driving in the north of France and then drive from st malo to La Rochelle which is about 3 to 4 hours. The overnight ferry gives a good decent break for the driver but you are still moving.

We are NW and we just did:
Train to London.
Eurostar to Lille.
Rented a car and did 10 days on the coast (plenty of biking there - we stayed near Boulogne).
Now we're at Disney. But that part is expensive (and optional!)

Did you take bikes on Eurostar, or hire once you’d arrived, @drspouse?

I’ve found the key to travelling to France from the NW is to travel to London the day before, rather than subjecting oneself to the stress of precise timekeeping (by rail or road) by trying to do both journeys in a single day.

The Loire- around 5 hours from Calais and far enough South to be consistently warm.

It really depends what type of French holiday your after, when your travelling and how low you need to keep costs.

You could do it quite budget get cheap Ryan Air flights to Beziers, plenty of Eurocamp style campsites a short transfer from airport. A lot of the sites have plenty in walking distance so a car isn't needed, you can hire bikes either on site or from local town.

Unless you’re very attached to your particular bikes, I’d look into flying from Manchester and hiring bikes when you get there

I’m in Manchester and we drove to Annecy last summer but it took three days (you could do it in two if very keen)

folkestone/dover are horribly busy this time of year. It doesn’t make for an easy journey.

next summer we are going to drive to Portsmouth and get the Saint Malo overnight ferry. Not cheap but you only need to get to Portsmouth then southern Brittany/Vendee are within a 2-3 hour drive. O

Btw flying to the south and hiring bikes is definitely going to be a cost effective option. and far quicker

France is a very large and diverse country. What sort of things do you like? Beaches, mountains, cities? Also do you want warmer weather or weather more like the SE of England.

I agree with other thatvof you don't wanr to fly the train is less stressful. There are loads of fast trains in France and there are now some low cost operators such as OuiGo that can be very good value if you book fairly far in advance.

As other have said if you are ok to fly the South West is cheaper so you can go to airports like Beziers, Carcassone or Montpelier. It is a beautiful part of Franxe and generally cheaper than the other end of the South coast (Nice etc..) and well set up for cycling (although it can get very hot in July and August)

The disadvantage of the longer ferry crossings is that if you miss your ferry for any reason it's not easy to get on another one. Dover to Calais, or the eurotunnel, run every hour or so, so you can usually just get on the next one (or even an earlier one with the ferry). It takes some of the stress out of the journey to the ferry.

There’s lovely cycling around Roscoff.