France Ferry & Campsite info (use Search function) mod warning post 1

oinkely

Anatom wrote: »

The real bosses always demand a pool!!

Well, thy usually demand pool with water slides but Crozon is bereft of such facilities, and this is my part of the holiday as I can hopefully get some surfing done and catch some of the tour. After that they can demand what they like!

Locker

Dear all,

I'm a complete newbie to boards. Here's my dilemma..I wanted to book a southern french campsite for two families and thought it may be cheaper easier to book direct myself. Trying to get away from the package holidays to Spain. Both families have never driven abroad but willing to give it a try. I'm finding this all overwhelming though with no availability and no clue really where is best to go? We wanted a more sunshine and a bit of heat and plenty going on for two young families (kids all under 10)

Any advice/tips would be very much appreciated as I haven't a clue what a good deal or not?!

THANKS TO EVERYONE IN ADVANCE!

54and56

Locker wrote: »

Dear all,

I'm a complete newbie to boards. Here's my dilemma..I wanted to book a southern french campsite for two families and thought it may be cheaper easier to book direct myself. Trying to get away from the package holidays to Spain. Both families have never driven abroad but willing to give it a try. I'm finding this all overwhelming though with no availability and no clue really where is best to go? We wanted a more sunshine and a bit of heat and plenty going on for two young families (kids all under 10)

Any advice/tips would be very much appreciated as I haven't a clue what a good deal or not?!

THANKS TO EVERYONE IN ADVANCE!

Hi Locker, welcome to Boards.

I think the first question you need to ask is whether you want to bring your own cars and do the whole ferry -> long drive type of holiday which if you want the best chance of sunshine probably means going at least as far as St Jean de Monts on the West coast or do you want to do a fly drive in which case heading to the southern Mediterranean coast with more or less guaranteed sunshine is an option?

If the kids are all under 10 how important is it to have splitting the rocks sunshine every day? My own personal experience when my kids were that age was that it actually works out better having moderate sunshine and heat i.e. mid 20's and sunny or cloudy and the odd day in the high 20'd or even 30's rather than 30's every day as it allowed them to be active for much more of the day and didn't drain them as much.

Posters here will generally fall into two groups:-

1. Those like myself who do the ferry and long drive down the west coast.

2. Those who fly drive to the sunnier climate on the south coast.

StoneDeaf4Ever is a poster who has experience of both, look back for post by him for (IIRC) La Sirine on the south coast which is where he's been for the last 2-3 years but before that he spent years in Siblu campsites on the west coast.

Both options have their pro's and con's.

The big "pro" with driving yourself when you've young kids is that you can bring all their stuff with you inc bikes etc but the big "con" is they are stuck int he car and ferry for the guts of 24 hours each way. We always look at the ferry as part of the holiday and actually enjoy it but not everyone does.

Read back through the thread, ask questions and you'll get the info you need.

BTW it seems to me from the amount of marketing emails I'm getting that because the Brits aren't travelling as much this year (due to Sterling devaluation) you may find there are some good late deals available booking with the big operators such as Eurocamp and Siblu etc. If you haven't done this before there's a high comfort value in booking with them as they do take care of their guests very well.

ger34

Hi Folks.
We are thinking of holidaying in Frejus ( France ) campsite Le Baume,this Jun/July.
We did fly/drive to Frejus in 2013 and thoroughly enjoyed it, so relaxing.
This time we thought it would be more adventurous to bring our own car, so ferry to Holyhead, drive to Folkstone, take Le Shuttle to Calais, drive halfway to Frejus, stay somewhere overnight, maybe two and then on to Frejus.
So looking for pros and cons and any suggestions where to stay in central France.
We are a family of 4 with 2 boys, aged 17 and 18.
Advice regarding driving a righthand car on the wrong side of the road would be appreciated aswell.

Stone Deaf 4evr

Great post Jean, and welcome locker.
Just a background on why we initially started this kind of holiday - we had a 4 year old and a newborn and decided the best way to accommodate all the assorted stuff that goes with a baby was to load up the car and roofbox and hit the road.
We moved away from the west coast as -either by bad luck or climate changes - we had hit rain on two of our trips which kind of knocked the good out of it somewhat.

A few websites to get you started
Lifestyleholidays.Co.UK. Eurocamp.IE and siblu.IE are all good starting points. I'd you're going by car, Get google maps up on your laptop and start checking how far each one is from the relevant ferry port - it'll either be cherbourg or roscoff and see if the drive is something you think you'll manage. Also - check how far the nearest airport is - nantes can serve at Jean de monts, Angeles sur mer is only 30 minutes from perpignan, and about 1.5 hours from girona in Spain.

