Advertisement
Message Forums |
|
 Topic: Late arrival in Ouietreham / Caen
|
  |
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
21/5/2023 at 9:24pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
View Profile
Reply
Quote
|
Joined: 17/9/2015 Diamond Member 
Forum Posts: 2328
| Site Reviews Total: | 1 |
|
| Site Reviews 2024: | 0  |
| Site Reviews 2023: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2022: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2021: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2020: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2019: | 1  |
| Site Reviews 2018: | 0 |
|
| Site Nights 2024: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2023: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2022: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2021: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2020: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2019: | 6 |
| Site Nights 2018: | 0 |
|
After countless Channel crossings on the western routes over decades in just about every option possible, we've firmly concluded that the overnight PO-Caen is the best route for us and the most relaxing. Despite previous comments about 'not enough sleep', we've found it's adequate, and compared to alternative breaks in our journey either UK of France it's the most relaxing.
Never done it with a caravan, but done it solo vehicle, smallish camping trailer and huge horse box trailer (no horse, but glamping/camping gear, and real ale bar!). Arriving French side late evening has proven to be hugely disappointing re food and drink options, tired and trying to find unknown accommodation is also a PITA! As to inside vs outside cabin, always favoured the cheaper inside cabin, what's the point of an expensive window/porthole in the dark!
Never put it to the test, but stayed in Les Capuchines a number of times, always thought they used to be very accommodating re ferry times, maybe things have changed!
Enjoy the crossing.
|
22/5/2023 at 12:33pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
View Profile
Reply
Quote
|
Joined: 17/9/2015 Diamond Member
Forum Posts: 2328
| Site Reviews Total: | 1 |
|
| Site Reviews 2024: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2023: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2022: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2021: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2020: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2019: | 1 |
| Site Reviews 2018: | 0 |
|
| Site Nights 2024: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2023: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2022: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2021: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2020: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2019: | 6 |
| Site Nights 2018: | 0 |
|
Quote: Originally posted by Netherton on 22/5/2023
The arrival time in Caen most days of the week is 0545 Uk time and they play wake up music and start saying Please vacate your cabins at 0500 UK time. Not for me !
We've stayed in many various hotels overnight around Portsmouth to catch the early morning ferry at 8.15am departure. Need to check in at least 1 hour before, so need to be at port around 6.45am (we travel at a very busy time and ship is usually at capacity, with long queues booking in), allowing for departure from hotel and journey to port, we're still awake before 6.00am anyway, but then faced with things to do and potential delays on the road, so the (albeit annoying bing-bongs, music and harrying) on board wake-up is not by far the worst option. I'm certainly not an early bird type, so departing a remote hotel and driving soon after waking is far from a good option for me. At least on the ferry, there's an opportunity to awake more or less at my leisure, and grab a bit of breakfast, before the amble down to the car deck to get ready to disembark, by that point I'm far more suitably awake and fit to dive.
A well practised routine now, and we like it (well, perhaps prefer to the other options is more accurate!), but perhaps not for everyone. We did the short Newhaven-Dieppe overnight crossing once, now that really was 'not enough sleep', it bu**ered us, and none of us really recovered for the duration of our 5 day stay in France.
I think the overnight crossing and shortish sleep/early rise takes a certain mindset to come to terms with, but we've endured far worse in multiple ways, so we are sure in our own minds that it's really not a bad option. We build it into our overall agenda, leisurely drive down to Portsmouth, nice meal somewhere before boarding, a beer or two on board before bed, a relaxed rise in the morning, shower and a bit of breakfast, a leisurely drive down into France to arrive early afternoon at our camp site, maybe picking up a little lunch on the way. Somehow it sets us up nicely for the more relaxed French way of life, and of course we are nicely chilled so can have a good night's sleep and maybe a lie in on our first night in the tent.
|
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
31/5/2023 at 12:30am
Location: Devizes Wiltshire
Outfit: MWB VW Crafter PVC
View Profile
Reply
Quote
|
Joined: 19/6/2009 Diamond Member
Forum Posts: 9596
Tent Reviews: 6
| Site Reviews Total: | 56 |
|
| Site Reviews 2024: | 9 |
| Site Reviews 2023: | 9 |
| Site Reviews 2022: | 8 |
| Site Reviews 2021: | 9 |
| Site Reviews 2020: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2019: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2018: | 0 |
|
| Site Nights 2024: | 45 |
| Site Nights 2023: | 47 |
| Site Nights 2022: | 46 |
| Site Nights 2021: | 34 |
| Site Nights 2020: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2019: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2018: | 0 |
|
Apologies for thread-jacking in advance, however, I find this an very interesting read even though I have made the decision to use only the Tunnel for crossing the Channel.
