We are new to caravaning. We aim to travel to France. Any advice re how long it is reasonable and comfortable to drive and tow on the motorways in France. We are towing a 2 berth single axle.
Thanks.
Its an individual thing based on your driving experience and towing experience, generally the motorways are less congested, not always. I take two grandchildren and reckon around 3 hours is enough for my sanity and their safety. As you have a 2 berth I expect you don't have the same difficulty. When I use Eurotunnel we travel down to Folkestone from Bolton, takes 7 hours or more travelling at quieter times. Take stops every 2 hours. Motorway driving in France is easy but will come at a price look at Michelin maps route master when you plan your journey it will advise of the peage (toll) charges. Plenty of rest and service areas (Aires) on the motorways. The peage charge will be class 2. I wouldn't want to drive much longer than 7 hours. Worth reading the regs that HGV drivers have Tachograph rules. I'm sure you'll have plenty of other advice. As you are new to towing for the first outing I'd suggest short runs. Don't be tempted by the higher speed limits in France keep to their speed limits and although its legal to go faster on french motorways keep it down to uk levels 60mpn or 97kph.
Driving and towing a van in France is far easier and nicer than towing a van over here, so that should put your mind at rest.
As for how long, well that depends on you and certain other factors:
How much towing experience do you have.
Are you well rested before your journey.
How capable is your tow car. I change my tow car about 18 months ago to a 2.0, 180bhp SUV Auto, a very capable tow vehicle towing a single axle 2 berth like yourself. Towing is an absolute doddle now, before that I had a smaller engined manual, which was OK, but does not compare to what I have now.
I have done from the Pyrenees to the Dordogne, Roscoff to Royan, Dordogne to Roscoff kind of journeys with no issues, so I guess a broken up 8 hour day is fine for me.
However, France is not a country to rush through, there are many lovely places to see, so why not limit your journeys to 4/5 hours and stop and explore for a couple of days. That is the beauty of the caravan or motorhome.
You will love and have a great time in France with your van. It isn't the most visited country in the world for nothing! 👍😀🍷
I used to be able to drive long distances with no trouble.
Picked a 7.5ton lorry up at 5:30am drove the other side of town and loaded the lorry up (a complete house move) and then drove all the way to Cumbria (Workington) offloaded all the furniture and had a walk around and some supper and then drove back getting back after 2am.
Another time started work at 8am, they needed an urgent delivery so hired a van and loaded it up i left the Midlands at 1pm drove down to South Wales near Cwmbran Dropped a pallet off and collected another one and then down to Redruth/Camborne and back to the Midlands arriving back at 1am.
Been to Cumbria recently and i was hobbling around the house for 3 days.
Age creeps up on you, although with me it jumped out and went boo literally overnight.
Everyones different, some will think an hour on the road is too much and need to stop.
We two for two hours each, with a good break between. we like to arrive somewhere by about 2 or 3 in the afternoon.
Gives us a chance to set up, wander into town, go to a supermarket etc and relax ..... its meant to be a holiday, not and endurance test.
Try not to land at your destination between about 12 and 3 pm, as often the reception can be shut for lunch, so you can be stuck on the wrong side of the barrier for an hour or two. That said, i have just this minute booked our first stop, where they are apparently shut 12 while 4. But, they will leave a note with my pitch number on the door, and the barrier will be up.
This is 3.5 hours down from St. Malo, IF all went well. But, we will pull in after maybe 2 hours anyway, and break the journey. As someone has already said, its a holiday not a race to the finish.
If you decide you may use the motorways, you can get a gizmo to stick on your windscreen that allows you to pay automatically through a card, and raises the barrier. Saves scratting about for money and hanging out the window for change etc. at the machine.
We probably do about 6 hours, we both tow. I recon on about a 30-40 mph average speed point to point, seems slow but take into account breaks and hold ups it works out about right for us.
The following works for us we are about 5 hrs from Folkestone.
We Drive about 150miles first evening in the U.K. We stay in a no facilities CL.