Don't be afraid to bombard the thread with questions, plenty folk in here to point you in the right direction.

kfc1

darragh o meara wrote: »

Heading to Le Littoral in June, Is this one of the campsites that insist on the men wearing the budgie smugglers in the pool?
Any other info on the place? Is there much in the surrounding areas for day trips for kids?

Hi there,
We were there last June, really enjoyed it. Great pool/slides, yes smugglers are required!
I'd recommend Le Grand Defi - tree park with trails, laser tag etc. Not cheap but bring a picnic and you'd easily spend the day here.
Quartier de l'Ile de Penotte is a street in near by Les Sable dlonne (town about 15 min drive) with artwork made from shells on facade. Cute & free!
Highlight for me was Le Puy Du Fou. Bout an hours drive. Historical theme park with top class reenactments. Really fab. Pricey but so worth it!
Enjoy!

Locker

Thank you Jean and also for the welcome!

I have just been finding that its working out dearer that a package holiday has made me question wether i should just wait until Autumn and try book for next year. When i looked at the ferries alone it was nearly e1500 in total and that was a lot higher than expected. The campsites also seem to be working out for around e1300 for 7-10 days would that be normal prices?

I have been looking at Eurocamp and Siblu. I've been reading eurocamp reviews also and some of them have put me off some of the sites. When you save so hard for holidays for the family you want it to be worth it and not arrive to problems. Siblu seem to have better reviews for sure.

I suppose in terms of wether we have been doing staycations for the past number of years and to be honest we are hoping for no rain at least but agree in terms of the heat for children! Also my girls are used to travelling and think the novelty of a boat they would find awesome but am not sure for the other family that i'm hoping to go away with. The thoughts of driving abroad is somewhat daunting but am ready to give it a try.

Thanks so much for your reply and advice i'll keep hunting for now!

Locker

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

Great post Jean, and welcome locker.
Just a background on why we initially started this kind of holiday - we had a 4 year old and a newborn and decided the best way to accommodate all the assorted stuff that goes with a baby was to load up the car and roofbox and hit the road.
We moved away from the west coast as -either by bad luck or climate changes - we had hit rain on two of our trips which kind of knocked the good out of it somewhat.

A few websites to get you started
Lifestyleholidays.Co.UK. Eurocamp.IE and siblu.IE are all good starting points. I'd you're going by car, Get google maps up on your laptop and start checking how far each one is from the relevant ferry port - it'll either be cherbourg or roscoff and see if the drive is something you think you'll manage. Also - check how far the nearest airport is - nantes can serve at Jean de monts, Angeles sur mer is only 30 minutes from perpignan, and about 1.5 hours from girona in Spain.

Don't be afraid to bombard the thread with questions, plenty folk in here to point you in the right direction.

Thanks so much for that. I've a bit of time on my hands this afternoon so will definitely go and look now!

drunkmonkey

Has anyone drove to somewhere like Le Soleil Campsite, would like it to be somewhat of a beach holiday but don't fancy jumping in the atlantic so as close to the baleric sea as possible or the south east of France I presume is where the warmest water will be. Or is that just crazy driving.

fdevine

We've booked both via the likes of AlFresco & Eurocamp as well as booking direct with sites. For the last number of years we have done fly-drive as the ferry costs have been prohibitive (for us at least). We've generally saved c.25-30% doing fly-drive.

Some sites are much better than others and some providers will be significantly cheaper than others even for the same park. Plenty of parks will have their own kids clubs & activities and if this is the case you will normally find that the provider will not have activities.

The issue we've had with Eurocamp in the past is not the quality of park but the fact that their accommodation can be older mobiles in areas of the park further away from the main facilities. It's never spoiled a holiday though.

Research some parks for facilities, activities & access. Compare prices. Look on review sites. Don't be afraid of fly-drive.

We did south of France a few years back. Flew to Nice, drove to Fréjus, stayed at Camping Esterel. Close to St.Raphael, St.Tropex, Cannes, Nice, Monaco etc. Loved it.

josip

We're lucky in that we have a well adjusted, tolerant 17 year old and a 7 year old who doesn't get car sick and can listen to audio books for hours without complaining.
So we usually overnight north of La Rochelle and get to the Med the next day, where we'll lay up for a bit before moving on.

flangemeistro

I'm in neither the drive 24hr camp or the fly drive camp.
We've been to Brittany four times in the last 6 years and the furthest we've driven is 2.5 hours to Domaine Des Ormes in Dol De Bretange.

