Coastal drive from Calais to San Sebastián Spain

If you go to www.AutoEurope.com and price out the cost of renting a van in Calais ( about $1900 for 4 weeks) fueling it ($300), paying for highway tolls in France, and then paying the one way drop-off charge for leaving the car in Spain—- the rental cost soars to more than $4,000.
Oh, and I haven’t even added the cost of hotels or campgrounds you’d be staying at. .
These days, taking a camper van trip in Europe is like the U.S.—— if you’re doing it to save money, it doesn’t pencil out.

Thanks for the reply

I have never rented in Europe but will share these thoughts:

• Be sure you're looking at costs that include insurance you'll be comfortable with.

• I assume Kenko's estimates are solid, so I'd suggest dropping the van on the French side of the border, around Bayonne/Biarritz.

• For trips of this length, leasing rather than renting is often suggested. Supposedly it saves money once insurance costs are factored in. However, I have no idea whether there's a lease program that offers vans.

I think you need to look for a website or guidebook that is specifically geared towards campervan travel in France. One that identifies campsites and amenities and provides information about where it’s legal to park overnight outside of a campground.
I assume you’re thinking of hotels as places to shower(?), but you might find that campgrounds have much better amenities over there than ours do. I rented a bigger camper van in Germany and traveled to Switzerland and Austria in it. The campgrounds we stayed in were well appointed. And all of them offered fresh rolls or pastries in the morning.
I think your trip sounds amazing.

If you have no high expectations, but want to experience the local atmosphere the area around Calais is worth exploring. If you don’t mind crossing the Belgium border a visit to Veurne for the main square there is worth the detour. Dunkirk hasn’t much to offer besides it was the place of Operation Dynamo during spring 1940. There is a little museum about it near the beach and a memorial too.

More inland the fortified city of Bergues or as it was once Flemish also named Sint-Winoksbergen. Not really cute, but has some character and for this worth the detour. More charming is south of it hill top village Cassel or Kassel. Nice panoramic view from the windmill or restaurant terraces of the surrounding area.

Quite spectacular are the two former V2 launch bases La Coupole and Le Blockhaus near Saint-Omer. The first has a museum about space travel.

Tiny Gravelines or Grevelingen is to my opinion only of interest for it’s ramparts, the rest not so. As Calais was heavily damaged during WW2 it has actually little or no charm. Famous for Rodins’ statue Les Bourgeois de Calais in front of the town hall. More inland little open air museum Saint-Joseph Village, a bit kitchy nevertheless I enjoyed all those things there from grandmother’s time

Certainly worth a visit is Cap Blanc Nez, the White Cliffs of Dover are visible with clear weather. On the way there is the statue of Hubert Latham who almost succeeded being the first man crossing the English Channel. Within minutes arriving from Dover the aeroplanes engine failed, his sponsors didn’t want to support another attempt, so Louis Blériot won the challenge and so became the first crossing the English Channel with an aeroplane.

The four huge gun batteries near Audinghen. Batterie Todt is a museum, part of the collection is a huge K5 railway gun. Further south Boulogne-sur-Mer has a lovely historic centre still having it’s medieval walls. Nausicaã, all about life in the oceans and famous for it’s aquaria. Just north of the city a huge monument about Napoleon.

Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, seafront is ugly but the area around the casino is nice and very French. A bit more from the coast with it’s historic ramparts is Montreuil worth to mention.

Baye of the Somme, well known for bird watching. Le Crotoy is nice, but Saint-Valery-sur-Somme with it’s historic centre is not to miss. It’s touristy but nice and there is an old steam train too. Nearby Rue worth driving through or a short stop and east of Abbeville the royal abbey of Saint-Riquier.
Last but not least Amiens for it’s gothic cathedral and adjacent streets. Think worth visiting is close to the old circus building there, the Jule Vernes house too.

In general it’s not the most fancy part of France, but it has it’s own distinctive character. Nevertheless so much away from the beaten path think one of the best areas to experience France as it really is. As it is in the category you like it or not, it’s to my idea enjoyable and as I said before if you have no high expectations worth exploring.

Municipal campgrounds offer most of the time good value for the money.

Everything more south along the French Atlantic coast is much discussed here, so actually I have nothing to add in this post.

Parking of camper vans / mobile homes is regulated in France. For example, municipalities may prohibit parking around beaches and shores or near classified green spaces or near a historic monument.

If you want to find public or private areas to spend the night with your van (with facilities such as sanitary facilities, water, electricity) here is a map:

https://www.caramaps.com/en/map

Returning a rental car to another country is often not possible or extremely expensive when the rental company allows it.

Regarding a campervan with sleeping spaces, from Calais to San Sebastian I think it will be impossible, even with a drop-off in France near the Spanish border.

Thanks to all for the info

I've camped on beaches south of Bordeaux. I had a tent and stayed in campgrounds, most of which have bicycles for rent. One that was memorable was riding from my campground north to Dune de Pilat, and the next day south to some surfing beaches. There is a nice, paved bike trail that runs through the area. The same trip I camped at a Yellow Campground near St. Emilion. I was in this area near mid-June. The weather was decent, and it was just before the wave of European tourists. If you go in summer, you'll want reservations for campsites. Often, they'll squeeze in a tent, but a VW van will need a site reserved. I camped by myself with a tent and a tiny, rented Peugeot. My neighbors were from Rotterdam and New Zealand. They thought I was French until I greeted them with my awful French.

I was in St. Sebastian on a separate trip in April. The weather was pretty miserable (rainy and cold). This is an area to visit in the summer months, July/August, but plan ahead because it's popular with European vacationers.

This book has a lot of ideas. http://martindorey.com/product/take-the-slow-road-france/