Hi,
I am planning a family drive holiday with kids through Europe in summer 2009 for 2-3 weeks long.
We would like to cover some parts of the following couontries.
London-France-Switzerland-Austria-Germay-Holland-Belgium-London
I am finding it difficult to plan the routes because I am not familiar with any of these countries. We are basically trying to plan a reasonably good site seeing drive.
Any suggestions on where you believe are good places to visit? i.e. scenery, villages, towns or whatever you believe suits a young family?

Many thanks

you dont give the ages, or whether camping, camping car or using hotels. But as suggestion at least for teh french part..
As you are leaving from London, if you take the overnight ferry from portsmouth (about two easy hours from London) to St. Malo it will get you to france fully refreshed early * 8.30) in the following morning. Then follow the route to Rennes, Nantes, Poitiers, Limoge to see the Milau bridge. Between Limoge and Milau there are water parks in both the Lot and Gers river valleys ( kids love water, these really just beaches bythe river, cheap and safe) and if the kids are happy all is well .
From there take the roads to APT via Avignon and pass through the Verdon gorge. This is beautiful, and again there is at least one water park there. From the end of the gorge it is easy to enter Nice and North Italy or Switzerland direct. I would be tempted to follow the rhine for a while ( at least to Strasburg). Then come back through Aachen and work your way to the Belgian coast. ( very good camsite in middle of Mons for tents/campervans) There is then a mostly free Auto route to Caen where you can take a ferry back to portsmouth ( again with Brittany ferries). Brittany ferries not cheap price wise, but you save on overnight accommodation and two days of your holiday by travelling when you are asleep.

Nice post from oldbmw. In addition i would add Bayeux for the tapestry (if you ferry to Le Havre instead), the volcanic domes at Le Puy, the Verdon Gorges, Chamonix for the Aguille du Midi cablecar, Stelvio Pass (Italy/Switz), Lauterbrunnen valley (Interlaken), Venice (camping on the mainland and watertaxi to the city), Neuschwanstein, Bad Tolz (south of Munich - awesome waterpark!), Black Forest... oh, the never-ending list...

Hi,
The kids ages are 5 and 7
I believe hotels are easier because we have not done camping before although it may be a good start.
Thanks for the tip.

My sister and I used to love going here Gisors Infos - Parc de Loisirs d'Hérouval when we were little - it's northwest of Paris.

Apparently it has changed a lot since we were there though, it used to be a sort of cross between an adventure playground and a funfair, but with nothing electrical - you'd have huge boats that you had to set rocking by running from one end to the other, roundabouts on a slope so you had to balance everyone's weights to set them turning, massive water-filled trampoline type things, funny bicycles with one wheel bigger than the other or the pedals in the wrong place, etc. My sister's been there more recently than I have, and says health and safety has got in the way of a lot of it, but it may well still be worth a look!

Also Cordes-sur-Ciel, which is a village near the Lot, is built on a very steep hill, which you can take a little train up. It's a bit touristy in summer, but a pleasant place to wander round, with ramparts and old wells, and the Musee du Sucre, which has loads of amazing spun-sugar sculptures and displays of how they make them.

Hope that helps!

Laura

There are some good suggestions there... what I would recommend for planning your route between these points of interest are the Michelin series of maps and/or road atlas (around 1:400,000 scale) - they show plenty of detail, and 'scenic route' roads are marked with green - allowing you to plan a pretty (and often breathtaking) route between points/destinations...

xxx

Hi,
I should have mentioned that I would like to definitely visit Paris and then drive towards Switzerland. Any suggestions on places to visit From London to Paris and then towards Switzerland?
Thanks

My kids are in their teens now but when they were the age of yours we spent a lot of time touring by using eurocamp sites. Their tents are very well equiped and most sites have excellent facilities for young kids. You can also book different sites on different nights in different countries.

Just my tuppence worth

We did a version of the following route a couple of times on our bike before we had children and have been back to most of the places of interest since with them:
London-Dover-Calais-Paris-Reims-Dijon-Switzerland around the east end of Lac Lemon-Chamonix-Grenoble-Gap-Grasse-South coast to Toulon-Arles-Millau-Aurillac-Dordogne river to Bergerac-Limoges-Futuroscope-London.

To do it justice that's a good three week trip. On one occasion we went to Brussells instead of Paris which was good but Paris is better if you've not been ther before. Holland and Austria would be hard to fit in in three weeks but Germany and Northern Italy would be good coming back into France via the Mont Blanc Tunnel or over one of the small alpine passes. City hotels are expensive these days but worth it if you want more than a drive by experience. You can save money by camping elsewhere but it can be hard to find camping along the south coast in July and August - best to pre-book. Try to plan to enter and leave Switzerland on minor roads and avoid paying the extra Motorway Insurance.

Maps and GPS. I'm new to GPS and it does have its uses especially in towns but there is no substitute for up to date Michelin maps (IMHO).

Hmmm, i still find that it can be very frustrating finding the correct road should you want to stick to the back-roads (or even the main-roads, sometimes!). This i found even in Germany, and as for Italy...well - and i'm fine with maps! So satnav for a high-mileage trip has it's place IMHO.

This seems to be a good idea.
I will give them a call to see if they can plan a route of stay for us.
Thanks

Try this site and print off your maps.

ViaMichelin: Maps, route planner, route finder, UK maps, European maps, hotel booking, travel guides

Hi,
It seems likely that we book several of these camps for our two weeks drive round France. They say the minimum stay is three nights.
As I am not familiar with France, I am having difficulties deciding how long we need to book which camps in order to see the places we have in mind.
Any suggestions on how long is required and where (Based on the route I have mentioned in this forum)?
Thanks

Hi,
Not sure if I thanked you before. Thank you.
I have booked the following campsites through keycamp and eurocamp.

1)
Calais
To
Lac de Chalain (Domaine de Chalain) -> 2 nights
2)
Lac de Chalain (Domaine de Chalain)
to
Port Grimaud --> 5 nights
3)
Port Grimaud
to
Aiguebelette (Saint-Alban-de-Montbel, centre) --> 1 night
4)
Aiguebelette (Saint-Alban-de-Montbel, centre)
to
Interlaken (Manor farm) with Eurocamp --> 4 nights
5)
Interlaken (Manor farm) with Eurocamp
to
Paris --> 4 nights
6) Back to London

If you're tempted by Paris, can I recommend going in August. I know it sounds like madness, but the great thing is you'll find that a lot of Parisians will have left for their summer holidays and the roads are surprisingly quiet. Also look out for streets where the parking meters have yellow stickers on them. It means that the parking there is free (assuming they continue the scheme this coming year). That said if you are tempted to stay in Paris it's probably better to suck it up and pay for secure parking if you don't want to risk the infamous Parisian touch-parking.

Other things for Paris:

• Don't eat near the tourist attractions - Champs Elysées, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower etc, if you head off down the backstreets you should find some decent restaurants where the locals will eat their €10 menu d'ouvriers (lit. Workers' menu). Oh and take water with you, it'll be hot, and drinks are VERY expensive.
• Try and get an explorer metro/bus/RER ticket, it's not expensive and hopping on and off public transport sure beats walking (the Eiffel Tour is far further round the Seine than it looks.
• Stick your feet in fountains, everyone else does, and it eases those aching soles.
• Go up Tour Montparnasse (by Montaparnasse Station) instead of the Eiffel Tower. OK so it doesn't have the glamour but the queues are non-existant, it's much cheaper and you can see all of the Parisian landmarks, whereas from the Eiffel you will miss one (can you guess what it is?).
• And yes, for Paris driving you might well want GPS.

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