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

This is exactly my thinking.

We drove from marseille to la Baume last year and this year it was carcassonne to la sirene. I can't imagine enjoying the ferry/long drive route at all but each to their own.

We were there last year. Lots of Irish and not so many English (presuming that was because we went end of june) and mainly French. There is a soccer pitch and playground.

The site is extremely compact as in it feels every bit of space is utilised. The mobiles are on a teeny tiny site and very close together. Lovely long decking but no green space around mobiles. We enjoyed ourselves. Pool was super but i wouldn't go back .

We had both! I know it's a silly thing to factor in but as mentioned the laundry facilities are usually a bit crap and with five of us there's lots of laundry.

perfect thanks for that. We’ll be booking over the next few weeks, so doing as much research as I can, before we choose where to go. 3 lots of parents will all need to agree, which will be the issue 🤣

@Jeffm587 agree my kids refuse to fly as they love the ferry so much. We sailed with Brittany Ferries this year for the first and all agreed we will only sail with Irish Ferries in future, much better experience. It really is a great start to the holidays

I think that's another thing that puts me off. It's all OK saying the holiday starts on the ferry but then you've a few hours to drive afterwards presumably, it's impossible to relax while driving over there.

We always book club class on if and works out good value for money, we find it very relaxing, lots of quite comfy seating. BF was so so loud, couldn't escape the sound of the loud live music, there was a piano bar area but not much seating in that area, on hindsight I'd have packed extra layers and just sat out on the deck for as long as possible. Though I will say food much cheaper but quality fairly poor. Also suspected bed bug bites on BF.

My car hire this year was literally half the price of last year. I paid €330 with Europcar for a Ford Kuga this year for 10 days in mid July

you did well to that to get that price last year!, the best I could do in Nice was €750 for a Peugeot 5008 for 10 days,! I remember shopping around for months to get even that price!

Here are some things that I have found useful to bring or have over there that just make life run a bit smoother! We tend to cook at home mostly as we have v hard to feed kids and also just it is nicer when we have more time to cook/kids are at an age they can cook themselves. Eating out a couple of times lets us sample the local cuisine and then we pick up plenty of local food to eat at our cabin as well.

Office clippy things for closing food bags (use them at home, way better than the plasticy ones), ziplocks, tupperware for storing leftovers/batch cooks for kids. Esp handy if moving location and still have supplies.

Kitchen bits that are not always in cabins and that we would use on hols (tea towels, sharp knife, decent veg peeler, small cheese grater, whisk, compact weighing scales, small measuring cup)

Couple of things from larder that can be expensive/hard to get there - curry powder, gravy granules, tortilla wraps, baked beans, microwave popcorn (again, all for kids, adults are trying the local food!)

We bought a plancha grill this year and have used it loads…buy an extension cord when you buy it as advised in another post. Not every cabin has a BBQ and the plancha is super easy to clean.

Multiplug Irish extension cord so you use one adaptor - there are never enough plugs anywhere!

Own towels and linens, kids room feels like their own a bit and saves on hire - bring hand towels too, forgot that this year! Nice big bath sheets v the ones you hire too.

Own suncream, toiletries and washing powder for sensitive skin kid - buy things like mossie repellant there

Things I should have brought - a couple of folding boxes for storage as everything is in bags and a bit annoying to access, a couple of individual portion glass dishes for oven meals for kids (we use them all the time at home)

We don't have an airfryer at home but I will look into it for next year…we struggled to feed one of our kids who likes a lot of oven cooked foods and we didn't always have one

Own pillows if we have space. Had a couple of awful ones this year.

Then for the ferry - kettle for cabin, tea, coffee, cool bag full of food (microwave meals, pot noodles etc), frozen water and milk, mini cereals, meats and cheeses, couple of salads, drinks and snacks.

A few years into these trips and we finally invested in a hitch bike carrier this year. Up until now we had a really awkward to use 3 bike one and used to put smallest bike on roof rack…so much better and it was def worth the money for us as we use it for camping in Ireland too and might bring bikes on weekend trips a bit more.

What we bring back!

Wine, Bonne Maman jam, sirops, our favourite snacks, bags of tiny pasta one of my kids love, they have a large variety, Oasis drinks.

Just to add some thoughts that others might find interesting:

1. Re car hire: I use autoeurope.ie or arguscarhire.com - both allow free cancellation within 48 hours of pick-up. I've cancelled multiple bookings using this functionality to swap onto a cheaper rate about one week out (e.g., this year I saved €130 on the same car class by changing 5 days before pick-up - original booking was made Oct '23).
2. Take out your own car hire excess cover insurance - never sign up at the car hire desk (generally 5-10x the price per day). An annual policy with AIG cost me €50. Have never needed to use it - but does give me valuable peace of mind (especially when parking next to battered elderly Citroens, Peugeots, Renaults in very tight car parks)
3. Stayed in the Vendee one year - won't ever again. Spent most of the time thinking I should just have stayed in Rosslare/ Tramore/ Bettystown, etc.. Each to their own - if flat beaches are your thing, then I'm sure it's great.
4. Best campsites I have experienced are in no particular order (my notes are based on my experience while there - things do change):
   1. Domaine les Ranchisses in the Ardeche: great on-site facilities, superb evening entertainment, wide range of accommodation. Only downside that it's a 3 min drive or 5 min - downhill (10 min - uphill cycle) to the nearest small town
   2. Les 3 Vallees in Argeles-Gazost: great on-site facilities, good evening entertainment, wide range of accommodation, short walk into Argeles-Gazost which is a nice small market town, brilliant hiking within short drives in the Pyrenees
   3. L'etoile des Neiges in St Jean Montclar (Southern Alps): quiet, small campsite, limited facilities within walking distance - but if you like the outdoors…. hiking, mountain biking, paragliding, kayaking, via ferrata, canyoning, all within touching distance
   4. La Pointe St Gilles in Benodet (Brittany): quiet, medium sized, easy drive from Roscoff, so many small towns, quiet beaches, within the area
5. When you decide to try something other than a campsite - gites.fr is a good government controlled website to search for and find a decent gite. You can filter by swimming pool etc to narrow dow the search