Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations. I've started quite a few threads of late and we are booked to go to France for our first family holiday abroad. DC are 16 and 11 respectively and we've never had a proper summer holiday due to DH's work. We normally just camp for a few days here and there or do self catering in Scotland outside of summer.
We've never taken the children abroad and I haven't had a passport for twenty years. I'm open to as much help as possible. Driving, paying for things we've ordered a credit card as we don't have one , how to navigate toll roads, where to go and what to do. We've a couple of days in Arras and I've already planned to walk the route my grandad's brother followed on the Somme, ending at the cemetery where he is buried and DH has some other war sites he wants to see.
Then on to a town NE of Paris and we have several days, planning on getting public transport into Paris. I'd like to visit Versailles and the Louvre and am trying to book now but am open to all and any recommendations. We then have a few days in Normandy, obviously wanting to see some military sites. We're staying near Bayeux. We have saved and saved for this and want to cram in as much as possible but are on a tight budget.
DS is a typical 11yo boy and would have loved a trip to Disneyland for a day for example but we don't have that kind of cash. Last time I went abroad, you changed your pounds into francs at the post office and wore a beige money belt round your waist.
It's been, literally, decades. I'm nervous about it all. Driving, shopping, public transport. Any info gratefully received or recommendations or things that definitely aren't worth it. Like the Eiffel Tower. Yay or nay? The above website can help you to plan your drives, some of the costs of the tolls are larger than the fuel cost so if you are aon a budget you might want to avoid the motorways, yours isn't too long a journey to do this.
