Motorail to Nice - any advice ?

Amanda65

Hi all

We holiday in the South of France each year (two families of 5 in two cars) and always Shuttle to Calais then drive down over two days into Var.

Having arrived home yesterday after two particularly arduous days driving and working out that with tolls, petrol, overnight hotels (and we only go to Premiere Classe establishements so no frills ), food (motorway sandwishes for lunch, McDonalds / Hippotamus for evening meals - again no frills) the journey there and back has cost about £800 per family - not including the Shuttle though as we do this in Tesco vouchers. The high cost of petrol in France (we were paying around 1.35 euros per litre on average), increased tolls and the rubbish Euro rate has really increased the cost this year and this has led us to consider motorail next year to Nice, which would leave us with about an hours drive the other end.

Having looked on the site (although prices for next year won't be released until about November) it looks as though the cost would be around £1100, so although more costly there is the saved days travelling either end of the holiday, much less wear and tear on the car (we did 1885 miles this year), a less stressful journey and no hold-ups due to roadworks or, as happened on Saturday, an onion lorry shedding it's load on the A8 causing a 2-hour tailback :rolleyes:.

However, having never used this method before I would really appreciate some feedback from anyone who has, ideas on getting the best prices, and any pros or cons that I haven't thought of.

Thanks in advance

Incapuppy

Have you looked at the cost of flying and hiring a car once there?

Amanda65

Incapuppy wrote: »

Have you looked at the cost of flying and hiring a car once there?

Hiya

Am looking in to that as well, but we generally fill the car with 'stuff' including basic shopping items, badminton, footballs, etc etc and I think that the limited luggage allowance on a 'cheaper' airline would proved prohibitive, hence the attraction of still being able to load up the cars.

richardw

But did you really need all that stuff and was it a significant contribution to the holiday enjoyment?

Amanda65

richardw wrote: »

But did you really need all that stuff and was it a significant contribution to the holiday enjoyment?

'fraid so lol. It's a tried and trusted formula and works for us

And to be honest we would rather drive and have the convenience of everything we take, which is more important to us than really cheap travel. I was just trying to cut out the travelling time and driving if possible but having doen it 7 times now in the past 10 years we are used to it x

richardw

10 people, that is a maximum of 10 hand and checked luggage allowances and you doubt you could take everything with you that you need to enjoy a 2 week holiday.
It is worth seriously looking at, just think if you did fly and car hire you'd be there the same day, what a great kick off to the holiday that would be.

CockneyBrum

We were thinking of doing something similar. Here are a few links we've used to help us decide. Apologies if you know these already:

http://www.seat61.com/Motorail.htm
http://www.railsavers.com/

Use the German Motorail is the general consensus:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/2557528/French-Motorail-not-on-track.html

I've seen a few bad reviews about how much French Motorail has deteriorated over the years, but this was the best article to sum it up.

Amanda65

richardw wrote: »

10 people, that is a maximum of 10 hand and checked luggage allowances and you doubt you could take everything with you that you need to enjoy a 2 week holiday.

Lol - as I said before not an option at this stage but thanks anyway

Amanda65

mbanbrook wrote: »

We were thinking of doing something similar. Here are a few links we've used to help us decide. Apologies if you know these already:

http://www.seat61.com/Motorail.htm
http://www.railsavers.com/

Use the German Motorail is the general consensus:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/2557528/French-Motorail-not-on-track.html

I've seen a few bad reviews about how much French Motorail has deteriorated over the years, but this was the best article to sum it up.

Thanks so much - will go off and read through them

richardw

Gosh, I'm shocked that a car full of stuff is so important to enjoy a 2 week holiday.
Anyway mbanbrook has provided some good links and I hope you find out what you need to know.

Amanda65

richardw wrote: »

Gosh, I'm shocked that a car full of stuff is so important to enjoy a 2 week holiday.
Anyway mbanbrook has provided some good links and I hope you find out what you need to know.

Each to their own I guess