Spa Trip...

[D7PNY]

Me and a mate are thinking of heading over to do a track day at spa next year and make a holiday out of it with our families (both with young children). Maybe do a track day the south of England (ie Brands hatch) on the way home.

Started looking into costs etc for the whole trip and it's eye watering at the moment! doesn't help with the cost of fuel coming from Aberdeen with trailers etc.

Anyone done a similar trip and have any accomodation recommendations? Centre Parks one option but quite expensive. Found a cottage 5.5 km from spa that seems reasonable about £800 for the week so £400 per couple.

Other thing we would maybe like to do is visit the ring. Wouldn't be taking the cars on unless we can get round the old insurance (or lack of!) chestnut! So likely just a visit to say we'd been and take in the atmopsphere etc (if indeed it is still open then!)

Time of year flexible (working around my mates time at home from working offshore) but can go outwith school holidays as all kids are pre school age.

Somewhere secure/safe to leave cars and trailers whilst we are out and about would be preferable obviously. What's the deal with gite's or the likes?

Reason for the trip is primarily for my 30th as a kind of one off trip but I don't want the costs of accomodation, ferrys etc to result in us half a##ing the rest of the trip if that makes sense.

Any advice/tips/recommendations welcome.

Cheers,

Dave

[thos]

What route are you taking? Is ferry to Zeebrugge not the way to go? 2.5hrs drive from ferry to circuit last time I checked.

[D7PNY]

We initially thought about newcastle-amsterdam and staying somewhere south of Holland for a central point but Dover-Calais ferry a good bit cheaper! (although that involves a good bit more driving and I guess a hotel night somewhere as the Newcastle-amsterdam one was overnight)

Staying so far north doesn't help the route as obviously want to limit the journey length with the kids in tow...

Cheers,

dave

[Norman Verona]

£800 per week for a 4 bed cottage makes my 2 bed gites at £65 look far too cheap.

May think about that.

[D7PNY]

£800 per week for a 4 bed cottage makes my 2 bed gites at £65 look far too cheap.

May think about that.

Where are your Gites?

Cheers,

Dave

Edit to say...That £800 cottage slept up to 9 people if that helps.

[Norman Verona]

Our gites are in the Loire Valley. We're roughly in the middle of Rennes, Angers and Nantes.

My post was tongue in cheek as we used to charge £395 per week and included a fridge full of food and beer and a wine rack full of red, white and rose.

We now offer them to club members without the 100€ shopping at 65€ per week.

ed to add that our web site is down at the moment whilst servers are reconfigured. Should be working sometime next week.

[D7PNY]

Could you maybe send me a link to your site once its up and running again?

Spa the main thing we're planning with a possible trip to the ring (not to drive) although a colleague made an interesting suggestion today...take in some roads in the alps!

Spa is a definite though so to spend the rest of the holiday in France would be quite nice.

ps. My geography is awful so away to look it all up on Google maps

[Norman Verona]

We're in the opposite direction to all the places you've mentioned.

I'll post a new thread when we've got the web site back online.

[D7PNY]

Yeah, just did a wee google search.I see you're close to le mans though so might be able to work something out.

I guess somewhere closer to Belgium will make more sense though if we're doing spa.

Cheers,

Dave

[Norman Verona]

Close to Le Mans? It's an hour and a half away! Mind you in French terms it's round the corner.

[GreigM]

I do the pilgrimage to Spa and the 'ring annually - in fact we're off at the beginning of October. We found that the prices on P&O from Hull-Rotterdam are generally the best, and more than makes up for the extra fuel down from Newcastle.

Accommodation is a problem - especially with trailers, we usually just stay in the radisson in Spa, but we're only ever there for a couple of nights.

[D7PNY]

Thanks Greg, will look into that ferry instead.

Idea was to turn the trip into a family holiday and kill two birds with one stone but proving more tricky than I thought.

Cheers,

Dave