Driving to Disneyland paris

[Grimm Grinning Ghost]

Hi
We are going to DLP on November 11th for 5 days and after pricing everything we have found it cheaper to drive.
What I need to know is have any of you driven there before and what can I expect? E.g Tolls, difficulty of directions, any compulsory items I need to have in my car
Any kind of help is much appreciated

 

[cazspence]

We're there exactly same time as you and have always driven. The drive from Calais is easy its pretty much 3 roads, the tolls were €21.50 each way last time we were there in may. If you have a look on aa website it gives you a list of all things required for driving in France. It's pretty much a hi vis vest per occupant (including kids) and these must be accessible in the car, not in the boot. A warning triangle, headlight beam converters ( some newer cars don't need these, my car has a screw in each headlight that turns the beam) and breathalysers. They are not fining if you do not carry these at the moment but better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Grimm Grinning Ghost]

Thank you for the reply :-D
I read somewhere that we should have snow chains, any truth in that?
Also would you recommend getting a sat nav?

 

[adr2.8i]

our neighbours drove there last winter and have vowed never to do it again!

its a long old drive for us Westerners!

and they reckoned that they didnt save much money compared to the eurostar when they worked out all the costs involved.

i drive to ashford the night before and park the car there for 5 days then go by eurostar. 2hrs later and your at disneys front door! much easier and much more relaxing i would say.

 

[Grimm Grinning Ghost]

our neighbours drove there last winter and have vowed never to do it again!

its a long old drive for us Westerners!

and they reckoned that they didnt save much money compared to the eurostar when they worked out all the costs involved.

i drive to ashford the night before and park the car there for 5 days then go by eurostar. 2hrs later and your at disneys front door! much easier and much more relaxing i would say.

I enjoy driving and have done all the times I have been to the states so the distance isn't really a problem for me.
I did price the Eurostar and it was over £500 for 2 adults and 2 Children and that's a lot more than its going to cost by driving.

 

[adr2.8i]

Well £500 is a lot mate for the eurostar. I've just booked it for £269 for 2 adults and 2 kids.

If i had to pay that for the eurostar then I'd seriously think about driving too.

 

[Cuthbert1969]

We regularly drive from the Swindon area, leaving here at 3.30am and getting to Disneyland at lunchtime. The drive is really easy in France, although we did get lost near Charles de Gaulle airport the first time we went. It's really useful to have the car in France because we fill it with water and snacks for while we're there, and then fill it with wine on the way back! It also makes it easy to go and visit supermarkets and other areas - we always have a day at Parc Asterix and also like to see some of the areas around Paris.

 

[Grimm Grinning Ghost]

Well £500 is a lot mate for the eurostar. I've just booked it for £269 for 2 adults and 2 kids.

If i had to pay that for the eurostar then I'd seriously think about driving too.

Where are those prices from?
We priced from Cardiff as it's the nearest main train station.

 

[Grimm Grinning Ghost]

We regularly drive from the Swindon area, leaving here at 3.30am and getting to Disneyland at lunchtime. The drive is really easy in France, although we did get lost near Charles de Gaulle airport the first time we went. It's really useful to have the car in France because we fill it with water and snacks for while we're there, and then fill it with wine on the way back! It also makes it easy to go and visit supermarkets and other areas - we always have a day at Parc Asterix and also like to see some of the areas around Paris.

A bit off topic but is there duty frees or anything similar on the way back. You mentioning wine has me thinking ;-)

 

[cazspence]

We drive from north east of Scotland. Aberdeen to be exact so a long long drive. But wouldn't do it any other way.

 

[Jules1212]

We regularly drive from the Swindon area, leaving here at 3.30am and getting to Disneyland at lunchtime. The drive is really easy in France, although we did get lost near Charles de Gaulle airport the first time we went. It's really useful to have the car in France because we fill it with water and snacks for while we're there, and then fill it with wine on the way back! It also makes it easy to go and visit supermarkets and other areas - we always have a day at Parc Asterix and also like to see some of the areas around Paris.

This is identical to us! Even down to going from near Swindon!!! We go eurotunnel in Winter and sometimes pick up a bargain ferry crossing for £38 return in the nicer weather.

I have just priced up us going from London to DLP on the Eurostar and it was £800 return for February!!!!!!! For 2 adults and 2 yoofs. That doesn't include the cost of a train from Chippenham to Paddington and then a tube over to St. Pancras. It's a no brainer for us.

