Île de Ré / Puy du Foy / La Rochelle - France Family Driving Holiday Advice

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Hi all, I would really love to get some intel on Île de Ré from anyone who has holidayed there before. I am in the process of booking 8 or so days to France at the start of July with our three kids (4, 7 and 9). This is the first time we will have done a driving holiday, so really welcome any tips or advice from those in the know!!

So far my plan is as follows -

Sat 4th July
Morning Dover - Calais Ferry
Calais - Angers - 5hrs 15 mins - Stop en route for lunch, i've heard services are meant to be fab and have playgrounds and good food?
Stay overnight in Angers

Sun 5th July
Angers - Puy du Fou - 1hrs 10min

Full Day at Puy du Fou theme park - www.puydufou.com
Stay overnight at Puy du Fou

Mon 6th July - Thurs 9th July
Morning at Puy du Fou
Puy du Fou - Île de Ré - 1hr 50 mins
Staying 3 x nights at - Huttopia Chardons Blue *But I have been reading tripadvisor reviews and not sure now about this campsite (apparently quite tired and chalets are small) and wondering if anyone has any better recommendations on family glamping, ideally with a pool and near the beach??

**Also just been looking into either La Rochelle or d'Oléron as a possible first stop instead for a few nights, and then onto Île de Ré, any reccos on the beach that could suit?

Thurs 9th July - Sun 12th July
Check out of Huttopia Chardons Blue - La Phare - 35 mins
Staying 3 x nights at - https://www.lephare-iledere.com/en

Sun 12th July
Depart La Phare - Calais 7hrs 20 mins - stop for lunch and activity somewhere around Le Mans?? *Is this drive too much with small kids, should we overnight on the way back to Calais?
PM Calais - Dover

We could also add a few extra days on to this trip if the above sounds too tight?

Would love any recommendations on places to visit on Re, best beaches, restaurants, things to see with kids etc.

Thank you so so much!

I can’t help on the locations, but as
someone who does a lot of driving holidays (down to Puglia this year) Id say your
last day is too long. We aim for no more than 5-6hours because with stops you’re looking at easily 7-8hours anyway, and that’s without accounting for traffic issues. All that will be made even worse by having a deadline to catch a ferry/tunnel. I’d personally break your last stint at the 5.30hr mark and then in the morning you can have a much shorter journey to get to the channel (perhaps build in some
time to do some shopping at the port!)

Another option possibly worth considering (depending on Uk location) is doing Plymouth-Roscoff ferry. We did this when driving to Spain, you can do an overnight on the ferry from UK- France which is an adventure for young kids (I get terribly sea sick but my DH takes over with DS). This cuts some of the cross France driving to get to the west coast.

Portsmouth- St. Malo, or failing that Caen, would be much closer unless OP is coming from Cornwall. St Malo is a lovely town in itself, Caen not so much (because we flattened it in the war basically 😳).

Portsmouth- St. Malo, or failing that Caen, would be much closer unless OP is coming from Cornwall. St Malo is a lovely town in itself, Caen not so much (because we flattened it in the war basically 😳).

We have done a very, very similar trip albeit with slightly older kids (but travelling from Yorkshire to the Eurotunnel). The driving in France was a doddle - have you got a tag for the Peage as that helps. Your 5 hour estimate to Anger might be a bit optimistic on a Saturday, although it's not school holidays in France so the roads might not be quite so busy.

Puy du Fou is amazing - one of the best things we've ever done as a family. Donwload the app and bring some headphones so the little ones can listen to some of the narration in English. Although it's just a fun without the narrations (Vikings were our favourite).

Look at St-Gilles-Croix-De-Ville as an alternative to La Rochelle. It's a lovely bit of coast line and the town is just the right size for a couple of days pottering around with little ones.

My parents had a mobile down there we just did the drive in one from when the kids were tiny.

The service stations are bloody awful, and ridiculously busy. Toilet queues insane. We always take our own food and stop at Aires instead for a wee break and let the kids and dog but off some energy.

i would bypass Re and go to O’leron instead. It’s a lower key version of Re and not totally overwhelmed with people.

Never been to Pu de Fuoy but have heard good things about it.

La Rochelle is nice for a day trip, I wouldn’t stay there. If it’s hit the aquarium is great for a/c.

take the tunnel not the ferry. Depends on where you are travelling from though. We are in SE London and could leave at 4am and be at the van half hour north of La Rochelle by 5pm.

use the paeage and get the windscreen tag.

There is lots to see around Caen / Ouistreham! Not least the landing beaches’ memorials and fab museums.

