Minimum length of time needed...
I'd love to take our caravan abroad but we are unfortunately constrained by school holidays and work...roll on retirement!
Realistically, and I'm looking for all your own thoughts on this, the seasoned international travellers on the site, could we go abroad..and have a relaxing break if we only had Thursday evening to a week the following Sunday? So, it would be 10 nights in total and an extra travelling day on the last Sunday.
Italy would be the dream but I'm guessing there is no realistic way so Germany? Austria? Last choice France.
It's probably a no but it would be great to hear thoughts...
Comments
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Italy within that time scale no.
But Lincolnshire to Harwich on a Thursday evening in April, overnight in a good cabin to Hook of Holland , see the bulb fields, be amazed at Keukenhof display garden, spend a day or two in Amsterdam, look at the Rembrandts, see the old ports on the IjsselMeer, the open air museum at Enkhuisen, over the dike to Lelystad where they build replicas of square rigged ships, borrow free bikes in Hoge Veluwe national park, see the Van Goghs at the Kroller Muller Museum, then drive to Het Loo palace......
Enjoy your trip.
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Personally for that length of time, towing a caravan, I would not consider anything other than the northern part of France, down to say the Loire. Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and the northern part of Germany, say as far as the Moselle. Ferry port / route
would depend on destination.0 -
Agree with both of the above; being Dutch I particuarly like eurortraveller's suggestion
Holland is lovely, there are many nice places to visit.We once went to France for 9 days when we were working and we had a caravan. We crossed late on Friday evening, overnighted at the port, arrived in the Loire late afternoon Saturday and had a fabulous week in Chateauneuf-sur-Loire. That was at the end
of September (many years ago now!) and we couldn't have wished for better weather.I'd say that would be the limit for a total of 10 days.
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I really like eurotraveller's suggestion, if you don't want overnight on the ferry you can always use a CL close to Harwich. I'm bookmarking his suggestion for future reference.
We did 2 weeks in Normandy, lovely area, Portsmouth - Caen. Lots to see and do regarding war and D Day beaches Bayeux is nice too. We stayed on a site with a swimming pool and bar, not usually our scene, but it was great and maybe if it's children that
restrict you to school holidays they can make their own entertainment? We too are hampered by work and a daughter who lives in NZ so to save annual leave it's generally local0 -
You don't say how old the children are but if they are the right age I second Normandy for a mix of beaches with a bit of history thrown in.
I'm interested in why France is a last choice. I have to say when we first went thirty years ago my husband was about as anti the French as it was possible to be. However one or two holidays taken in France, for better weather after some really wet holidays
here, and he was a total convert telling everyone how they had the right idea and we were wrong. We now holiday in France most years.0 -
10 days is easily doable. We've done it to Germany and back in 9 days towing a large caravan. You can easily drive from the coast say Zeebrugge/Hook of Holland area to the Mosel in 1 day then spend the week working your way up or down the Mosel then drive
back to the coast for ferry home. You could even go to Luxembourg. Enjoy it where ever you go, we are also newly converted to France there is just so much to see and do.0 -
eurortraveller beat me to it. When I lived in Norfolk, I nipped across for Easter and had a wonderful time. I like to escape and relax and you don’t need to spend days travelling to achieve that. Your time will come (sooner than you might think) when you
can plan extended tours. In the meantime I suggest you shorten your horizons. I also thought negatively about France at first but have since come to realise what a nice place it can be. There’s so much space, too, you don’t need to rub shoulders with berets,
bicycles or garlic.0 -
I'm interested in why France is a last choice.
Sorry, should have clarified, we have "done" France every year for the last 14 - Normandy, Brittany, Loire, Dordogne, I could keep going but I'll just end up naming more regions hah.
I love France but we just wanted to try different places. We've also been lucky enough to visit Netherlands many times as I have relatives there and the flight is literally a 40 min hop from humberside to Schipol. That's really why Germany, Austria and Italy
were the countries of choice.Germany sounds intriguing though, thanks Tammygirl - Given that we are 1hr away from the Hull ferry I'm really going to look into this. I'd love to know the route and sites you stayed on
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Cheap flight to Italy and rent a room - or even a whole apartment.
Caravans are not the only way!
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We used to go for 2 weeks when we worked. Used the Caen crossing overnight as we could drive down to Portsmouth from Manchester in time for the 11pm crossing. Depart Caen about 6am before the rush and be down on the Loire or Vendee about lunchtime. Having
slept on the boat you arrived reasonably fresh at the start of the holiday . Same route in reverse top return, ferry from Caen at 11pm , leave Portsmouth at 6am and be back in Manchester about 1pm.0 -
hmm..might need to rethink the Hull part - £956 return! The tip I would give you with this ferry is first use the club to book it don't go direct to P&O, second speak to the agents at the club and be as flexible as possible, third a weekend crossing Sat/Sun is usually cheaper and if you couple this with buying 7 camping cheques it can bring even more savings (strange I know but true) we crossed last April rtn June with motorhome and trailer for under £300 (can't remember actual cost now) £104 of that was for the camping cheques, these could be used or sold.
As to our journey we used the Hull to Zeebrugge route but Rotterdam works just as well and its a slightly shourter crossing, we have also gone out Rotterdam and home Zeebrugge, that way you can stop over in Holland for a night if you want then go down the to Koblenz to start your week trip down the Mosel, there are plenty of sites Acsi is well supported. We like Bernkastel, Cochem, Trauben Traubach, Trier and Saarburg is a must. For Trier we would not use the site in Trier itself if we were going again but one of the sites just outside. Camping Trevis in Trier can be busy cramped and not as clean as you would like, it is also across the river from the German emergancy service depot, so can have sirens going off at all hours. For the Mosel I would look at doing a site half wayish down then one near the bottom and do visits out from the site, as you have a caravan that is the easist way you could visit a couple of places every day. You could also choose to go Hull - Zeebrugge then straight of the ferry 8.30 in the morning and be in Luxembourg by the mid afternoon if you stay around Diekirch area you can reach the city itself and all of Luxembourg country from there and even take a trip into Germany to either Bitburg or Trier, you might even manage a trip to Brugge on your way back
Sorry for the long post but if you want any more ideas always happy to share.0 -
Germany is easily do-able either with an overnight stop near Calais en-route or a single drive from Rotterdam/Zeebruge. How far you can get depends on what your daily driving distance comfort level is, I am happy towing for upto 400 miles, others think 200 in a day is too far. There is a lovely site in Saarburg which in itself is a gem of a place and only 40 mins drive from Trier and just over an hour from Luxemburg City.
However one thing to remember if planning to use any of the north sea ferry routes is the rise in demand from users (especially HGV's) who wish to avoid the fun and games in Calais. This will impact on availability and price.
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