I really need to book our summer holiday - anyone care to give me some inspiration?

[mckenzie]

In the past we've been to a Thomson Super Families in Majorca (ok), Lykia World (great) and Almond Beach in Barbados (do NOT go there!). The DCs are 9 and 5.

This summer we would like, ideally, to put the car on the Eurostar, drive to the South of France and stay in a villa, with it's own pool but with facilities and other families near by.

1. we've left it late - will all the good villas be gone and we'll only get the rubbish stuff left?
2. is it a long drive to the South of France once off the Eurostar? I have no idea
3. where do i start?

TIA

Try VFB for villas / cottages or if you want to go cheaper / share a pool you could try Pierre & Vacances (pv-holidays.com) Les Calanques des Issambres. Small complex with on site spa, good local restaurants, five minute walk to harbour, boat trips to St Tropez etc.

We are driving to the south of france from the eurotunnel. We reckon on the French side it will be about 6-8 hours of driving each day.
We are taking our tent.

thank you LL. I didn;t get tot his in time today to contact VFB but I shall do tomorrow. A website search with our requirements is showing nothing but I'm guessing it's worth a call.

Do you by any chance know, how long does it take to get from London, for example, to the South of France?

we're driving to s of france from tunnel, stopping twice on the way down, then staying in a villa with pool near avignon, booked here I think mn give discount too

when you say 'stopping twice' duckyfuzz, do you mean stopping over night twice or just stopping for food, stretch legs etc?

overnight - its a long way! Plus we live in the north east, so add another day just to get to the tunnel, total journey over 1000 miles route planner

thank you ! I've been trying to plan the route using The AA but it wasn't accepting Provence. I shall bookmark that site now. Have you booked your overnights stays prior or do you just wing it when you get there?

Drivingto Saint-Tropez, France from London
834 mi ? about 13 hours 14 mins

Don't forget you will have to pay for the payage and on mumsnet somewhere there is a thread about paying form the payage online, you register and then the comapny send you a card - you put in your windscreen and drive straight though the barrier for this (the idea is there aren't ques at this kiosk as it is a quick barrier) the machine registers the card and charges your credit card or debit card direct.

ducky - have you thought about the ferry to amsterdam?

yes rucky, but prefer the dry land and tunnel option!

mckenzie we book in advance at novotels as they have family rooms and are pretty nice, good food, often with a pool and generally easy to find

also you may need to put a town in rather than region on planner

thank you for the extra info.

Holiday Rentals

Or we stayed here for 2 weeks Les Restanques de St Tropez

We drove to france last year and it was hell. It was so expensive for fuel and toll roads and it was hot and uncomfortable. Never again.

We're flying but are staying here which looks lovely. We went to languedoc last year, near the Gorge D'Herault - villa wasn't that nice but area was fantastic. Would definitely go back.

We usually take two or three days to do the journey to the south if we take the car, staying a nice hotels en-route. Otherwise DS & I fly to Nice or get the eurostar to Avignon & pick up a hire car, while DH bikes down pretending he is young, free & single...

Have you thought about the Vendee? As much sunshine as the south of France, but not as far to travel.

There are some villas out there with availability, try owners direct website.

thank you, thank you! I'm worried about having an experience like your geek but DH is really keen so I've agreed to give it a go. Worst case scenario - the dcs and i fly back and leave DH to drive by himself.
Ladylapsang - that sounds like DH's idea of heaven. Shame it's not gonna happen!

expesive - i stood behind a man at the deli in carrefour on the way to perpignan and he spent 35 euros on 4 slices of pate!

my dd2 and I had flow to bareclona at easter and driven back across france in the motorhome with my dad - we had not eaten out as the prices had got much more expensives.

So I had return tickets from Barcelona in September and we travelled a different way down through france, we took a fair few staples with us, pasta, pasta sauce, a ew packets of dries food like stroganff and cheese sauces etc. I also cooked 10 meals to take with us, 4 fit in the freezer and the other 6 in the fridge.

For us this meant that we could have a few coffees out - my birthday coffee and cakes in Anncey was 25 euros for the three of us... which was fine as we had planned not to eat out and had taken so much stuff with us.

i would advise you to take at least half a dozen store cuboard meals - which you only then have to add to at the supermarket

it is much chepaer that way

even french cheese is cheaper in the supermarket in uk than in france

Food prices on the continent are HIGH at the mo. I get paid in Euros, shop in Euros and am astounded that I exceed my budget every week.

When last back in Uk I was shocked at prices (in a good way). 2 curries for £5, for example, when you pay 5 euros for 1 here.

We were in the vendee last august. 2 days of sun only Overcast the rest of the week. I found france ridiculously expensive too.

Over all our holiday inc food and travel was about £600 more than we would have spent holidaying in greece as we usually do.

Never again.

We're recently back from the Vendee.

It was about a 6.5hr drive (with stops on top of that). The peage each way totalled about £40 but the motorways were easy to use and have very little traffic compared to UK motorways (although I'm sure it will be a lot busier in the summer)

Its a lovely region but the negatives are that weather is not guaranteed and (all over France) it is very expensive at the moment. We've been lots of times in the past but I was shocked at the prices this time.

I recommend Suite Hotels for any overnight stops en-route. Not as cheap as Novotel etc but great in that they have screens you draw across the room to section off the DCs beds, microwave/fridge/kettle, free TV/films/internet etc

Oh yes, meant to also say that we've used Holiday Rentals (that Portofino linked to earlier in thread) twice now and have been more than happy both times

I have also used Holiday Rentals several times and been very happy.

Have had 2 villas in S of France, and this April had studio ski flat in the middle of Val Thorens which was lovely.

Now have a holiday booked near Bergerac in a group of gites with a pool in July. Looks lovely and the owners have been really helpful so far. We were looking for a 3 bed house which was booked, but they gave us two 2 bed houses for less than the cost of the 3 bed.

Have always found the owners very helpful and friendly and the details of the properties very accurate and comprehensive.

This is where we went last year

In the Vendee. Properties are all new, very spacious and peaceful. All houses have their own swimming pool, and massive gardens.

I can't remember how much we paid, but I know it was very reasonable.