The aquarium in La Rochelle is fantastic. As is puy du foy. And La Rochelle is lovely for pottering about and restaurants around harbour

Ile de Re is fab. But it's small so you don't necessarily need to do two stops there, it's easy to get around the island from one spot. We stayed in Interlude last time we were there, lovely spot and amazing beach. We also stayed in La Grainitiere the year before, smaller but nicer pool and near St Martin and La Flotte, but not so close to the beach. Cycling around the island is easy. We also stayed in between St Jean de Monts and St Gilles Croix en vie a couple of years. Not as Frenchie gorgeous as Ile de Re but a brilliant tourist setting with water parks, bigger campsites, etc and so much to do.
The drive back is long so I recommend breaking it up. You could visit Mont St Michel and the alligator park on the way back as a stop.
I personally don't like Puy de Fou. Each show is amazing, but in between it's torture. There is no where to sit, no shade, food is not great if kids are a bit fussy (burger with tomato sauce being pasta type tomato sauce for example). I would only do it again with the fast pass and even then I'm not sure it's worth all the in between time.

You may also need a crit'air sticker for the windscreen

I second pp suggesting you use Le Shuttle rather than ferry unless you simply prefer the scenery of the ferry.

I’m slightly confused by the locations though. You ask whether to stay in La Rochelle for a few nights first? I wouldn’t bother as it just across the bridge to Ile de Re. Bear in mind you pay a toll to cross onto IdR but not come back.
You could get a bus off the island and explore La Rochelle.

As for Huttopia we’ve gone off them ( expensive for simple plywood construction ) and check whether Wi-Fi is available in the huts and if it is, is good enough to support all of you being on it at once ( or maybe you’re going off grid? )

Odalys sites are brick’n’mortar if you prefer that and there’s one in Rivedoux Plage as you enter IdR.

La Flotte and St Martin de Re are picturesque. The ‘ring road’ around St Martin has the islands big shops and supermarkets.

Theres also Yelloh! Doing the cabin / campsite thing like Huttopia but Yelloh! use proper static caravan style accommodation ( dressed up to blend in ) and often have dishwashers. We’ve always had wi-fi in Yelloh!

One last thing, have you checked availability?
July and August are peak season for the French.

Morning everyone and a huge thank you for all of your messages, so many great suggestions and things to look into!

Regarding the crossing, we are Suffolk based, so Dover area is 2ish hours away, but could definitely look into the ferry crossing from further down south if people think that's the best way to travel and do Portsmouth - Saint Malo? It would only be an extra 35 mins drive so maybe we do this on the Friday night (children finish school on the Friday at midday), meaning we are in Saint Malo Sat 4th morning ready to make our way down south.

Those that have done Puy du Fou - do you think its a bit much staying overnight, or worth it? Has anyone ever stayed local to Puy?

Regarding Ile de Re - I was thinking maybe we just do Le Phare for 5 x nights, rather than chopping and changing, and then give ourselves an extra night somewhere en route back home. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to stay on the way back to either Saint Malo or Calais (depending on which route we take), maybe with a fun activity for the children? Am checking out Mont St Michel and the gator park!

Will def look into a windscreen tag thing for the Peage, thank you for this tip.

Will also look at St Jean de Monts and St Gilles Croix en vie areas for a potential additional stop.

Accommodation on Re seems quite limited, lots of the camps recommended are full for our dates, so will be booking Le Phare today so we don't miss out!! Unless anyone has any other suggestions to check out?

Thank you again all, SO helpful!

The tag for the Peage is from Emovis - works like a charm!

We've stayed at PdF (Roman Villa) and in Angers (Kyriad Hotel) when visiting PdF - I prefered staying at PdF. The hotels are great and it's a bit of an adventure! It's all quite relaxed too - quite a different atmosphere to other theme parks such as Legoland.

Agree on changing ferry route..we are in Norfolk and go from Portsmouth, it really cuts the driving down in France. You really dont want to do such a long day on your last day, it will be very very stressful and tiring for all. Stay closer to the port on return for an early crossing or max 5 hours drive to Caen for the afternoon crossing.
If coming back via St Malo, there is a huge Aquarium and St Malo is lovely for a days sight seeing.
Have a lovely time!

prob not the best to ask as we regularly travel up to 10 hours a day, for me it seems fine, though I’d opt for the shorter drive via Caen and book the overnight ferry saving the need to stay overnight in France on the way and means if you take the route via Nantes you avoid most of the tolls. Longest run I did was the midlands to Strasbourg… took 9 hours plus stops and ferry. Do get the tag for the tolls as that saves a lot of time and check to see if you need emissions stickers for any cities you are visiting.

I always recommend a stop at Nantes- I think you will be having to get acquainted with its ring road on that route anyway 😬. Because it has Les Machines de l'Isle- and how could you possibly top a giant, passenger carrying wooden elephant that walks?!

We have DC, live close-ish to you in the UK, and do loads of European driving holidays especially Eurocamp. If you've got long drives, save the time by taking the Shuttle rather than the ferry from Dover. Or go via a different crossing route.

My main recommendation would be to choose a single campsite and stay there for a week, bar one overnight stop in each direction. You want to feel like you've actually settled in and the DC have the chance to use all the campsite facilities, rather than constantly be packing and unpacking. I have been to La Rochelle and Ile de Re, but pre DC, so can't advise on specific sites. Have looked though and I agree all the ones on the Ile de Re look slightly basic/tired compared to some of the mainland ones. But lovely location!

