Hi! Try http://www.michelin.fr- which will give you international details and in English! Bonne route!

Hi

Thank you- have looked at Michelin and printed out the route, which was really helpful. I'm just waiting for an upto date european map to arrive so we can look at the route in detail. It's just knowing which places are worth aiming for as a stopover to make it all part of the holiday, rather than just stopping at the side of the motorway. I would rather venture slightly off track and see more as we go along, if that makes sense.

Pam

Couldn't agree with you more! Might I suggest looking at the driving distances and projected timings to find possible overnight stops, or even decide which towns look interesting and then google that town's tourist office, which will give you ideas on what to see and also what hotels/chambres d'hotes/gastezimmer will be available to you in the area.

You didn't say when you were thinking of going, but please be aware of the school holiday dates if you go in summer ie book accommodation ahead! - and the fact that at present it gets darker earlier over here than in the UK!

You mention ferry (rather than Eurotunnel shuttle) - is a Calais route the most convenient for you? If you live north or east of London I'd suggest the night ferry, with cabin, from Harwich to Hook of Holland. It will land you closer to Berlin (at breakfast time) and you'd only need one intermediate stop - in fact Hook-Berlin is possible in one day for people who don't want to stop on the way.

http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/routes/harwich-holland/

If you want Calais because Kent is convenient (or because it's the shortest crossing and you don't like boats) you could also consider Eurotunnel as a way of getting across. Also from Kent is the Ramsgate -Oostende route which is longer but less driving on the other side. It's a pity the fast catarmaran to Oostende no longer runs.

If I was driving Calais/ Oostende - Berlin my stops would be Gent (usually overlooked by the hoards heading for Bruges) and Wernigerode in the Harz.

http://www.visitgent.be
http://www.wernigerode.de/index.php?id=homepage_en&lang=en

Thanks everyone, lots of food for thought there. I had opted for the ferry because the kids fancy it as we usually do the tunnel, plus it's about £100 cheaper. Will look at that other route though from Kent- Hubby doesn't fancy sleeping on a ferry, but might tolerate a longer crossing!!

Thanks again

Pam

I'd suggest the night ferry, with cabin, from Harwich to Hook of Holland.

Infact you might also consider the P&O route from Hull to Rotterdam or even Hull to Zeebrugge!!

No need to be worried about sleeping on the ferry - the P&O ones are very comfortable and are well stabilised, plus there's a carvery or a posh restau and cabaret as well as films! I find it worth doing when I had to go up to Manchester on a more or less regular basis.

And do check the 'health' of the alternative ferry companies because one recently 'folded' from Dover in November, but I've forgotten the name!

We've done Hull-Zeebrugge for the last couple of years for heading into France/Southern Germany. Can honestly say I've had some of the best nights sleep for a while. The food is great with an all-you-can-eat carvery for about £16/head.

Two years ago we used it for travelling down to Lindau on Lake Constance, somewhere in the region of 500 miles which we did in one go (2 drivers so less breaks). If we'd done the usual Dover-Calais we would have needed an overnight stop. Haing had a full nights sleep and arriving around 9am it made the long journey bearable. The short channel hop is usually done after a 300 mile overnight drive to Dover with no time for a decent sleep whereas this way we have 90 mile drive to Hull, board at tea-time, clean up, pre-dinner drinks in the bar, meal and a couple of hours with the cabaret. Wouldn't dream of anything else now no matter where we're heading on the continent (Wietzendorf in Northern Germany about 380 miles first off next year, coming back via a few nights in Holland).

This trip also gives us an extra nights holiday as we travel back Saturday night only having a short trip home. Usually back by 10am.

I think the ferry company Alsacienne refers to was Speedferries, who had taken over the French routes from the previously collapsed Hoverspeed. This was the company that ran the catarmarans I liked. The problem was presumably low capacity with high fuel bills which is probably why Stena have removed the HSS from Harwich and brought back the real ferry (with a sensible schedule) - off topic, I have 50p that says they do the same to the Irish routes after Christmas.

Thanks for all the tips everyone. We have booked the Dover to Calais Ferry as hubby does like driving and the kids are happy watching DVDs etc. We've had a look at the route and the plan is on day one to get the ferry over and drive as far as the Antwerp area for our first overnight stop. The next day we will aim for Hannover/Hameln, finally hitting Berlin on day 3, where we will stop for 4 nights. On the return leg we are going to do 1 long stint to get to Gent/Bruges before returning home the next day.
It works on paper, but if anyone has any thoughts before we start booking hotels that would be great.

I think the only sticking point could be hotels with family rooms for 4, so far having done vague searches they are very difficult to find. Does anyone know where I should be looking to make the task easier?

Thanks again

Pam

Steve was right about the company I was thinking of! Thanks Steve!!

Well Wernigerode isn't too far off the Hannover/Hameln target area but the only hotel I've stayed at was in the pedestrianised centre so probably not too good for the car, best use the link above to find something with better parking.

One way of finding hotels in Germany is through the booking service http://www.hrs.de (you can change to English in the top right of the page once loaded). It allows you to specify children in same room before searching out availablity. Once it's pointed you to hotels with family rooms you can look for their own web sites to double check details. HRS is useful because it works in English, you can usually get a confirmed booking online without waiting for them to call the hotel, they don't want payment in advance and they usually allow free cancellations until quite late (often the arrival afternoon) in case things go wrong.

