Dover - Calais Ferry And Local Overnight Halts Near Ferry

[Dave Leaning]

Hi all

Finally taken the plunge and bought a new Kombi which is currently being converted, itself a traumatic experience seeing holes cut in something so expensive.
We are booked into a chalet holiday in Switzerland (booked before we bought the van) travelling across the channel on the ferry from Dover.
As we live in Cornwall normally we drive to Dover, stay in a hotel overnight and then cross the channel earlyish and drive on towards wherever we are staying. As we will be taking the van, we would now prefer to stay at a campsite instead close to Dover; can anyone suggest a suitable one and is there any problem with early departure from the campsite?
And a follow on question, is there still a problem with the asylum seekers around Calais and are there any extra precautions we should consider?

 

[Loz]

We stay here a lot Campsite France Pas de Calais - CAMPING CHATEAU DU GANDSPETTE - Eperlecques no barriers lovely and has a restaurant and superb facilities

 

[DavRob]

We tug our caravan down from the North West and will be doing in July to Longfield Farm (Whitfield) just 10 mins from the ferry. Look it up on google. Big tidy field to park up for about £15 for the night. Its ideal. As for Calais we ahd a bad experience with our Motorhome in 2012 and parked up at Cite de Europe. Went in for a stock up of wine and beer and had the Motorhome broken into and lost most our valuables in the space of half an hour. For that reason we will never stop near Calais ever again!

 

[Loz]

Yea, thats why we go to Gandspette is 25 mins from all that..

 

[Tony&Dawn]

We stay here a lot Campsite France Pas de Calais - CAMPING CHATEAU DU GANDSPETTE - Eperlecques no barriers lovely and has a restaurant and superb facilities

We have booked into this site on your recommendation to a fellow forum member @Loz for tomorrow night before we return home on Sunday, looking forward to it.

We have split our journey home and are currently at
Camping Hautoreille - which we can recommend too.

 

[Dilbert]

Didn't fancy a free night in an Aire then?

D.

 

[Tony&Dawn]

Didn't fancy a free night in an Aire then?

D.

No , never even thought about that, maybe next time.

 

[$immo]

We have booked into this site on your recommendation to a fellow forum member @Loz for tomorrow night before we return home on Sunday, looking forward to it.

We have split our journey home and are currently at
Camping Hautoreille - which we can recommend too.

OMG, how spooky, we just pulled into the same site on our way back to UK also. Found out the owner used to teach French just up the road from us back home and he is after getting himself a VW camper, so expect some admiring looks at yours when you turn up.
We are on an early sat morning eurostar so this place was ideal as close but still rural.

We are on a grass camping field (no electricity as it's a quick o/n stop)
Temperature has dropped somewhat, it's now only 21c! It's very peaceful and so far it's nice and clean.

It was €35 for pitch and three adults.

 

[BognorMotors]

We stay here a lot Campsite France Pas de Calais - CAMPING CHATEAU DU GANDSPETTE - Eperlecques no barriers lovely and has a restaurant and superb facilities

This looks perfect. We are looking for somewhere to stop when we get to Calais, before heading south.

 

[Tony&Dawn]

OMG, how spooky, we just pulled into the same site on our way back to UK also. Found out the owner used to teach French just up the road from us back home and he is after getting himself a VW camper, so expect some admiring looks at yours when you turn up.
We are on an early sat morning eurostar so this place was ideal as close but still rural.

We are on a grass camping field (no electricity as it's a quick o/n stop)
Temperature has dropped somewhat, it's now only 21c! It's very peaceful and so far it's nice and clean.

It was €35 for pitch and three adults.

View attachment 25787

Nice one, booked same sort of pitch for tomorrow, you must of covered some Kms to reach there today

 

[Dilbert]

Here is an Aire - nice spot and free! Google Maps

 

[$immo]

Nice one, booked same sort of pitch for tomorrow, you must of covered some Kms to reach there today

Yeah it's a blur, split up by brie & baguette stops and panic, pulling into a Carrefour with a diesel range of 0miles, cost me €101 to brim it.
Left base of Alpe D'HUEZ at 7am this morning before the road closures went in for stage 13. Arrived at Campsite France Pas de Calais - CAMPING CHATEAU DU GANDSPETTE - Eperlecques at 6:30pm after a stock up on Vino at supermarket. Having a beer then early night.

 

[Loz]

OMG, how spooky, we just pulled into the same site on our way back to UK also. Found out the owner used to teach French just up the road from us back home and he is after getting himself a VW camper, so expect some admiring looks at yours when you turn up.
We are on an early sat morning eurostar so this place was ideal as close but still rural.

We are on a grass camping field (no electricity as it's a quick o/n stop)
Temperature has dropped somewhat, it's now only 21c! It's very peaceful and so far it's nice and clean.

It was €35 for pitch and three adults.

View attachment 25787

Same part of the site as we use, have you got time to visit the Blockhouse next door?

 

[$immo]

Same part of the site as we use, have you got time to visit the Blockhouse next door?
View attachment 25795

Hi @Loz sorry for the late reply, no mate didn't although someone else recommended it also. We were travel weiry after 600kms to get there, then left at 8am to get on the train home.

But will be using the site again for overnights near to the terminal, so will make time for it next time.

Thanks for the initial recommendation for the site on here, it was perfect for us and very clean with powerful and hot showers