Like PP, as someone who’s done lots of driving holidays to France, I’d stick to one site for the week after Puy de Fou. Bear in mind that you’ll probably need to be out of the first site by 10am and can’t check in to the second before 3/4pm, if it’s only half an hour to drive between sites that’s a lot of day to fill with your car packed. You may not be able to use either site’s facilities after check out/before check in either (I’d check with the sites if you’re thinking of doing this).

The drive on the last day would not bother me - we usually do the drive back from Languedoc to Ouistreham for the ferry in one go and that’s 10-11 hours. But our children are older teenagers so easier to manage.

Also note there are two types of stops on motorways, confusingly both called aires. Ones that are like our motorway service stations with shop, restaurant, toilets and fuel. And ones that are smaller with just a couple of toilets and a playground, but more green space. Both will be heavingly busy over lunch (12-2) in peak season at the weekend. We try to time our stops around this.

Actually it is the school holidays, at least for us in Paris. Collège (middle school) breaks up on 27th June; we’re off on our first trip of the summer on 4th July, and a lot of kids will be off by then.

We’ve holidayed in that area several times. We’ve always stayed slightly further down in La Palmyre and visited Il de Re and Il D’Oleron, La Rochelle etc for the day. The kids prefer to be based in one place, settled in a mobile home and use the facilities on site. That area has great cycle routes up and down the coast and around towns. We take bikes but you can hire them. We cycled around Il de Re for example. If you’re stopping in multiple places this can make it trickier though in terms of parking/storing them securely if you have your own.

Re travel, we give the kids lots of snacks, and they’ve been find for the long trip back in one day. Stopping at service stations for lunch. They do get incredibly busy in holiday time at weekends though - long queues for ladies toilets etc so do bear that in mind!

We stayed at La Phare on the Il de re. We took our own tent so I can’t tell you what the chalets are like. The onsite restaurant is really good but we felt the rest of the facilities were tired.

We enjoyed the site, it is very French and there are a lot of French people who clearly live there all summer so it had quite a community vibe to it, they all came out to play pétanque at 5pm every day and it was great being part of that.

what I will say is La Phare is right at the end of the island and it is further than you think we ended up doing a lot more driving than we anticipated.

iThe kskabd is stunning an St Martin de Re is gorgeous but everywhere is pricey so be prepared. Seek out the Sunday markets, interesting stalls and great food. Best oysters I’ve ever tasted straight out of the ocean.

What’s the Kskabd?

Thank you everyone again for all the input, it's been super helpful.

We will do Portsmouth - France crossing, and will now leave Friday PM.

Will def stay overnight at Puy du Fou, just working out whether best to do this the start or end of the trip!

There is something stopping me booking La Phare on Re, not sure about it being the best location / and the price is high given I am reading reviews about it being tired in places. The island is very very booked up for our dates, so options are a bit limited. Maybe we just go for it and do Huttopia and pay for a pitch near to the beach away from the road.

@fiorentina lovely to hear about La Palmyre, as this is an area that's come up in my searches and looks fab. Do you have any recommendations on where to stay? Maybe this would be a better option for us and then we can drive to the islands for day trips.

We went to Oree de Bois (Sandaya site) in Palmyre area. Great site (DC were 8, 5, 2 at the time) but we were slightly underwhelming by the area, it felt like back to back holiday parks without the sense of "Frenchness" you get in some other parts.

If you have the capacity to do so then do three days at the Puy Du Fou- cost wise it is the best value and you will get the opportunity to see all the shows. You can just about cover them all in two days but you will struggle to visit the villages/do all the walk throughs etc. We go every couple of years and love it. We don't normally bother with the translation as we find it distracting but do speak ok french so have a reasonable idea of what is going on.

There are plenty of places for a picnic. If you download the app you can see the show times the day before and plan your day.

Be prepared for some queuing, particularly for the Gladiators but it is well organised.

Lots of other lovely places around there and some nice coastal towns within probably an hours drive.

We normally go down via the Tunnel, sometimes make a brief stop at the Aire de la baie de somme services if we haven't stopped the UK side as the kids like to go up the water tower, we then push on until we have a stop at Sarthe-Sarge le Mans- it's a little dated but plenty of parking and the Paul's does good hot chocolate! We have been doing the journey since the kids were little- now ranging from tweens to late teens, there is no getting away from it being long but with decent planning and plenty of distractions it is manageable with little ones. Be prepared to use the toll roads, they make the journey so much easier!

We really enjoyed Puy du Fou and think it's good that you are staying overnight onsite. The evening shows are amazing. A day and a half should allow you to see most shows - but I would recommend getting a fast pass ("pass emotion") for your first, full, day if you haven't yet done so. Be aware that some of the seating for the shows is in full sun and you are sitting there for a fair while. We did two full days and saw most of it.