Somewhere to overnight with DCs on drive to Javea, Spain?

[SlightlyJaded]

Hello
We are driving to Javea (just south of Valencia) with our 2 DC's aged 3 & 4. DH and I have done this drive a few times before pre-children and just used to keep going until we were seeing double and then stop at a motorway hotel and sleep for the night. We would usually start around 8am and be in Javea by 5pm the next day....

Things are obviously going to be different this time and we think the wisest thing is to plan an 'official' overnight and morning/day stop somewhere to break up the journey for DC's. Can anyone suggest a good halfway (or a bit over halfway point) to stop? We can either drive straight through the middle of France (ie through Paris) or a bit to the right via Lyon/Dijon etc.

Any recommendations much appreciated.

Thanks!

We drive down to the Murcia area quite often and do it in two stops so I can recommend an overnight pre planned stop if you can figure out where you'll be at the time you want to stop. We've stayed in the Hesperia Hotels and Ibis and both are fine.

Our DS is slightly younger but he does go a bit stir crazy when he's been in the car for too long so regular stops seem to help even if we really just want to get on with the journey, I think we may invest in a dvd player for the car if/when we do it next!

We do this journey often with our children and have got the route cracked. We go Calais - Rouen - LeMans - Tours - Poitiers - Niort - Bordeaux - Bayonne - San Sebastian - Pamplona - Zaragoza - Teruel - Valencia - Denia.

We have tried many routes but this is definitely the best. It avoids Paris (but is no further) and we overnight in one of the plentiful cheap hotels on the south of the Bordeaux ringroad at Villenave d'Ornon.

The worst bit of the journey is always Bordeaux to the border - dual carriageway but always seems to take longer than I would expect.

However, the route through Spain to Valencia is glorious. Empty, new, (mostly) free motorways with fantastic scenery.

We too have done the drive straight through thing, most recently in April when the ash caused havoc with our flights, but stopping over is so much more pleasant. Cheap clean hotel and a nice dinner out to give the kids something to look forward to (Buffalo Grill opposite the Villenave d'Ornon hotels).

Thanks so much for the suggested route. Will have a look at it tonight and see what we can find around Villenave d'Ornon. Also heartspain out of interest, based on the route you mention, do you have any idea what you pay in tolls?

thanks again

In total one way we paid 95 euros in 2009. (In 2008 was 91 euros). If you like I can post the breakdown for each leg as for some reason known only to me I have written them inside my map!!!

We have stayed quite happily at Formule 1 at Villenave d'Ornon (although no toilet in room and the children are scared of the self cleaning ones down the corridor!). For slightly more we have stayed at the Premiere Classe which has a little shower room with toilet in each room - is also good because each room has an external door so no carrying luggage around corridors. At each of the above the rooms sleep 3 but one bed is a bunk. (No-one counts how many of you actually use the room .)
However, I think the B&B hotels have rooms for 4.

Gosh thanks heartspain have been flat out with school fetes and the like but will look at this route properly over the weekend

Hi heartspain. How long do you take to do this route. Do you do it over 24 hours? we travel to Javea frequently usually by plane and I would like to the kids via the overland route but DH told me it would take at least 3 days.

La Rochelle on the west coast of France, half way down is very nice.

Hi Jules,
We live close enough to Dover to get up early at home day 1 and arrive in Bordeaux around 7pm. The next morning we are up and away by 6:30am and arrive late afternoon. The trick is to be really efficient when stopping. Our children accept this without too much complaint. They all sit with their heads in books! I think it helps that they have done this journey regularly since they were babies. I always have a big bag of food and plenty of water to hand out on demand.

I really enjoy the journey. After a frantic end of term it is a chance to change into holiday mode.