Normandy for a long weekend - France and Channel Hopping Discussion, Holiday Forums

Normandy for a long weekend

lynwestie

2006-11-07 14:56:09

Hi all. Im hoping somebody can help me with this. Im going to book a weekend in Normandy for next may to see the DD beaches etc. its something my 3 teenage boys and hubby have always wanted to do

. The only time we have spare to fit this in is during the end may half term + my eldest son will be doing his GCSE,s then so need to leave some of the holiday for the all important revision. So this is my plan. Leave early saturday morning and come home Tuesday night (monday is bank holiday

). We have never been on a crossing to france not even dover /calais for a booze run

so this is all new to me. i have looked at the portmouth/caen route but looks like it may be quicker and cheaper for us to go via Eurotunel to calais and then drive the 3+ hours on the other side, i am planning at the moment to stay in Bayeux, maybe stopping at hornfleur for lunch

, we live in essex by the way. Bearing in mind this is a saturday bank holiday weekend i have been quoted on the eurotunnel site £118 . do you get a good price for booking early and does that sound reasonably

i have absolutely no idea. or would i get a better price via an agent.

I would be grateful for any other suggestions worth considering and any other tips on getting the most out of our short visit. this is going to be strictly boys stuff i would imagine and i will just have to look forward to a nice meal in the evening. I have picked out a couple of reasonably priced hotel/b+bs using trip advisor but obviously any recommendations would be great for a family of 5. I am trying to stick to a budget but even a reasonably priced small hotel is coming out over £400 for 3 nights for the 5 of us

many thanks everyone
lyn

paully

2006-11-07 19:30:53

Try http://www.speedferries.com they are a highspeed service from Dover to Boulogne and for that weekend the price for 5 would be £58 return including the car.
That would i think be the cheapest and they have 5 crossings each way per day.Quite a long drive to normandy but a lot to see.I`ve done all the beaches and sights from Caen to Cherbourg and escorted a few bus tours as well.If you want any further info please feel free to pm me..

re hotels try http://www.eurapart.com they have details of all the budget chains such as balladins or formula 1 which for a few nights would be fine.
I would consider spending more time there though there is rather a lot to see and much of it very poignant!!

Bon chance..

lynwestie

2006-11-07 20:37:27

many thanks for your help Paully . i will take a look at your links £58 sounds good

and weigh up the usual pros and cons. I wish we could have more time there . there certainly appears to be a lot to fit in for 3/4 days so if we like it there maybe another trip when we have more time.

lyn

elaine80

2006-11-07 20:38:08

We were in that area a few years ago and the Caen Memorial is worth a visit. They have a small cinema which shows film of how Normandy suffered in the war. The memorial is dedicated to peace and uses the experiences of WWII to put this across. Check opening times of places you want to visit carefully. We were unable to get into the big American cemetery because it closed at 4 pm the day we were there and that was in July.

We drove from Zeebrugge to Brittany this summer and the road from Calais down to the Caen area is a great road. It's a new road and is relatively quiet, especially compared to the roads you would have to negotiate between Essex and Portsmouth.
Eurocamp and Keycamp use a site at Houlgate which we have stayed at a couple of times. It might work out cheaper to take a caravan and doing your own breakfast there rather than staying in a B&B. We visited the Normandy beaches and WWII sites from there.

lynwestie

2006-11-08 08:18:15

thanks elaine. Yes i think we have more or less decided to do the longer drive on the french side father than driving to portsmouth ,although having said that it would be early morning and hopefully m25 permitting we could get an easy run. but having looked at the ferry sites it looks like the crossing would be a few hours. The lady i work with uses the 8am eurotunnel and said she is in Hornfleur for lunch

which then looks like it would be another hour on to bayeux. or maybe our first "Dday stop" in between for the first afternoon. thanks for the tips on eurocamp and keycamp. will take a lot .i have found a place voted no. 2 on tripadvisor which sounds just what we need http://www.hotel-dargouges.com/ . they have 2 suites for 5 - the cheaper standard one will cost us £436 for the 3 nights and the top notch suite £512. It sounds a fair bit of money to me but probably cheap for normandy prices by the look of it

so i want to check out some cheaper options first. afterall we will only be sleeping there ands its only coissants and coffee for breakfast

lyn

lynwestie

2006-11-08 08:33:31

Just had a look at keycamp and eurocamp Elaine and unfortunately its still coming out at nearly £500 for a basic caravan by the time i add on the bedlinen (theres no way we would have room in the car for that

) that does include the crossing tho which is good news but its going to be extra if you want any more than a midweek crossing which we will. so looks like at the moment a hotel seems better value Will keep looking tho

.

lyn

Nats99

2006-11-28 21:19:14

hi there

we are currently to and fro from uk and france. just went to honfleur a couple of weeks ago and we were disappointed. think there are better places to go. it has now got our over developed. the restaurants were disappointing.
i remember it being very quaint on some postcards in the past but i must say a lot has changed.
we had a great time in july nearly 2 years ago an hour from calais. we staying near a place called Samer at a great campsite that did cheap mobile homes (about £120 for 3 nights) and it was not very far from Le Touquet. we went to another beach near Samer were there are still bunkers on the beach and we foudn that to be exciting. there are lots of cemeteries and ww2 things to visit around there. I also read about a 3D or giant screen cinema of WW2 stuff in ARomanche but not been there to judge. that is in Normandie.
cheapest car travel for us was on the ferries Seafrance but book at least 1 day ahead otherwise they charge the full wack (we tend to be spontaneous people).hope that helps and good luck.

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