Which way to travel first??

Hi all,

Can anyone help me in suggesting which is my best direction of travel to Belgium (beer tours..westmalle, chimay etc,), Netherlands (Amsterdam), France (disneyland..kids) and Spain or Portugal for last week. My starting point will be London and I have just under 5 weeks. I would like to end up in Spain or Portugal for my last week to wind down on the beaches for approx. 6 days before returning to London and then back to Australia. I will be travelling in June/July and I have a wife and 3 kids..12, 6 and 4. My initially plan was to go via ferry to Calais to pick up a leased car (at least 17 days) then drive across to stay in and around Bruges (5 days incl. beer tours etc.) then travel up to Amsterdam for a few days before heading back down. Would of liked to come back via Cologne and down to Munich before coming back across to Paris but I think the Germany trip may have to be left out due to travel times in car. (3 kids). Then it was either drop car of back at Calais and head back to London before flying out to Spain/Portugal or flying directly from paris..Not sure. I would like the freedom to drive by car as I am also travelling to Belgium and France with another family but would also like to see one other country like Germany. Has anyone got any suggestions? Could I fly to say Munich for a few nights before travelling by train or plane to cologne and pick up lease car there? Then drive across to either Amsterdam or Belgium. Would prefer Germany I think than Amsterdam but the extra travelling distance is making it difficult for me to plan.

Any suggestions in how I could or could not go about this would be greatly appreciated. Of course each country I will need fairly cheap but reasonable family accommodation

Cheers Sam Reply to this

Hello Sam

The first thing you will notice about travel in Western Europe is that how short the distances are when compared to Australia. However, within those short distances, there is usually a lot to see. Remember that petrol is very expensive in Europe compared to Australia - about two dollars per litre.

I agree with you about the possibility of leaving out Germany - because if you head over to Munich, you really should at least try to head down to see Austria whilst there. But there would be nothing wrong we seeing the Western part of Germany along the Rhine (Koln and Bonn being two places), it is not a great distance to reach there from France. You are not doing as much backtracking if you commence in the Netherlands (or thereabouts) and head down from there.

You could take a car with you into Spain, as there are some wonderful places there, though one way drop off fees into another country could be a bit expensive. But you could return a vehicle at the end of your trip to French soil. Just check the various price options. Might not be worth taking a vehicle into Spain if you are just sitting on a beach. Also, as nice as Portugal is, it really is a long way from France, and you will really need to push for a couple of days of long driving to reach there - assuming you drive and don't fly.

As for cheaper places to stay, I wonder if the AA in the UK have any booklets on places throughout the continent. I found that it is almost always cheaper to stay away from the major population centres if you have a vehicle - there are some amazing villages throughout France and neighbouring countries, and you can really make use of them. Reply to this