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our first trip to france with a caravan is coming up.  Living in Scotland and having three young kids we usually travel through the night.  Without a caravan we would stop in Maidstone services for a few hours, sleep and then get the ferry over around 08.00.

Having the luxury of a real bed, now is it ok to drop the legs and sleep at dover or is it better to cross and sleep at calais port for a few hours before heading south?

Are you allowed to drop legs at the port and use the gas?

if we are sleeping in the van should we also lower the jockey wheel?

Tony

I think you could have a difficulty at Dover as there is no where to park in the actual port although some suggest using the parking on the seafront. Calais does have a large parking area which is well used by caravanners so that might be a better bet. The trouble with the Maidstone Services at junction 8 on the M20 that despite having a dedicated area for caravans the space is often full of other vehicles but I suppose you could always look in.

David

We usually get onto the autoroute in France then park up and sleep for a few hours there. Take sensible precautions if doing this however.

When our kids were young we often drove through most of the night as they slept the journey away. Easy for them but tough on us the next day!

I

I think I'm right in saying that Maidstone services has a two hour limit before they start charging. The caravan are is often full of trucks and cars - ho hum. There is nowhere at dover port itself though you can possibly sleep on the seafront although alot of trucks often have the same idea and you could be disturbed by them. With regards to France I would seriously avoid sleeping in Calais - I've heard many a tale from truck drivers trying to get some kip and been disturbed by people trying to break into their trucks with a crowbar to burst the locks open. A lot of asylum seekers are in the Calais area waiting to jump the ferries and it seems that the finger of suspicion points at them alot with regards to this sort of stuff. I would suggest using the CC site at Black Horse Farm at Folkestone - you'll get a good nights kip as well as the facilities.

Quote: Originally posted by Val A on 13/6/2006

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Now thanks for that - I didn't know that there were 'facilities' in the terminal building.  We've slept overnight at Calais, but too far from any buildings to use anything.  Where exactly did you park up?   Did you check in first?

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The showers/toilets are upstairs as you go through the righthand doors of the building.

Just park on the large car park with everyone else, there is no need to checkin.  In fact, if you do, yu will not be able to use them.     It is a couple of minutes walk, but if you want to use the facilities............