Best way to get from england to normandy/bayeax with kids.

Good point! Thank you for all of the advice. I really appreciate it!

Do you want a GB car in France? Seems like an accident waiting to happen. I know some locals do it, but they are probably somewhat used to changing sides of the road. I wouldn't use the same car.

Driving a British car on the continent (or vice versa) is a non-event. The only people I've heard complain about it are those who have not done it. Drop-off in a second country is expensive. Dropping one on the other side of the channel is wallet-dumping. The cheapest ferry is Dover-Dunkerque for about fourty bucks each way if you go early or late in the day. Calais is maybe twenty dollars more, but the runs are less frequent. The crossing at Dunkerque is two hours, one to Calais. Portsmouth-Ouistreham dumps you right on the peninsula, but is a long crossing - - I don't know what it costs. It's a couple of hours, at best, to drive from Portsmouth to Dover; Calais to Caen is around three, from Dunkerque three and a half, usually.

We have a RT to London so we'd need to go back to London to fly home anyway. We don't need to take a ferry. Can you only pick up the Eurostar from London or can we take a train from somewhere in Southeast England. Thanks for your input.

Some, but not all, Eurostar trains stop in Ashford on their way from London to Paris. Another ferry option would be the overnight Brittany ferry between Portsmouth and Caen (Ouistreham). You can take a car on board. You could take the overnight ferry in one direction, a short ferry ride between Calais and Dover in the other direction, and drop off your car when you return to London.

If you take the ferry in March, be sure to pack Dramamine. You might be very glad you have it.

Don't leave out Eurotunnel. Drive to Folkestone, drive onto the train, sit back for 50 minutes (tunnel = 35 of those), when the doors open start the engine and drive straight onto the Autoroute which circles Calais. Simples. Fares from £42 each way for the car, all passengers, all luggage. Then drive down to Normandy. Driving with the wheel on the wrong side isn't a problem, not for me, but I do do it several times a year. It would mean you don't have to unpack the kiddie stuff. Speedometers are in both mph and kph, but usually the km part of the speedo tends to be less precise and there are plenty of cameras in France. When on the Continent I tend to rely on the speed display on the Garmin GPS. Make sure your rental company is OK with the journey to Europe, and that they provide you with a "Green Card" or equivalent for continental insurance.

Thanks Nigel - that's great info! I didn't even know that was an option - and it's definitely simple. Question, can you get out of the car once on the train? Or is it so short it doesn't matter? Thanks!

Karen The cars go into one of two kinds of railway car. A few are for buses and motorbikes, sometimes cars go in. They are one tall deck. The other kind are double deckers and when you drive in you either go up an internal built in ramp or straight in. With a normal car you don't get a choice about up/down/or single decker. You drive your car along through the interconnected train at about 10 mph until you reach the end of the ones before you and are positioned with around 4 or 5 cars per railroad car. Your car is stopped about 2 feet behind the boot (trunk) of the car in front, or about 3 feet behind the doors. Pedestrian doors swing into the railroad car and a roller door comes down from the roof making the car airtight. The pedestrian doors are airlocks with safety openings. Every 3rd railroad car has a toilet downstairs and it is absolutely fine to walk about from your car to a different railroad car by pushing the airlock buttons and walking through, you can go up and down (very skinny) stairs to the other level if you are on a double decker, you can change drivers, you can open your doors, but need to close them to allow others to walk past. You are encouraged, for safety reasons, not to walk between passenger cars (the train is going over 60 mph and does bounce a little) but we usually reach over the side and get something or other out of the boot. Usually our Euros, the French or Belgian books we want in the car or drinks and food. Truly, in 50 minutes its over before you notice it has begun. (nearly). No ear popping. You have windows on the railroad car (little square ones) so you can see light when above the surface again. The only way you know you're in a tunnel is when the window goes dark.

... continued ... At the other end, when the world has stopped moving looking out the window, the roller door will go up, the pedestrian doors will fold back, the people ahead of you will start their engines and all the brake lights will come on. Move off as the one ahead of you does, drive off the train, up the concrete ramp, turn right, right again and you are driving in France. Have a look at http://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/traveller-info/about-my-journey/ Bon Voyage

Depends on your definition of "best". Do they still have the giant hovercraft ferries crossing the Channel? I took one of those once. Very weird but fun!

Do they still have the giant hovercraft ferries crossing the Channel? I went on one of the last journeys from Dover to Calais for the hovercraft somewhere around 12 years ago plus or minus. I understand that there is still one floating around (ha - see what I did there? ;-) but I don't know where. Sorry.