Non Dover Crossings are much more expensive - travelling with 2 adults and 3 kids and a trailer tent, we paid just over £300 for Poole Cherbourg outbound, and return Dieppe to Newhaven, since we live close to the South Coast it is much better for us, but a lot more money
Just to add to your driving confusion, if you can avoid driving on Saturdays in August the traffic will be much lighter - normally we drive out on Friday and Saturday and always get held up on Saturday, this year we drove on Thursday and Friday and had a completely clear run
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
I would agree with Mattsurf about travelling on a Saturday. This year we travelled on a Friday and Saturday, The Friday was fine, the Saturday was a nightmare. Next year we are hoping to travel on a Wednesday/Thursday. And we are going to go by the tunnel as you can swap your Tesco clubcard vouchers for the Euro Tunnel. Some people will wait to see if there is a DFDS Code from the NEC Show ( i think that is Oct/Nov) and then you can get some really cheap crossings.
Quote: Originally posted by ilse12 on 06/9/2012
I would agree with Mattsurf about travelling on a Saturday. This year we travelled on a Friday and Saturday, The Friday was fine, the Saturday was a nightmare. Next year we are hoping to travel on a Wednesday/Thursday. And we are going to go by the tunnel as you can swap your Tesco clubcard vouchers for the Euro Tunnel. Some people will wait to see if there is a DFDS Code from the NEC Show ( i think that is Oct/Nov) and then you can get some really cheap crossings.
Do these codes apply for all 2013?
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
We did the journey for the first time this year (23 July for 3 weeks) to the bay of roses. I booked euro tunnel well in advance (£49) and stopped in travelodge night before. We travelled from Leeds and got the 7.20am train. We got as far as Bourges on the first day and stopped in a mister beds hotel (satisfactory for the price). Next day south to millau (DVD screens were a must for 3 young kids in the back). An overnight stop in a local hotel, booked via bookings.com (cheap and cheerful). Next day drive to las Dunas camp site (fantastic). The A75 route wasn't bad but all our gear was in the car (tent). Tolls were about £70 going south. Filling up diesel was easy but more expensive on motorways (about 1.52 Euros). We found it lowest at Carrefour (1.46 was lowest we found).
After a week and a couple of days we left las Dunas (booked pitch) and headed north around the coast of France. Here we struggled to get a pitch. I would recommend booking in advance if you go end of july/start of August.
After a spell in Avignon we returned north towards Paris and a surprise stopover to visit Disneyland for our 3 kids.
We returned via p&o Calais to Dover on the 4.00 (ish) crossing.Again booked in advance (£50 for car and 5 of us).
Already looking to book las Dunas for next year. Well worth the journey.
Quote: Originally posted by bentondeep on 06/9/2012
Quote: Originally posted by ilse12 on 06/9/2012
I would agree with Mattsurf about travelling on a Saturday. This year we travelled on a Friday and Saturday, The Friday was fine, the Saturday was a nightmare. Next year we are hoping to travel on a Wednesday/Thursday. And we are going to go by the tunnel as you can swap your Tesco clubcard vouchers for the Euro Tunnel. Some people will wait to see if there is a DFDS Code from the NEC Show ( i think that is Oct/Nov) and then you can get some really cheap crossings.
Do these codes apply for all 2013?
Usually at the camping and caravan shows they give out a code and then you can book your ferry using the code. You can get really good deals for a car and trailer/caravan. If you use the search it will bring up some past post on this.
Quote: Originally posted by bentondeep on 06/9/2012
iv been looking at las Dunas. is there much to di in and out of the campsite?
We left Las Dunas a week ago today .
This was our second holiday there in two years. It's a really nice family campsite. Large, but easy to navigate. Pitches are a good size and fairly flat. Toilet/Shower facilities are clean and the shower cubicles are really large!(made the lovely ones in our stop-over french campsite seem really small on the way back!) Pool is good, but in my opinion they could do with another for the size of the site, but the beach is so good, we don't really go to the pool anyway (which is maybe the reason for only one pool?).
If you have young kids, the animation seems to be really good (our kids are too old for this, so we didn't use it), as there was something going on every day and there was also a lot of sporty things going on for teenagers and adults as well.
There was some sort of evening entertainment on every night of our stay,and you are within an easy driving distance of L'Escala and Roses if you want a night out in the town.Everyone over 18 also get's free entry (on non event nights) into the Fata Nightclub attached to the site. It's really well soundproofed as you don't get any noise from it at all.
A lot of people who use this site go back year after year, which is always a good recommendation for a site and, hopefully, we'll be going back next year too.
Ignore the rest lol...take the route to Reims then towards Dijon....Lyon...Perpignan...75KM more but so much faster and quieter except August 1st when all of France uses the route...its so much quicker paying the tolls espcially if you get a Sanef device which you can rent from a UK centre now....just drive straight through the tolls and it will take the fee out of your bank....forget L'Estartit...have a look on google streetview mapping and try Empuriabrava or Roses or Santa Margarida in between....Empuria is full of canals with expensive villas and yachts but the costs in the area are the same as the rest of Spain...huge sandy beaches too....
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Any advice on l escala spain
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