Touring in France
We are thinking of taking our caravan to France but hearing the horror stories from Calais has put us off. Any advice from those who regularly do the journey?
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Depends where you are heading, but Hull to Zeebrugge is a nice crossing and not so far to drive from West Yorkshire. Even if you are heading for the south of France, there is little difference in distance from using Calais, and you get off the night boat ready for a decent days travel. Not so good for western France though, we tend to use Portsmouth St Malo for that.
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As Deleted User User says thousands go with no trouble at all and we have frequently been one of them. However we often use the Portsmouth/Caen crossing for the west of France. I think you will find that the horror stories involve lorries and so far, thank Heavens, they have left the motorhomes and caravans alone. The moving of the camp should make the situation even better but don't be put off, France is a wonderful place to caravan.
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You will find no problems in Calais - even at the height of the 'Jungle problems' we travelled through Calais and the only things we saw were more police vans, more very high fencing, and not a single migrant.
A couple of years ago it was usual to see the odd very skinny young man wandering along the motorway verge - but the high fencing and police presence now prevents this.
Go for it - use a different port if you're really worried, but France is such a beautiful, simple and relatively inexpensive place to tour that, like us you may still be going back every year in thirty-odd years' time!
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PetenHelen, If you don't fancy Calais there are ferries from U.K. to Dunkerque, Dieppe, Le Havre, Ouistreham, Cherbourg, St Malo and Roscoff - and that's just the French side of things. Bon voyage.
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Is that just the ferry fare or are you factoring in the cost of travelling to Dover and your journey thereafter?
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Just the ferry, which was £113.50 return for the 2 of us plus car and large caravan.
Though since we are going mainly to Germany it will save a few miles on that side.
No significant distance saving in UK, but as we are also having a couple of weeks in UK at each end, that is not a consideration.
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As with everyone else PetenHelen, I really wouldn't worry about migrants etc. We've travelled every year, sometimes twice a year by both ferry and tunnel and had no problems at all.
We travel down to Dover from S Yorks and stop over at Black Horse but this year I'm tempted to drive straight down, cross the Channel and then stop in northern France for the night. At least then an early getaway will allow us to get cracking! Enjoy.
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Thanks for all the comments. We will start making plans. We will have our 10 year old son and the cockerpoo to consider. We did think about the Hull crossing but just wondered about conditions for the pooch. Nothing usually bothers him much, but again any advice welcome.
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For the ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge your dog MUST go into the on board kennels. The P&O website gives sizes of kennels on their various ships, and says that staff visit every two hours to check on animals and will escort you there to check yourself if you ask at reception. You pay £17 each way for the dog.
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I'm doing the same route too in June. 2 pas, 4x4 and 7.3 caravan. I can go a bit better than KjellNN I've paid £112.60. Couldn't say no.
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KjellNN. We are heading to Slovenia. I understand there is a lot of ongoing road improvement work going on in Germany. Do you know what are the worst areas? If we can we'd like to avoid them if we can. Thanks.
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My advice for Calais is to do the return leg during the day and not at night and go careful stopping at services close to Calais other than that you won't get any problems.
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I have no idea, we booked it in October via the CC. OH is skilled at finding the good offers.
I believe we even have free amendments, but have not tested that yet.
iIt did seem a price too good to ignore, plus we have not visited that area of East Anglia before, so win-win.
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Sorry, cannot help with that, we are heading north to the Baltic Coast eventually, as far as I know.........OH decides our route mainly!
However, I can say that road works are generally well managed in Germany, and they do aim to keep delays to a minimum.
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Thank you
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Thanks AD. It's sort of your route I have been looking at using.
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Because we now live in Kent, it is easy for us to go to Calais. Just before Xmas we did a day trip through the tunnel and spent the day in and around Calais. Whilst we saw a lot of high fences and plenty of police, we saw nobody looking like a migrant desperate to cross to the UK. In fact, we didn't see anyone looking desperate in any way at all, except perhaps the British lady somewhat concerned that she wouldn't get all the wine she had bought into her car.
Go and enjoy yourselves. The exchange rate is not as good as it was a year ago, but French sites are still a great deal cheaper than British and many are run to a much higher standard, although I can't fault the club's sites other than all of the rules.
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I used the Eurotunnel 2 years ago at the end of July. Was nothing other than hell to the point that we gave it a miss last year. However, I'm hoping with the jungle having been dismantled it will be a lot better. If you have a choice then I would avoid it on the tunnel. The ferries don't seem to be as affected
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We have done France four out of the last five years and travel in the summer school holidays when he migrant crisis seems to be worse. We avoided France in 2016, one reason being the total and utter nightmare we suffered with the Eurotunnel delays 2015. We sat for 6 hours in a jam outside of Folkestone and hardly moved. BBC there reporting etc. HOWEVER....2016 looked a lot better and now the Jungle has been dismantled it will I'm sure improve further.
We have travelled to the Vendee before although going further south this year. My timetable, depending on where you are heading is to leave West Yorkshire by 7am, travel through the tunnel by 1-2 pm and travel on to south of Rouen (staying at Camping St Nicholas just by the main route). I then do the 250 miles the next day to Vendee although it will be further south this year
we have done Hull to Zebrugge. Really enjoyed it but not so great coming home as you cannot do much mileage the last day to the terminal for fear of missing the ferry home. We sat in the terminal thinking we could have just gone through the tunnel and pushed on home. It isn't cheap either but extremely relaxing way of doing it
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Travelling from the west of the UK we tend to use the Portsmouth / Caen crossing which we find excellent.
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