Some of the posts echo my own findings after my first trip to France recently, in that I was on the road for 14 hours for the return leg, leaving that campsite just after 10:00 their time, and arriving home at 23:15 our time; stopping for 1 nature break, 2 meals and 2 lots of shopping for French goodies and duty free.
Even with the stops, it was still very tiring, and I felt completely washed out the following day and did nothing except to rest.
The outward journey was fine, as I stayed at a 2-star hotel at Cité Europe after the crossing arriving just after 23:00 their time and had a good rest before a leisurely drive the next day, including a 2-hour shopping trip for provisions (I was like a kid in a sweets shop), to the campsite which is south of Bayeux. I left the hotel at 09:30 and did not arrive at the campsite until just gone 18:00.
For my next trip to France and the Netherlands in 2024, I shall break up the return leg, so that there will be less driving and time spent on the road.
I aim to overnight at a campsite in Dunkirk and have a nice meal. The next morning will the the shopping for French goodies before driving to LeShuttle for the inbound crossing, allowing time for duty free shopping.
DK 
-------------
* Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest And Play! *
- 2025 - inc. FR & DE
- 2024 - 10/56 inc. FR & NL
- 2023 - 48 inc. FR
- 2022 - 49
- 2021 - 34
* Ex-tenter & solo female camper *
* Treat life events like a dog: If you can't eat it, play with it, or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away! *
|
31/5/2023 at 1:01pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
View Profile
Reply
Quote
|
Joined: 17/9/2015 Diamond Member
Forum Posts: 2328
| Site Reviews Total: | 1 |
|
| Site Reviews 2024: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2023: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2022: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2021: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2020: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2019: | 1 |
| Site Reviews 2018: | 0 |
|
| Site Nights 2024: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2023: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2022: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2021: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2020: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2019: | 6 |
| Site Nights 2018: | 0 |
|
DK, you live and learn, not necessarily from disastrous mistakes, but sometimes you just find better ways of doing things, or perhaps in our case, ways that suit us better. We have undoubtedly got wiser as well as older.
We're damned good at planning, for many of us it's a professional skill as well as an amateur gift, and we've been doing this annual trip for nigh on 40 years so plenty of practice, but we're prepared to try different things, we've never had a total disaster, but we've certainly developed our preferences, and one is that we build in as much slack as possible and do the whole trip in as a relaxed way as we can find.
Some of those that join us at our destination later in the week do so in a 'just in time' fashion, arriving frazzled from stress and exhausted from not enough rest, we laugh at them and question WHY they choose to make things so difficult for themselves!
We regard the whole trip from the moment we set off as a leisurely adventure, we arrive at our destination in good spirits, pitch camp with a degree of ease and lack of desperate 'need', then settle down to a chilled rest of the day, because we've been on top of the task from the outset, and don't need any 'decompression' time!
|
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
|
|
9722 Visitors online !
Free UKCampsite.co.uk Window Sticker - Recommend to Friend - Add a Missing Campsite
[Message Forums]
[Caravan Sites & Camping]
[Company Listings]
[Features / Advice]
[Virtual Brochure]
[Shop!]
[Reception]
[Competitions]
[Caravans & Motorhomes For Sale]
[Event Diary]
[Contact Us]
[Tent Reviews]
Please note we are not responsible for the content of external sites & any reviews represent the author's personal view only. Please report any error here. You may view our privacy and cookie policy and terms and conditions here. All copyrights & other intellectual property rights in the design and content of this web site are reserved to the UKCampsite.co.uk © 1999 - 2024 |
Advertisement
|
|
|
via mobile 20/5/2023 at 8:16pm
