Traveling To Germany (Beilefeld) By Car

[bednobs]

can anyone help me with journey planing? from central south england.
what options do i have? Bearing in ind i am traveling with a 2 year old, so would want to plan in plenty of stops.
Oh, and how lomg wil it take (bearing in mind we are in a landrover that only does 70 downhil with favourable winds)

[Psybbo]

Good luck Bednobs, maybe Chris will be along to help

[Spotty Dog]

Go into Google Maps. The entire journey will be simplified for you.

[SirOracle]

Have you not considered flying,Bednobs, ?

[Buenchico]

>>>maybe Chris will be along to help

They say that there's no rest for the wicked, don't they? ;-)

This is the link you most definitely need. (It's the only worthwhile European route-planner):
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/
(Note that you'll need to spell 'Bielefeld' correctly to use it though!)

The (non-stop) driving time from Calais is given there as around 6 hours. So that will give you a rough idea of how long your total journey will be. Are you planning on just a few breaks at motorway services or do you, perhaps, want to build in an overnight stop somewhere scenic?

[bednobs]

i would imagine that we wil perhaps drive down to Dover the night before the boat and stay in a hotel, then if it's only that short perhaps we could do the boat and drive in a day.

[bednobs]

i hadn't realised it was sucha short drive!
How long is the boat journey?

[bednobs]

ps, not we are not going to fly - husbnand realy wants to take the landy

[zebo]

Multimap give almost 5 1/2 hours from Calais, it's a very straight forward drive, we did it very frequently.

[Buenchico]

Let's try to work it through:

'Central south England' to Dover might take around 3 hours driving. Let's add half an hour for a break along the way. So a departure at 0700 gets you to Dover at 1030.

You need to check in at least 30 minutes before your departure and the crossing takes 90 minutes, so theoretically (if you got there exactly 30 minutes before your ferry was due to sail) that would be 2 hours. However there'll be a a wait for a ferry and time taken to disembark in Calais, so let's call that 3 hours. So you'll be leaving Calais at 1330 BST = 1430 CET.

You've now got a 6 hour drive ahead of you so (if you didn't stop) you'd arrive in Bielefeld at 2030. Putting in 3 half hour breaks at motorway services pushes your arrival time to 2200, so it's certainly possible to do it in a day (especially if there are two of you driving) but it might still be more relaxing to take an overnight break somewhere.

If you stick with your plan of staying overnight in Dover, this is definitely where you should stay:
http://www.brguest.co.uk/
I really loved it - and I'm not the only one!
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186313-d1028744-Reviews-Maison_Dieu_Guest_House-Dover_Kent_England.html

[Buenchico]

>>>Beware that Maison Dieu (post above) won't take kids under the age of 4-years-old

Oops! Sorry about that.

This is also very nice but, while you can get rooms there really cheaply away from the peak season, it can be very pricey during peak periods. e.g. when I stayed there a couple of years ago during the winter months a single room (through Booking.com) cost £35 per night. A few months later, in the summer, it was £165 per night!

[Mamyalynne]

Psst Chris - you forgot the link.

[Buenchico]

I'm obviously not having a good day here!

Missing link (whch is a word pairing often used when I'm around!):
http://www.dovermarinahotel.co.uk/

[bednobs]

i really thank you all for your help. Can you get the sticker in advance?