We started traveling with a 2 year old, last year was a 5 year old and a 1 year old and this year will be with a 6 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old.
Three times we've travelled in late May early June and once in early September.

I find it wholly unnecessary to waste a full 2 days of your holiday to achieve 30 plus degree temperatures but everyone to their own.

I'm going for dry weather with temps in the early 20s which we've achieved on all four occasions with three days of rain over all four trips.

Some people will say we're lucky and maybe we are lucky but the facilities in Des Ormes & Les Mouettes are second to none from doing some serious research and review reading.

Last year we spent our first week in Benodet and we got mid 20s in the first week in June, it was even a little to hot for the kids so I told herself not to worry that the second park was up north in Carantec so it would be cooler, Murphy's law the lowest we experienced there was 28 and on two days was unbearable.

We're doing three weeks this year around the same dates taking in Domaine De Kerlann, Des Ormes and Mouettes and between ferry and accommodation it's coming in at €1800 for the 3 weeks.

I normally book with Eurocamp but this year they were upto €500 dearer for our selected campsites so I booked a combination of Siblu, Canvas and Brittany Ferries.

Some people will criticize me for taking my child out of school but one week in July in our selected mobile home was more expensive than our three weeks and ferry in June which I refuse to pay and I'm sure she'll catch up on her jollphonics & learning with love when she gets back.

It's great to travel with the car and being able to bring everything you want and being able to bring things back but if you're traveling for 24 hours or more to get to your destination purely for a tan then you should really consider a package holiday to the Canary's.

The majority of people on this thread are super helpful but I've noticed recently a bit of snobbery and ignorance if you say that you only travelled two hours and had the holiday of your life.
It's like they don't want to hear it because they wear their two day drive like a badge of honour.
As I said the majority of people are super helpful but just pointing out that you don't need to take unnecessary journeys for the perfect French Campsite holiday there's a third option.
Enjoy whatever you choose.

Quazzie

I've done the sail and drive when going to the 24Hr in LeMans, and can see the benefit of doing that. When travelling with my family tho I can't help but think that it's a day wasted on the ferry. And not in the way that it's a wasted day because we wouldn't enjoy it, anytime I've used it has been great and feels like less than the indicated travel time, but the way i see it, it's two extra days I'm taking off work which I could've spent in my selected site. That's why we fly and rent a hire car. We prefer the Cote D'Azur anyways so it works out better for us. Last year we flew into Nice at the end of June, and drove to Frejus, and we loved every second of it. We are doing the same this year, but in August, and we also booked a week at the end of June in La Sirene in Argeles Sur Mer. We're flying into Barcelona for that. On both trips we booked our flights as early as possible and got great deals (c.€100/person return).

Having been in LeMans and also being in the Cote D'Azur I would definitely recommend the further south option if sun is important to you as I found LeMans to be like Ireland on a warm day weather wise. My personal taste is for something a bit hotter.

Stone Deaf 4evr

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Has anyone drove to somewhere like Le Soleil Campsite, would like it to be somewhat of a beach holiday but don't fancy jumping in the atlantic so as close to the baleric sea as possible or the south east of France I presume is where the warmest water will be. Or is that just crazy driving.

camping la soleil is in the same town as La Sirene, wehere we've been going for the last few years. Its a fair old drive, I wouldnt do it again personally. we didnt want to do it all in one mega haul. - google maps has it at an extremely optimistic 10 hours - in reality , and allowing for breaks I reckon 14 to 16 is a more accurate estimation. So between the night on the Ferry, eight hours the first day, eight the second, and then do that again on the way home, you've nearly 6 days of your holiday purely spent on travelling.

If my trip was to be over 3 weeks, I'd possible consider it again, but only so I could stop for a day or so in La Rochelle or Bordeaux.

Stone Deaf 4evr

Locker wrote: »

Thank you Jean and also for the welcome!

I have just been finding that its working out dearer that a package holiday has made me question wether i should just wait until Autumn and try book for next year. When i looked at the ferries alone it was nearly e1500 in total and that was a lot higher than expected. The campsites also seem to be working out for around e1300 for 7-10 days would that be normal prices?

