I am flying into Beauvais airport and am thinking about staying overnight in Beauvais, renting a car, then driving to Caen, up to Dieppe, then to Calais, then down to Arras and to the Vimy Ridge Memorial Site, then driving to Paris. Is that reasonable to do in 2 days or do I need longer? I am having trouble locating good distance calculators on the web to figure out how long that will take. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32325 posts
Helene,
I've driven in north western France and I wouldn't attempt that trip in a two day time frame. As Kent mentioned, these trips always take longer than expected due to traffic or other unanticipated reasons.
Even with a good Map, you should count on getting "lost" at least once. A GPS unit would be a REALLY good idea!
My suggestion would be to reduce the number of places you'll be visiting or add some time.
Good luck!
Posted by
Chicago/Rural WI
811 posts
I went to Google Maps and mapped out the route for you. That link can be found HERE
Looks like it is approximately 971 km of driving (603 miles). Although none of the legs are super long (longest is about 3 hours), it would be quite a bit of time spent in the car over a period of 2 days. Additionally, Google Maps is great for calculating travel time/distance, but in many cases you need to add time to how long "they" say it will take to account for getting lost, traffic, etc.
Another website I often use for calculating travel times is ViaMichelin.com
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
As Angela mentioned and I'd just like to highlight, many travelers here make 2 separate adjustments to the driving times given in Google Map and Viamichelin:
1) The driving times given in both do not include stops of any kind, even gas stops--so time must be added for all stops you think you'll make.
2) Even after time is added for stops, many travelers reporting in here say they found the driving times given to be not attainable most of the time, due to construction, traffic, etc. Many add another 25% as a rule of thumb to get more realistic driving times.
Posted by
Monein, Pyrenees, France
425 posts
That schedule is do-able, but if you want to see anywhere without the blur effect you'll need to take longer.
Roger