Gite-ing in normandy - recommendations?

[BERGS2]

PH holidays & travel community -

I hope you can be of some help in aiding my search for a holiday location and route.

Basically, this'll be the first time Mrs Bergs and I will be taking the youngsters (9 months and just under 3) on holiday abroad - we're planing a trip to France - most likely Normandy - & probably in August (though have some flex there..)

as such am after a path of least resistance solution to an easy to get to and chilled out holiday in Normandy - have been there before a pre-kids - but priorities are a little different now (i.e. not just about booze and food this time - well, not totally, anyway...)

Setting off from Surrey - -guessing Portsmouth - Caen is the most direct route? - these seem to be about £400 for the ferry - any alternate routes that could save a bit without incurring too much additional driving?

In terms of location want to be reasonably near to the beaches - so similarly does anyone have any particuar recommendations?

Finally - on the food and booze front - again, I'm a big fan of both - so your recommendations would be more than welcome here.....


finally anything else to be aware of ferrying over with Kids - appreciate this may seem like a dumb question - but anything with the little ones seems to have added levels of complexity - in a good way :-)

cheers all,

BERGS

[Chris_]

Personally, I prefer taking the tunnel, especially with small kids. The drive down from Calais is fairly easy, and with a stop or two, isn't too much of a slog.

With my three kids, chasing them around a ferry and trying to keep them occupied for the duration of the crossing is just too much of a hassle

[PGM]

Sounds like a good plan. You've got the right idea, we are veteran European tourers with our two young sons and have some great memories. My big piece of advice is to keep it relaxed and calm and don't try to do too much in a day or over the whole period as this leads to stress!!

I'm looking at this thread with interest though as we want to take our springer spaniel with us also this time (boys are 11 and 8 now so no hassle really).

[BERGS2]

Chris_ said:

Personally, I prefer taking the tunnel, especially with small kids. The drive down from Calais is fairly easy, and with a stop or two, isn't too much of a slog.

With my three kids, chasing them around a ferry and trying to keep them occupied for the duration of the crossing is just too much of a hassle

I must admit - tunnel would have been my preference too - Pathy is LPG however - so this is unfortunately a no-go.....

[Hugo a Gogo]

We went Portsmouth Cherbourg once, a bit quicker than Caen

[Chris_]

BERGS2 said:

I must admit - tunnel would have been my preference too - Pathy is LPG however - so this is unfortunately a no-go.....

I am not a fan of cross-channel ferries (and most of their passengers) full stop, so if it was me, I would still be going Dover-Calais to keep the crossing time to a minimum.

Anyway, what we did find when looking for, and renting gites with kids in mind, was that many were fairly poorly equipped, especially when it comes to catering for babies and younger children (high chairs, cots, stair gates etc.) It will make life much easier (and leave more room for wine and cheese) if you don't have to take half the contents of your house with you, and if the other half isn't moaning about the state of the fixtures and fittings all holiday.

I would recommend Chez Nous if you haven't seen it before. It has has a good selection of gites and other accommodation, and in most cases, you deal direct with the owner.

[RicksAlfas]

I'd go in to St Malo and head for Brittany rather than Normandy.
It's a lot prettier and there's some good kid friendly places if the weather is mixed.