Next day we drive to tunnel get a crossing 2 30ish
In France Drive a couple of hours to an overnight stop.
The reason that this works for us is we used to stay near the port but we found even if we got up at stupid o'clock to get the crossing with the extra hour it was still mid to late morning before we got underway in France.
In France we apply these two simple rules. Firstly fill up with fuel when we can not when we need to. We once nearly ran out because we went to 3 aires before we found one that we could actually fill up.
Secondly and most important lunch. We stop at the first aire we reach after 12pm because they aren't to busy and you will be able to park. If you wait till after 1pm you find the whole of France is eating lunch and you will struggle to park.
I have known people who get up Drive to the ferry get a 2am crossing then drive for about 15 hours. They then seem to spend the first half of the holiday recovering from the journey and the second half worrying about driving back home. Not my idea of fun but each to their own
Driving in France is easier than British motorways, as I have always found them quiet.
How long to drive for depends on many factors.
How far is your final destination.
Which crossing
Losing the hour!
Try to arrive about 5pm. Chill out time!
Watch fuel. I start thing about refuelling when I'm about half. (Over cautious)
But basically enjoy the adventure.
Quote: Originally posted by Opensauce on 11/7/2017
The same distance that you find is reasonable & comfortable to drive on motorways in the UK.
Not sure I'd agree with that, Opensauce... the same amount of time, yes, but that will almost certainly cover a good few miles more than it would over here!
If the op knows their own driving limits in the UK then it will be no different in France. It's nothing to do with traffic. I fail to see how the op can gain any useful info for themselves by knowing the driving limits of others. Regarding length of time behind wheel & amount of breaks required it is for the individual to decide that for themselves. It makes no difference as to the country they drive in.
If we all set our limits to miles covered, and subsequently experienced hold-ups en-route, we could soon be in trouble!
I believe (but stand to be corrected) that even Tacho's cover time, not distance?
But the fact still remains that if we all based our limits on driving hours, as opposed to miles covered, the world would be a less stressful place.
I stand by my comment that we would all no doubt cover more miles in France compared to mainland UK, in the same length of time, whatever that length of time (inc number of breaks) we choose to set for ourselves.
last year we took our caravan to the Vendee, Jard-sur-mer.
because of our chosen ferry route we landed at roscoff at 9.30 pm so we staued a night at a really nice Yelloh! village site.
next day, a sunday we drove to Jard and it took 6h with a lunch stop and some toilet stops. its about 285 miles. there was no traffic, no delays, straight clear roads and one toll section.
on our return we again stopped near roscoff because our ferry was early next morning.
however, this was on a saturday and we hit lots of queues around Nantes and rennes. it took us 9H !!!
we made it but my wife and kids were thoroughly cheesed off by the end of the day and i was stopping to make strong coffee to stay awake.
this year we are again visiting the same area Les sables d'orlone. because of the quality of the Yelloh! site in Roscoff we are staying at a yelloh! site and we are stopping for 1 night at the beginning and 3 at the end of the trip in the Les Mouettes yelloh! site near roscoff.
we are also stopping mid way on the return for 1 night in a carrestelle site. i have a bigger car now with built in rear seat entertainment for the kids but even so for my sake i want to break up the return journey.
my neighbors drive all the way to Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie in 1 hit with only a rest on the ferry. they leave in the afternoon and take an evening ferry for 6h then drive the rest in the dark and arrive in the early hours of the morning. its admirable of them and indeed its quit on the roads at night but they suffered a puncture on the caravan tyre at 2am in france. fortunately they had a tyre pressure warning so stopped to fix it straight away but if there had been a problem its not so easy to get assistance at 2Am
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Now the proud owner of a coachman amara
I agree that the roads in France are generally better than UK. But try traveling on black Saturday we once spent 1.5 hrs queuing at a toll post or there is a Bouchon. The roads are good but there are still many ways of spoiling your day.
Next time we go to France we will investigate a toll tag.
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Topic: Towing in France