I have been looking at Eurocamp and Siblu. I've been reading eurocamp reviews also and some of them have put me off some of the sites. When you save so hard for holidays for the family you want it to be worth it and not arrive to problems. Siblu seem to have better reviews for sure.

I suppose in terms of wether we have been doing staycations for the past number of years and to be honest we are hoping for no rain at least but agree in terms of the heat for children! Also my girls are used to travelling and think the novelty of a boat they would find awesome but am not sure for the other family that i'm hoping to go away with. The thoughts of driving abroad is somewhat daunting but am ready to give it a try.

Thanks so much for your reply and advice i'll keep hunting for now!

Just from personal experience

Price wise, the campsites vary massively from month to month. june is reasonable, but expect big hikes in July and August. The ferry seems to be getting more expensive every year, but thats based purely on my own observations. Also, bear in mind that 99% of activites at the camp will be included in the price, so you're really only paying for food and drink once you arrive.

Eurocamp v Siblu - eurocamp tend to keep mobile homes on big sites, but dont actually own the camps - as in, they might have 15 to 20 or so homes on a place that has a capacity of over a hundred. Siblu camps are owned by the company, thats why there is less of a selection.
I've stayed with both, couldn't fault either for the most part, what I would advise though, is to see if you can book a home on a campsite cheaper via another website.

For example - the first year we went to la sirene, we booked via eurocamp, the second year we stayed at the same camp, but booked via lifestyle holidays - you'd be surprised at the difference..

webpal

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

Just from personal experience

Price wise, the campsites vary massively from month to month. june is reasonable, but expect big hikes in July and August. The ferry seems to be getting more expensive every year

I actually did up an analysis for this summer to see when we would go. I priced all Irish ferries from Rosslare and BF from Cork return and 14 nights in a mobile. The prices of all combinations was between 2915 and 3082 between start of July and August bank holiday, end of June was 200 cheaper. It seems the boat prices decreased in August but accommodation increased. Flying wouldn’t have made it cheaper when car rental was accounted for.

fdevine

As with what webpal did above we analysed several dates for various flights & accommodation options. Variations in price, but in general when flights were cheaper accommodation was more expensive & vice versa.

Aside from overall costs though options are down to personal preference & budget. Budget can often conflict with school term time but I'm in the they can catch up on a missed week in primary school. This year we have a Junior Certer so getting nailed on flights & accommodation to a degree.

We've done Brittany (ferry with own car), Cote D'Azur (fly-drive via Nice), Lido di Jesolo (flight & public transport), Picardy (fly-drive via Beauvais) & Duinrell, Holland (flight & private transfer from Schipol). This year will be Salou via public transport from Barcelona.

Can't honestly see us ever taking the ferry again, even with a cabin. Fly-drive is usually our preference but only if a car is essential to get where we're going.

perrier

Was considering the area around Sete for a family holiday. Anyone been there? Cant find much information on the net. We have a couple of teenagers.

fdevine

perrier wrote: »

Was considering the area around Sete for a family holiday. Anyone been there? Cant find much information on the net. We have a couple of teenagers.

What kind of information are you looking for?

https://www.tripadvisor.ie/Tourism-g660465-Sete_Herault_Occitanie-Vacations.html

https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-sete-france/

tricky D

Good location with plenty of day trip options: Avignon, Nimes, Arles, Pont du Gard, Montpellier, Cap d'Agde and loads more along the train line.

perrier

Thanks for the recommendations. What are the beaches like? We are looking at renting privately owned apartments but anywhere outside of the city centre seems a bit souless on streetview.

McSween

Does the Oscar Wilde pick up a roaming signal from UK from Rosslare to Roscoff. I havent been on the route in ten years and the last time I picked up a ship cellular signal (which was then reflected on my next bill). And is the wifi any good in cabins?

First Up

McSween wrote: »

Does the Oscar Wilde pick up a roaming signal from UK from Rosslare to Roscoff. I havent been on the route in ten years and the last time I picked up a ship cellular signal (which was then reflected on my next bill). And is the wifi any good in cabins?

You get occasional phone coverage on the crossing but it isn't consistent or reliable.

Wifi only works well in the public areas - hopeless in cabins. Availability in public areas depends on how many coach loads of French or Irish schoolkids are on board. If there's many of them, forget it as they are all using their smartphones all the time.

So if you want video entertainment, pre-load or bring CDs

54and56

McSween wrote: »

Does the Oscar Wilde pick up a roaming signal from UK from Rosslare to Roscoff. I havent been on the route in ten years and the last time I picked up a ship cellular signal (which was then reflected on my next bill).