In Gent I have stayed at the Ascona ( http://www.ascona.be/English/index.html ) although it appears to have been done up since. This is a good location for the car, it's just off centre on a road in from the motorway near Sint Pieters station. It had good secure parking at the back and you can walk round to the station for frequent trams into the centre (otherwise it's about 25 mins walk). The centre is very tight for cars, lots of canals and narrow bridges.

Thanks Steve, much appreciated, I'll give the website a try. Sounds like it will cut out a lot of the trial and error!!

Pam

Had a rethink and are now stopping at Eindhoven for the first night, then 4 nights just outside Berlin, on the return journey we will stop at Dortmund and then Gent or Brugge. Really struggled with family rooms, but with little choice I think we have it narrowed down to the holiday inn for Eindhoven and holiday inn express at Dortmund. Berlin we have s/c accomodation recommended by our friend which is a great price. Just the brugge bit to sort, very very expensive so may opt for the holiday inn express at Gent.
Not sure location wise what our stops will be like, but it'll be an adventure!

Pam

It's all changed again, well not completely just a bit. Instead of Dortmund we are going to go to Cologne. Have found a Novotel just down the road from the chocolate museum, so that should be nice, especially for a chocoholic family like ours! So I think that is now the final plan, just need to get it all booked before the early booking deals disappear.

Pam

If you do make it Cologne I wonder whether there's any need for another stop in Gent/Bruges as they are only a few hours apart. And if you do stop in Belgium then you really don't need German chocolate!

If the Cologne stop works best for your plan and you can't get a good rate at that hotel try the various chains located near theAirport or in Troisdorf. I know that the airport Ibis can be about half the price of the one near the cathedral and since it's actually a short train ride from the airport it should be quiet. You can also visit the centre without the car, it's only about 15mins on the train and pricing structure makes it cheap for family groups. Be warned, I've just remembered that Cologne city centre, like several others in germany, has new pollution control laws see http://www.bmu.de/english/air_pollution_control/general_information/doc/40740.php

Thanks Steve, I'll check on the pollution thing. I've found the Novotel just up from the chocolate museum for £80 something, including breakfast, which isn't bad compared to other prices I've been looking at. I haven't yet checked out the tourist stuff for Gent and Brugge but I'm guessing there will be more to do than chocolate stuff and having done the museum we won't need to do that again. The Gent bit will be fairly flexible we can either have the afternoon and next morning there or if we've seen enough we'll head off and go to Cite Europe before the ferry home.
Other than Berlin it's all shortish stops but it'll give a taste of a few places while we are over there. The kids are only 10 and 12 so there's only so much culture they can take, so really it will be a case of having a wander and a look.
Which would you say is best for kids Gent or Brugge? Anything that we should try and do that would particularly appeal to children?

Thanks again

Pam

I've found the basic map of the Cologne zone at http://www.stadt-koeln.de/imperia/md/content/pdfdateien/pdf57/umweltzone/2.pdf and it seems the hotel is in a little smokey enclave and can be reached without a sticker but you need to follow the directions on the hotel website rather than SatNav.

I've only spent a few hours in Bruges, I'm a bit more familiar with Gent but wasn't really looking for kids attactions (I can, on the other hand, recommend a very good pub!!). For a few hours in Gent you could try a boat trip round the city canals. I do have a recollection of a large park just west of the city with all sorts of things in it for good weather which I stumbled upon whilst taking a short cut on a very vague map. I'm pretty sure it's the Blaarmeersen complex but that isn't on the English tourism website, best I can do is the council site in Flemish at http://www.gent.be/eCache/THE/2/086.html (map of the site at http://www.gent.be/docs/Departement%20Stadspromotie%20en%20Sport/Sportdienst%20-%20Huis%20van%20de%20Sport/plattegrond_blaarmeersen.pdf ). Since it's got playgrounds and even a beach with swimming if you arrive early afternoon and the weather is good it's probably all you need, you can do a bit of a cultural walk around the centre next morning!

Thanks for going to so much trouble Steve, that's really useful. Will definately ignore the sat nav for getting to the hotel! I must admit I am beginning to favour Gent rather than Brugge since we don't have that long there. A trip on the canals sounds good.

Thanks again, your help is really appreciated

Pam

And now I'm going to contradict Steve in the nicest way! I think that the church of St Baavo in Ghent and the old quarter are most picturesque, and far less touristy than Bruges as Ghent is more of a real Belgian city .............. but given the age of your youngsters, I think Bruges is the better bet for mixing canals (you can get a boat trip on the Bruges canals too, and I enjoyed it very much), old buildings, good shops (a must for youngsters!!!!) and chocolate. You can never have enough choc!!! Or you could get some from each destination and when the boredom sets in on the return journey, you could suggest a 'blind' chocolate tasting to see if they can taste national differences ....... and prepare in advance with a block of Cadbury's, Galaxy and Green and Black's to try to keep up the home front! And you could get some Lindt or equivalent on the boat to add to the pleasures. It would of course be better to try the same flavour (ie milk)!!