Home

[Mrsya]

Travelling 4 hours to the eurotunnel then 35 min crossing then 3.5 hours the other side to Davy Crockett. We have a 4 year old and a 9 month old. Any tips for first timers?

[polar vixen]

set yourself up with a tablet or portable dvd player, take laods of Disney movies, and cds, for singalong.  Plan a couple of breaks if you can fit it time wise to break up the travelling, esp. in the uk.

[Mrsya]

Thanks Polar Vixen. Wow, only one reply... Am I posting in the right place... Or is this site not very reply heavy?

[Aurora1]

Can you do some traveling while they are asleep? Otherwise, like above, music, film, storybooks for the older child...

[polar vixen]

Is your crossing etc. already booked?  It's such allot to do in one day -  we have 5 hours travel to get to dover, so we book a Travelodge, and split the travel, that way we can catch first ferry of the morning, and still get a late afternoon in the parks.

[Mrsya]

We've booked an 11am shuttle so we're leaving home at 6:30am to allow for a stop. We're hoping that the children sleep for the first part of the journey. To be honest I'm not too worried about my 4 year old as he has his DVD screen and I'm making him a disney bag of bits and bobs to keep him entertained. It's my 9 month old that I'm most concerned about. How on earth do I keep her entertained when she's not asleep? I've seen toys that stick to windows etc and I'm going to have a supply of teether type toys to keep passing to her. Just wondered if anyone has done the trip with a baby and has any clever ideas?

[Samninetysix]

Hi, we almost always drive to DLRP and only got back from our 3 night stay in Davy Crockett yesterday. If your 9 month old is anything like any other child she will probably sleep most of the way . Once we leave Calais we usually break up the journey by stopping at Aire de Assevillers Ouest which is about 90 minutes from Calais. It's a modern, busy service station with several places to eat, drink and clean modern toilets. From there it's only about another 1½ - 2 hours to DLRP. I'm assuming you're following a sat nav and will go A26 - A1 - A104 - A4 to J13 of the A4. Just a tip, the A104 is a pig, it's very, very busy so stay alert and keep your speed down, it's easy to bugger things up. We normally get off the A1 at the péage station and follow the N330 (on the far right of the motorway) towards Meaux, join the A140 then signs to the A4/Paris and get off at J13 for Davy Crockett.

[jackieann]

Where are you driving from?? I'm sure you know but into account the m25 traffic could be a nightmare.

[Mrsya]

Thanks for the traffic tips. I'll show them to my husband as they're all just numbers and letters to me! We chose Sunday to Wednesday as we hope that traffic won't be bad, even on the m25, on a Sunday morning...?


We are following a satnav but think my hubby is a bit worried about driving on the right.

[Samninetysix]

That's exactly what we just did . We had to keep our speed down because we had my sister-in-law in the car behind and it was her first time driving in France. We didn't have any queues on any of the roads, we drove from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. We had a 30 minute delay on Eurotunnel so didn't actually leave till 10:50 instead of 10:20 which put us in Calais at 12:30 French time. With a stop, we arrived at Davy Crockett at just after 4pm but that was using some back roads and keeping our speed to 70mph or less. The only traffic we hit at any point of our holiday was on the M25 (Dartford Crossing) on the way back and M11 driving north - which is just typical.

[Mrsya]

Thanks again for replies. Anyone that's taken car through tunnel: can you get out of your cars? Are there toilets, baby changing etc?

[never2old]

Thanks again for replies. Anyone that's taken car through tunnel: can you get out of your cars? Are there toilets, baby changing etc?

Yes, you can get out of the car, but there isn't much to do. It's like being in a garage with 4 or 5 cars in line... They make you park quite close to one another and you cannot walk between the cars, so you have to go all the way to the front of the line (or the back) if you want to get to the other side... There are toilets in some of the compartments (you can move from one to another), but I've never gone into them so I cant say how they are... When we took it with our girl as a baby I changed her nappy in the car, in the backseat.

Best thing about it, though, it's that it's quite quick 

[Samninetysix]

If you are travelling on the lower height shuttle, that is a car under 1.8m / 6ft high then you go onto a double decker type shuttle so some cars are directed into 1 dor that is the lower level, some are directed to drive up a ramp to the upper level - both are the same inside. There are toilets every 3rd carriage that are normally ok but sometimes have no loo roll so take some with you in your car. There are no baby changing facilities that I remember. If you are travelling in a taller vehicle (our Mitsi is 2.1m high) then you travel in the same shuttle as caravans/cars with bikes or roofboxes and even coaches.) The toilets in these unfortunately are at either end of the shuttle so it can be a long walk for the loo. I would take advantage of the facilities at the terminal. Don't forget there are loads of places to stop once in France, it's not like driving on UK motorways, there is normally an area or "aire" about every 15-20 minutes or so, you will see the signs "aire de ________". Some are literally just like a picnic area with tables/benches and a very basic hole in the ground toilet, some are full blown service stations with fuel and food as well as regular toilet facilities

[Mrsya]

Ahh, thanks again. This site is soo useful!