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Hi
we are seriously thinking of camping in S.W. France this year, but I'm put off a bit by driving from Calais (I'm the only driver).
I notice that a couple of sailings go from SW England to either Bilbao or Santander, which reduces the drive to under a couple of hours. The catch, is that the ferries generally take over a day to get there and cost in the region of £800 for a return during the high season.
However, with the campsite costing about £300 and a couple of tanks of diesel, it compares very favourably with the £2500 that it would have cost us to go to Greece this year on the normal package holiday.
I just wondered if anyone else had considered the Spain route to France, or is it considered to be way too expensive?

Hi

We've driven down to the South West Coast of France from Calais (our first trip in our caravan abroad!!). We never considered the ferry just because I do get a little seasick It took us about 3 days but that was short days stopping about 3 in the afternoon and we stopped in a few places of interest on the way down.

We have two children and they don't mind the journey either, perhaps it's because we invested in DVD players to keep them occupied. We stop every hour or so for a toilet/ drink/ stretch your legs/ ice cream break and everyone seems to enjoy it.

Driving is possible but so is the ferry (or perhaps even just do the ferry the one way). Other people will be able to provide you with the Maths on the costs of fuel, tolls, stops overs versus the cost of the ferry and I can't quite remember how it works out. It's down to personal choice really, I don't think I would get the ferry if it were any cheaper just because I don't like sea travel and it depends how you view starting your holiday, ours is as soon as we get off he train/ ferry in France, we enjoy the journey down as well as our holiday.

We are doing the Plymouth to Santander route in August.We are going to tour Northern Spain, go across to the Med, and then back through France and home from Roscoff.We usually drive down,and have done Roscoff to La Rochelle in one hop, and then on to St Jean de Luz the next day.This year we fancied a change.

We leave Plymouth at 4.30pm, and get to Santander at 12,30 lunch time the next day.You have to have a cabin,but we have gone for the cheapest as its only the two of us, and its only to sleep in.We also paid for  a bike rack.

OH,s bro has a house in France, and gave us a discount voucher, so our bill came to £473.80 return.Plus an eveing meal, and breakfast.

Where in SW France are you going? From Bilbao or(even further)Santander, you still have a fair drive possibly more than 150miles.

The drive from Calais isnt that bad if you take the right route avoiding Paris, fast road & not that much toll, there are plenty of campsites for overnight stops on the way down, so with a bit of forward planning you would be on your campsite halfway thru day 3, the same as taking the ferry to Spain.

Buy a couple of Quechua popup tents for your overnight stops & with ferries from Dover less than £70 return you will save a whole heap of money.

Thanks for all the replies. We're probably going to go around Biscarosse, somewhere in that region anyway.
Karim - my OH can't be bothered camping overnight along the route, she fancies a B&B. I've never driven abroad in a RHD car before, so I'm a bit wary of doing a huge journey anyway. It's about 180 miles from Bilbao to Biscarosse. Then again, I guess in terms of getting used to the driving 180 miles isn't a lot different to 600!
Jan - We did think of landing at St.Malo or Roscoff but didn't think it saved us much given the distance we'd still have to go.

We still haven't decided what to do yet; although my OH reckons a holiday consisting of 2x2 nights on a ferry, 12 nights in Biscarosse and a night in Bilbao is exciting enough

Hi

if you do take the ferry, it has to be Brittany Ferries for me.  P&O's Pride of Bilbao is getting a bit long in the tooth, and they have been "cost cutting" for a while, so don't know what to expect in the present climate. At least with Brittany, you are "in France " from the off, and at 18 hrs, it is much quicker than P & O 's 30 +  --------------  (water ski ing off the back is an optional extra )

FM

When you say 'SW France' do you mean the Atlantic coast, north of Biarritz? In which case, it would be a much more comfortable, pleasant and shorter journey than driving down from the north.

Quote: Originally posted by JEM48 on 09/4/2009

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Hi
we are seriously thinking of camping in S.W. France this year, but I'm put off a bit by driving from Calais (I'm the only driver).
I notice that a couple of sailings go from SW England to either Bilbao or Santander, which reduces the drive to under a couple of hours. The catch, is that the ferries generally take over a day to get there and cost in the region of £800 for a return during the high season.
However, with the campsite costing about £300 and a couple of tanks of diesel, it compares very favourably with the £2500 that it would have cost us to go to Greece this year on the normal package holiday.
I just wondered if anyone else had considered the Spain route to France, or is it considered to be way too expensive?

 

 

 

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Hi

We are travelling down from Calais to spend more time down south france or north spain.  Ferry is back from Bilbao to Portsmouth (only one night as opposed to 2 nights on the south crossing)  Both ferrys in July, car, roofbox, 2 adults & 2 kids with outside cabin.  Didn't think this was too bad considering cost of driving south and time it takes etc.

Fiona

Thanks all for the replies. As I am the only driver, I just didn't fancy the hike down from N. France to S.France. Especially since we're coming down from Lancashire the day before.

We've booked on the Brittany service to Santander. But would you believe it, we're having a dog of a job trying to book a campsite for the last two weeks in July. Sheesh!

We did the Bilbao (sp?) a few years ago when you could use Tesco vouchers.  I would have really enjoyed it if I hadn't been so sick!

You can make it into a mini cruise which many of the passengers seemed to be doing.  The 'entertainment' was funny, but not sure if it was supposed to be.  They did dolphin watching with one of the crew, had a couple of cinemas and a choice of bars and resturants - the bar prices were the same as here and the resturants weren't cheap.

But even with the sea sickness I would do it again,