Drivable from the SE of England to France

[Famholiday2026]

Where would you go with 3 kids aged 5-16 that’s drivable in August. We love the beach!

It's not what you asked but northern Spain has the most fantastic beaches and lovely weather, not too hot.

Le Touquet.

Le Touquet , used to go lots when our children were young . Lovely sandy beach and an easy drive .

Brittany ferries from Portsmouth and then as far south as you can face ? But then we love the waves on the west coast …

We used to go to campsites such as Eurocamp in France (and Italy) where the tents were already erected and had cooking facilities and a fridge (and proper beds!). We only needed to take our sleeping bags. We always went to sites with lots of facilities such as a pool, shop, restaurant, laundry and cycle hire etc.

We enjoyed La Rochelle in France, south of Nantes and there are sand dunes and a lovely marina.

You could go Dover to Calais/or Portsmouth/ or Poole to Cherbourg/ or Poole - St.Malo.

I do remember we went to Normandy one year and the Summer weather was cold and wet!

www.eurocamp.co.uk

Be aware that a lot of inland France is closed in August for the annual vacances, meaning coastal areas will be packed and traffic very heavy.

Le Crotoy or St Valerie sur Somme. 1.5 hours south from Calais. Lovely! Beautiful towns - one either side of an estuary. Steam train, cycle tracks, nature reserves, beaches, local Moules Frites. No British people at all because they drive further down.

check out Pierre et Vacances apartments in Le Crotoy - it has a pool overlooking the beach. Brilliant

Overnight crossing to St Malo/Cherbourg/Caen then head to Brittany’s south coast eg Benodet/Carnac Plage or to the Vendee.

The trouble with August is that those French people fill up their own beaches .

Go to the Belgian or Netherland coast instead.

France in August is hot and really busy.

Your children may enjoy in addition to a beach holiday on the west coast of France:

www.futuroscope.com (Poitiers) (The website has an English translation)

and nearby is the big waterpark

www.aquascope.com

And also Puy du Fou!

How long do you have? If you take three weeks you can take your time driving to Provence / the South, meandering through the country staying overnight in hotels or a few nights on camp sites on the way down and back. The Ardeche, Dordogne or the Alps could feature too. The Route Napoleon is a good drive.

Depends which ferry route you want to do, you could do the Portsmouth/Plymouth to Bilbao/Santander ferry and then short drive to South West France. Lots of great campsites such as la rive, La vieuk port.

Look around the Golfe du Morbihan in Brittany, we stayed near Questembert and all the villages/towns are lovely. Easy drive to the coast. The islands in the Golfe are fantastic to visit, as is Carnac - the ancient stones are incredible.

Or a bit further south to the Vendee, Noirmoutier is great for day trips.

The Vendee - lovely x

Does it have do be France @Famholiday2026? The beaches in the Netherlands are fabulous.

Duinrell in Netherlands. Close to some lovely sandy beaches.

How are you with heat? Southern Brittany usually has good weather without the stifling temps, rock pools, nice coastal villages…

Further south west is good for playing in the surf, surfing lessons for your older dc. But the temps can be too hot to sit on the beach all day.

Some fab ideas! We will have 10 days. Heat isn’t a problem and I’d rather have guaranteed hot than risk rain and gloom hence avoiding further North. We tried Eurocamp once and the music every night was so overwhelmingly loud at the entertainment that we couldn’t get to sleep until midnight when it finally finished.

They tend to go home halfway through August, as French kids go back to school that bit earlier. We were on a beach on the Atlantic coast a few years ago around the 20th of August and the lifeguards were driving around announcing over their loudhailers that it was their last day, and the whole beach gave them a round of applause!

We've often gone the last couple of weeks of the summer holidays- Brittany Ferries often drops its prices a day or two before school goes back (sorry kids, off the ferry and straight into school, it's worth it to save a couple of hundred quid 😆) and found campsites and resorts surprisingly empty.

I second PPs who have mentioned the S. coast of Brittany, and I would also investigate the mouth of the Loire (some nice seaside resorts, plus there's Nantes inland with Les Machines de l'Ile, and excursions up the Loire Valley with all kinds of interesting things to do).

We went here a few years back and was nice, on the South coast. Stayed in a premium mobile home and those were quiet and enough space. Lovely pool and waterslide, walkable to beach.

https://www.lesnaiades.com/en/

End of August will be quieter than the start.

Quite a long time ago now, but we used Canvas Holidays (now merged with Eurocamps), VVF which was very French in terms of guests, we were often the only English family, but standards were high and the price was quite low for self catering (they used to inspect your accommodation for cleanliness and do an inventory when you left - I once had to find some kitchen implement which had slipped down in the dishwasher before we could check out!), Pierre et Vacances - more commercial than VVF, Club Med in the Alps - communal dining and French conversation at dinner (this is a long time ago so things may have changed), good for activities such as hiking and childcare, but the language may be an issue.