You'll get the Irish signal for a few miles out to sea from Rosslare and pick up the French networks once you are close to Roscoff but for the rest of the journey you'll be "roaming" on their "Marine Network" which IIRC doesn't fall within the general EU tariff rules so unless you absolutely need data you'd be well advised to keep data roaming turned off. I'm not sure what the tariff is for making and receiving calls or sending and receiving SMS messages but I don't think it's too bad provided you keep usage to a minimum.

Some very good info here.

darragh o meara

McSween wrote: »

Does the Oscar Wilde pick up a roaming signal from UK from Rosslare to Roscoff. I havent been on the route in ten years and the last time I picked up a ship cellular signal (which was then reflected on my next bill). And is the wifi any good in cabins?

In some occasions I have connected to a UK network when the ship sails off the coast of the UK. Depends on the conditions though cos it doesn’t always happen. As for the rest of the trip you are connected to a marine connection which is extortionate so make sure your data roaming is OFF...

In fact here is the text you get from your network when you roam to the marine network:

Important Roaming information while travelling by SEA. Please note that costs are significantly higher than normal roaming costs as your connection is provided by Satellite. On your current plan Calls cost 2.99 euro per minute to make a call, 2.99 euro per minute to receive a call, 70c to send a text and for Internet 6.15 euro per MB. See vodafone.ie/roaming for more information including our T&C's. If you have any questions please call our free Roaming Care number +35312038232. For Emergency Services dial 112.

CelticRambler

First thing I would do is not go via Holyhead/Calais. You'll have 1200km of a journey in France, so why add another few hundred UK kms, the M25 and another check-in at Folkestone? Take the ferry from Dublin to Cherbourg instead and start the adventure on Day1.

And if it's really the "more adventurous" you're after, keep the motorway driving to a minimum. Apart from saving a small fortune in tolls, you'll see more of the "real France". Google will send you via Paris as a preference and down the overcrowded Paris-Lyon route, but I'd go Cherbourg - Tours - Châteauroux - Montluçon - Clermont-Ferrand; then either down the A7 to Frejus and back up the A75 for the return journey, or (my preference, if you have the time) right over to the Parc des Ecrins and back through the Parc des Cévennes (or vice versa).

If you time things to arrive in/around Châteauroux between the 12-15th July, I would highly recommend spending a couple of days at Le Son Continu festival, camping included. I'll put your two lads to work, so you won't have to feed them or keep them occupied (might have trouble getting them to leave though! )

fdevine

You'd be looking at around three days of travel to get to Fréjus which TBH is not a holiday.

As CelticRambler pointed out, Calais to Fréjus is 1200km. Abitious IMHO to split that into two legs.

I'd honestly stick with the fly-drive and be feet up in the sun within a single day.

manshay

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

A few websites to get you started
Lifestyleholidays.Co.UK. Eurocamp.IE and siblu.IE

There is an Irish company called Campotel who are streets ahead of the larger companies. The staff that we met were mostly Irish school teachers, so their kids clubs were excellent. They had the cleanest accommodation, we cleaned our accommodation very well but they then spent up to 1 hour cleaning it too.

(Last summer we went with Eurocamp in Bella Italia, Lake Garda. We checked out, without intensively cleaning the accommodation as per instructions, 20 minutes later we walked past the mobile and a dutch family were moving in; it had not been touched)

I have no links to Campotel apart from the fact I am a happy customer.
We are not using them again this year as they don't offer accommodation where we want to go

westgolf

Wondering how many of the posters on here spent the last few days of the lock down planning the trip for this year ? Instead of trying to do a bit now n again one could surf away all day between snowball fights.

Staplor

manshay wrote: »

There is an Irish company called Campotel who are streets ahead of the larger companies. The staff that we met were mostly Irish school teachers, so their kids clubs were excellent. They had the cleanest accommodation, we cleaned our accommodation very well but they then spent up to 1 hour cleaning it too.

(Last summer we went with Eurocamp in Bella Italia, Lake Garda. We checked out, without intensively cleaning the accommodation as per instructions, 20 minutes later we walked past the mobile and a dutch family were moving in; it had not been touched)

I have no links to Campotel apart from the fact I am a happy customer.
We are not using them again this year as they don't offer accommodation where we want to go

I've gone with them 3 years now. Really good, last year was an extended family trip, all different operators in the same park. I wasn't bowled over by any of the others though.