We find driving in France very easy and do so quite a bit. Last week we got back from driving down to the South of France (the Med coast), doing a tour and driving back - a total of 2700 miles in three weeks. It isn't like driving here and in fact, the only traffic we hit was on the return journey ...... on the M25! The criminal part of it all though was that we passed within 32 kms of DLP and couldn't visit as we had to get back for our ferry! Boo hoo! Felt all wrong!

 

[BabyAriel]

Thank you for the reply :-D
I read somewhere that we should have snow chains, any truth in that?
Also would you recommend getting a sat nav?

I don't want to tempt fate but we drove one winter and didn't have snowchains. It rained all the way back to Calais though which meant the speed limit was reduced so bear that in mind when considering journey times.

We drove last month and it was fine, except we also got confused/lost around CDG!!! We used this website for directions, it also tells you when you need to pay tolls and how much they are.

http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/

Eurostar is fantastic but it also worked out much cheaper for us to drive, plus we used Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay for our Eurotunnel crossing

 

[markpsych]

I prefer to drive, and we've been driving to DLP for years from the South West of England.

We've driven back twice in really heavy snow. A little hairy, but also very memorable

The fact is, the French manage the roads pretty well when it snows. The journeys were long, as the highway was reduced to one lane.....but we kept moving, and the snow ploughs were out in force.

We've never carried chains, and I've always coped with my all season tyres. However, I've been tempted to by some of these snow socks: http://reviews.halfords.com/4028/291117/reviews.htm

 

[adr2.8i]

Where are those prices from?
We priced from Cardiff as it's the nearest main train station.

We catch the eurostar at Ashford in Kent and if u book around 6 months in advance u can be lucky and get decent prices. Im not sure what train u have priced from cardiff, its not the eurostar coz that starts from London.
We drive down to Ashford the day before, leave the car at the hotel costs £110 for the parking for a week, overnight stat with full english brekie and free taxi voucher to the terminal. Then go on hols then come back to Ashford, grab our free taxi back to the hotel, pick our car up and drive home back to sunny wales. Easy peezey lemon squeezy.

 

[Grimm Grinning Ghost]

We catch the eurostar at Ashford in Kent and if u book around 6 months in advance u can be lucky and get decent prices. Im not sure what train u have priced from cardiff, its not the eurostar coz that starts from London.
We drive down to Ashford the day before, leave the car at the hotel costs £110 for the parking for a week, overnight stat with full english brekie and free taxi voucher to the terminal. Then go on hols then come back to Ashford, grab our free taxi back to the hotel, pick our car up and drive home back to sunny wales. Easy peezey lemon squeezy.

The fair I priced was for us to get from Cardiff to London then change onto the Eurostar.
Judging from many people's replies driving seems the best option and that way the kids get to go on the ferry which they've never done

 

[markpsych]

that way the kids get to go on the ferry which they've never done

I'd definitely consider eurotunnel over the ferry.

Much quicker and less hassle, and more flexible in terms of arrival times (very rare to be charged for being late as well).

 

[cazspence]

I'd definitely consider eurotunnel over the ferry.

Much quicker and less hassle, and more flexible in terms of arrival times (very rare to be charged for being late as well).

You can arrive up to 2 hours before or after your booked journey time and be guaranteed you will get on the next train free of charge, I have heard of people arriving 6 or even 8 hours late and still no charge. Tunnel for us every time! Would never consider the ferry again, tunnel is so much easier, half an hour an your in France and straight onto the motorway.

 

[Jules1212]

I prefer the tunnel as I am not a great sailor (which is why we go Eurotunnel in Winter), but DH likes the ferry as it is almost three and a half hours drive from here to the crossings and then the same the other side, so an hour and a half to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat is quite welcome. Never had an issue with timings via either method of crossing.

We can't save up and use Clubcard points for the tunnel as we don't have a Tesco near by to do our regular shopping. Euro tunnel next February is £168 return for us and ferry would have been £38 return. Ferry is only an hour and ten minutes longer, so the time saved is not that immense. But my DS and I felt we would get too queasy on a boat at that time of year as it was rather choppy last March.

But I know that in my heart I will be thinking that we could have spent that extra £130 on something much more fun at DLP!

 

[markpsych]

With Eurotunnel, I generally book in advance, and then choose the cheapest fair options.

In ten years I think we've only been charged extra once (think it was about £7) for arriving at a different time.

 

[tennisfan]

There isn't duty free (as that is only allowed out of the EU) there is tax free shop at the tunnel terminal and on the ferries but its not always that heap. The hypermarkets in Calais tend to have better deals.

We nearly always drive, the roads are straightforward and its much cheaper then Eurostar as diesel is approx 20p a litre cheaper then the UK