Driving from Calais to Cologne with a 16 month old

[RosieEm24]

We are currently planning a holiday to Cologne. We are going to visit the Christmas markets. We are hoping our 16month old is going to love all the Christmas lights and will help us get into the Christmas spirit.
What I would like to know is, if anybody else has done this trip with a young baby? Especially the drive from Calais to Cologne. Where have you stopped between Calais and Cologne that is baby friendly and has fun things to do?
We would love some suggestions to help plan our journey and make it as smooth as possible.
TIA x

I wouldn’t stop it’s only about five hours isn’t it, unless for toilet / nappy changes. Food, snacks, sticker books and they’ll hopefully seep a chuck. How long is your drive before Calais / what time are you travelling?

I drive from Calais to Dusseldorf (and back) on a regular basis and the drive is very easy motorway driving - just stop at petrol stations for snacks/toilet breaks if needed. I've not done the drive with a toddler, but I have done it with a puppy (and now teen dog) and it's not bad at all.

We have a 3 hour car journey before which we are hoping he will sleep as it’s early hours of the morning. Then we will keep him busy on the ferry. So he may sleep the first two hours but he will definitely need to get out as he’s only technically meant to be in his car seat for 2 hour stints

We have done this and found the service stations in Belgium very pleasant.

We live near Düsseldorf and do this trip quite often, have done with all the DC from being small — we didn’t have the limits there are now for car seat use though, but it’s really straightforward as pps have said and we’d just do it all in one unless we needed a loo break. One thing to be wary of depending on which way you go, via Amtwerp or Brussels is that both ring roads can be super super busy so you may need to factor in more time. If you need to fill up, Belgium is the cheapest country to do it in.

I’d still be inclined to just push on through bar a short service station break mid way. Should only be around 4 hours or so