1st Time Driving - How Long ???????

[Rascal1003]

The last 4 trips to DLP have been on the Eurostar, but this time we are driving. We only live 10 minutes from Dover, so really easy for us and I reckon door-to-door, we can get there quicker by car than on the Eurostar. My wife disagrees. I feel a wager coming on.

How long on average does it take to drive once you hit the French soil ? Tunnel or ferry port, both much the same.

We are guessing at maximum 3 hours from Calais.

Did anyone get lost ? If so, whereabouts ?

 

[chrismoo]

It would be hard to get lost really.

The only slightly sticky point is when the traffic increases a bit more near CDG but other than that its a quiet easy run.

3 Hours is easy to do. In a modern car its very easy to sit at 85 mph all the way. French motorways are very smooth.

Best thing about taking the car is you can choose when to arrive and also load up on the way back with booze.

 

[JoeSam]

3 hours usually, but you can hit some bad traffic around Paris at rush hours, we have been stuck there over an hour before. This time we ended up at CDG airport!! But it was only a short detour. Get a good map with junction nos. on it and you'll be fine (ours was a freebie from Eurocamps which I can now testify is rubbish!). The French motorways are lovely.

I loved going on the tunnel because they're so much more flexible with times. We arrived late on the way there - no problem, they put us on the next available train which was in 1/2 an hour.

 

[Rascal1003]

Ah, that's quite interesting Joe, thanks for that. I didn't realise that the Eurotunnel was flexible.
Despite living only 15 mins away from the tunnel, I have only ever used Eurostar. All our day-trips are done on the ferry. I thought that the times were quite rigidly fixed.

With any luck, we should miss the Parisien traffic as we are crossing at 6.30pm (with a plan to be there by 11pm local time). We have deliberately opted to leave later and are taking advantage of the "3 for 2" offer by using our free night as an arrival night. With the car, it still gives us 3 full park days and we can leave when we want (another bonus about having own transport).
Quite excited really. Nothing beats a Disney Christmas !

(Dec 16th - 19th for those who want to say hello in the park !)

 

[Cyrano]

We driven via Dover before and the journey took no more than 3 1/2 hours.
Mind you watch your speed on the motorway as if it is raining the speed limit drops 10Kph and Police can use your toll ticket to work out your average speed and on the spot fines of up to €1,000 would take a serious shine off of any holiday

 

[Lordy]

Did it last week in 3 hours including a pee stop .