Calais - day trip with the kids?

[Stat Brother]

I would take them to a theme park rather than a French port. But check online, as this half term is around Hallowe'en so lots of the places have scary rides & stuff added in during half term.

Legoland does good fireworks some evenings Oct/Nov but it takes forever to get away again afterwards:

Pre-Book LEGO Monster Fighters Fireworks - LEGOLAND


I would take them there - or maybe to Fisher's Farm Park in Billingshurst, or Drusilla's or Knockhatch or Paulton's Park instead of spending hours with them feeling queasy on a ferry...and my kids found Mont St Michel boring when we were in France!

Legoland is just shy of £90 just to walk in the door.
Paultons £60, and Fishers (most outdoors) is a more realistic £41.

As said it was just a flight of fancy once the ferry thought had popped into my head.
IoW is, and always has been, the odds on favourite.

St Malo would be great and exactly what NSC is all about, but the crossing is somewhat prohibitive.
Also bit pricey but pushing the boat out, pun intended, is a lot more palatable for something 'special' instead of the half term experience at Legoland.

 

[Wardy]

There is not a lot in Calais to fill a day. Though they have a train station and a fairly decent bus service so maybe look at going somewhere from there. From what I recall when I was looking their websites have an English option to.

 

[Napper]

Has anyone been to the IOW recently. The place is suffering from under investment and is a shadow of its former self

 

[armchairclubber]

Could I recommend Bruges, beautiful city world heritage site with culture, amazingly scenic place any time of year only hour drive fom calais on a good road, even less from dunkirk. Can park in centre, we used to take car + up to four for day return about £30. In December they have Xmas market with ice skating in main square quite an experience. Could also go by coach / train but if you get early boat / tunnel quite doable in a day.

sorry just seen you're west sussex, bit further for you

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Calais is awful.

Why not hop on the ferry to Dieppe from Newhaven, if you can afford stay the night. Dieppe has a nice town. You could even hop on the Train to Rouen as well.

31.00 pound return for 2 Adults and 2 Children on the Train. 45 mins journey

You also have formule1 one hotel in Dieppe, at reasonable rates
Cheap hotel Formule 1 - Book hotel at a reasonable price

 

[Chief Wiggum]

The kids will just remember a great day out with their dad so it doesn't matter where you end up going. Enjoy.

 

[Titus]

Calais is awful.

Why not hop on the ferry to Dieppe from Newhaven, if you can afford stay the night. Dieppe has a nice town. You could even hop on the Train to Rouen as well.

31.00 pound return for 2 Adults and 2 Children on the Train. 45 mins journey

You also have formule1 one hotel in Dieppe, at reasonable rates
Cheap hotel Formule 1 - Book hotel at a reasonable price

I agree that Dieppe is lovely but the journey time is too long for kids. 7 hours on boats is mind numbing for them.

 

[Easy 10]

I was taken on the IOW hovercraft when I was a nipper, and I damn near soiled myself with the excitement. Can't remember what we did on the IOW, I was just counting down the hours for the return trip.

 

[BensGrandad]

Just a thought and I haven t checked but are there any cheap hops on easy jet which would be more memorable for them. Or if you wish to splash the cash Euro Disney.

 

[Hercules Rockerfeller]

Boulogne is much nicer.

Not read on, but I was going to say exactly this. Remember going there with school and having a great day out. Calais is basically an out of town shopping centre, but with even ruder staff than over here!

 

[chimneys]

We are taking kids (7 and 10) to France for couple of nights at half term. Eurotunnel, 2 nights in half decent apartment in Le Touquet, all in £250. Just food to add on, and if on budget, as in apartment can buy decent grub from hypermarket and cook back at apartment.Le Touquet is 30 mins from tunnel, and decent, more interesting town than Boulogne or Calais. Also has big indoor water park on front and miles of sandy beach (for kids to run around on, not sunbathe!).

Gives the kids (and us!) a bit of French culture and can stock up on decent, much cheaper wines/beer on way back!

 

[8ace]

I think the hover craft is even cheaper and quicker over to the Island, and what young kid isn't going to love that! Also, there's Clarence Pier amusements while you wait for the trip over too.

You can't take cars on the IOW hover, unlike this badboy which I went on as a youngster.

 

[Craven Wine]

With a non small person perspective Dieppe is attractive but you have to factor in staying for a night (The Etap in the town centre is reasonable for a family room), but for the small people there's limited entertainment - The newish swimming pool is impressive and handily time consuming, the fishing/aquarium museum passes some time and joy of watching youngsters deal with mussels is entertaining! Oh and there's the Château is another possibility... Anyone would think I've enjoyed my visits there, I've tended to sell the trip as a bit of an adventure to the young one's which so far has worked out okay!

 

[Stat Brother]

I was taken on the IOW hovercraft when I was a nipper, and I damn near soiled myself with the excitement. Can't remember what we did on the IOW, I was just counting down the hours for the return trip.

It sounds like you never quite got over it.

 

[Stat Brother]

We are taking kids (7 and 10) to France for couple of nights at half term. Eurotunnel, 2 nights in half decent apartment in Le Touquet, all in £250. Just food to add on, and if on budget, as in apartment can buy decent grub from hypermarket and cook back at apartment.Le Touquet is 30 mins from tunnel, and decent, more interesting town than Boulogne or Calais. Also has big indoor water park on front and miles of sandy beach (for kids to run around on, not sunbathe!).

Gives the kids (and us!) a bit of French culture and can stock up on decent, much cheaper wines/beer on way back!

That's kind of the point I was making earlier.
When you think Legoland will cost well over £100 for the 4 of you just to walk in.

 

[LadySeagull]

Surely absolutely no-one goes to Legoland without a very readily-available (from the Co-op, WH Smith, Cereal Packets, etc.) BOGOF voucher? Or half price tickets run off from Lastminute.com?

 

[Stat Brother]

Surely absolutely no-one goes to Legoland without a very readily-available (from the Co-op, WH Smith, Cereal Packets, etc.) BOGOF voucher? Or half price tickets run off from Lastminute.com?

Good point well made.

 

[Nibble]

Calais really isn't particularly nice but then few French Port/harbour towns are. I'd save France for when you have time to travel a bit further inland. Isle of Wight is a treat.

 

[BensGrandad]

much cheaper wines/beer on way back!

That is a bit of a myth now with the prices available in the uk supermarkets, really depends on what wine and beer you are going to buy.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Could I recommend Bruges, beautiful city world heritage site with culture, amazingly scenic place any time of year only hour drive fom calais on a good road, even less from dunkirk. Can park in centre, we used to take car + up to four for day return about £30. In December they have Xmas market with ice skating in main square quite an experience. Could also go by coach / train but if you get early boat / tunnel quite doable in a day.

sorry just seen you're west sussex, bit further for you

I would agree. Take a car to the Eurotunnel, 35 minutes and then just one hours drive to Bruges, or Boulogne if you want to go east instead.