Advice for taking motorhome to France please
Hi everyone, my wife and I are planning on going to France this summer, I have just tried to book a ferry tonight through the CC:
Portsmouth to St Malo ferry (Brittany Ferries)
St Malo to Portsmouth ferry (Brittany Ferries)
£587.50
Which we were unable to do, I am waiting for the CC to get back to me. Does anyone have any better suggestions/ cheaper to get to as close to La Rochelle as possible by boat, we like the idea of doing an overnight crossing - waking up feeling refreshed for the drive ahead.
We are planning on visiting La Rochelle (nothing is set in stone) and staying in this region of France, we are both in our mid thirties and would like/ appreciate any suggestions on where to stay or go, we would love to be on the seafront and for the campsite to have entertainment and a swimming pool/ water park and be relatively close to tourist attractions - is this too much to ask?
We haven't done this kind of holiday before and would really value input from those of you who have.
How much do you think we should be paying for a motorhome pitch per night, do they all come with electric and water on the pitch?
Sorry if this is a stupid question, are you allowed to sleep in your motorhome on the boat?
Do you have to buy a toll road pass before you use the roads in France? (I don't want any nasty surprises when I get home)
Thank you for any help/ advice in advance,
Nick.
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1. You can't sleep in your motorhome overnight. The car decks where you will be parked are not open to passengers during a crossing. So on a night crossing you will need a cabin for a 'relaxing sleep' or a reclining chair if you can sleep anywhere!!!
2. You can pay almost any amount between nothing, and fifty odd euros, depending on the type of site and the exact dates you want to be on holiday. There are motorhome 'Aires de Service Camping Car' which are specifically for motorhomes and some of which are free, for others there is a charge. Generally they have somewhere to hook up, and some of them have a toilet and shower block, but you usually have to pay for those facilities. There are municipal sites run by the local 'town hall', some which can be very cheap - though in tourist areas they tend to be more expensive. There are over 10,000 campsites in France and prices can vary from 8 euros to upwards of fifty-odd euros depending on dates, site facilities and area.
There are discount schemes such as an ACSI Card (www.campingcard.co.uk) which offers sites from 11 euros to 19 euros and this covers the pitch, two adults, car and caravan (or motorhome or tent), awning and electricity. The other discount scheme is Camping Cheques, and it may be possible to get a discount on your ferry crossing by adding Camping Cheques to make an ITX package. It sounds crazy but sometimes adding on the cheques can bring down the cost of 'the package' by much more than the cost of the cheques. Be sure to ask the Caravan Club staff for two quotes - one without Camping Cheques and the other with - and if there isn't a significant discount ask if it would make a difference to change a date or a time.
Here is one such quote (from a contributor on here)
Our 2017 trip, Brittany Ferries Plymouth/Roscoff out Thursday night in May and back Sunday morning in June, and the cost of the ferry portion of the fare was £241 including the cabin (then add on the cost of three Camping Cheques). The price booking direct with BF? ................£573 without any Camping Cheques so a saving of £332. I shall be using the Camping Cheques so would have bought them anyway .
If you intend to use toll roads then it is useful to buy a 'tag' but you can pay the tolls with cash or card, or not use the toll roads at all. In some areas there are no toll roads anyway!
When are you planning to go on holiday? Have a look at the ACSI Card website for a whole variety of sites in one website - and then if you like the look of any have a look at the campsite's own website to compare what you would pay with and without an ACSI Card. There are obviously lots of other sites which are not in the ACSI scheme, but I don't know that area so aren't able to recommend a particular site.
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As this will be your first visit to France in a motorhome, perhaps you could consider not going as far west and south as La Rochelle. From Warwickshire you could easily make it to France via Dover/Calais on day one ( at a fraction of the cost/time via Portsmouth).
In season, there are campsites open all over France from 'Holiday Camps' to simple municipals. The high season in France is July and the first two weeks in August: outside of that period there are plenty of pitches available with no need for booking.
As you're in your thirties, and presumably working, time off is shorter than for us old fogies so use the motorway and hang the expense if you want to go far!
Be aware, France is a big country so check your mileage on Michelin or other route planners. On the motorway, 300 miles a day is easily achievable unlike UK.
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Nick, Ferry costs. The cheapest one way overnight cabin on Brittany Ferries - a cell with a double bunk - will add £55 to the base cost. Bigger and better cabins are dearer than that. Does that put your St Malo price over £600? By contrast a daytime return from Portsmouth to Caen or Plymouth to Roscoff will be in the order of half that figure. Say £300 return in July with a large Motorhome.
The sort of campsite you are asking for - seafront + water park + bar + restaurant + entertainment - does exist. Look at the Overseas Sites on here for examples and prices. For the peak summer period you may have to act quickly and they may even be fully booked already. For quieter times they will have space but may not have all those facilities operating.
So your timing is crucial. If you can go outside the peak six week period you can simply go and explore - and instead of choosing a single site in advance you can go and find the places you like and those you don't like, and make a note of them for next year. Good luck.
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Hi GForce84. As this is your first motorhome trip to France, do you feel it necessary to travel so far? Your camp site needs suggest you may spend a good portion of your time on site with trips nearby to sight-see.
To get the top quality sites you cannot go far wrong with the Castles and Camping chain of sites. They are sited all over France and the website gives full details of each one.
http://www.camping-castels.co.uk/41-camping-france-id11.html2 -
Not sure why everyone is saying "why go so far"? If its 300 miles then at a reasonable pace on the motorway that's about 6-7 hours inc stops, obviously longer if you dawdle at 50mph...
Cant comment on what ferry to get but agree with OGAS about Castells but there are loads of sites in France that offer good amenities etc. If going in peak then I would book as it gets full especially in August.
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It's an even easier journey than that.
It's a mere 204 miles from St Malo to La Rochelle. So with an 0815 ferry arrival one can be in La Rochelle in time for lunch on the quayside.
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At risk of teaching granny............eggs, so forth:
You can easily discover sites and costs by going online to the many websites. I use the ACSI guide even out of their cheap low season prices.
Make sure you have the obligatory items with you; reflective tabards, light bulb set, beam benders, V5, insurance and licence docs..........see the AA or one of the many other websites for full info.
Be sure to have sufficient gas as you cannot exchange Calor cylinders in France.
Bonne route!
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Hi Valda,
I will check this acsi card out, it sounds like a good idea, in regards to camping cheques, is this something that you purchase through the CC and then turn up to a site and use as "currency"?
We don't have any specific dates in mind - but would like to go between July and August (to have the weather).
Sorry about the daft question of sleeping on the motorhome overnight on the boat!!
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Hi Deleted User User,
its really funny you mention the Caen route, when I spoke to CC today, they gave me a quote for this particular route (Portsmouth - Caen return), we do like the idea of sleeping over night on the boat and hitting the road in the am, do you recommend anywhere in particular in western France?
Nick.
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Camping Cheques can be bought from the Caravan Club and each one pays for a night on site for two adults, car and caravan, or motorhome/tent/etc, awning, and electricity. However, though there are some sites which take them during July and August I doubt very much that any of these are in the La Rochelle area. However, if you did buy them as part of a package in order to save on the cost of a ferry, and aren't able to use them yourself, then others may purchase them from you.
If there is any possibility that you can holiday outside July/August then like others I would suggest that June (and even the last two weeks in August) will give you much more choice of sites,, cheaper prices, and less pressure on site facilities.
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If going in July or August then like us ASCI will be of no use as it's for low season only, however the sites are all open so the book may be helpful as a reference but there are many books out there and good Web sites to help planning.
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