Camping itinerary for road trip in France: SW coast to Dordogne

This three-week road trip in France itinerary for our recent camping holiday begins with a Brittany Ferries crossing from Plymouth to Santander. From Northern Spain, we quickly made our way into France, starting with a stay at the lakeside campsite, Camping Le Col Vert on France stunning Atlantic coast. Next, we venture to the Dordogne region to explore medieval villages, majestic châteaux and enjoy river activities at the excellent Domaine de la Soleil Plage campsite. Afterwards, our journey continues with a brief stopover in the Loire valley region, near Chenonceau, before heading home on the Cherbourg-Poole ferry.
This France summer road trip itinerary is geared towards families (our children were 3.5, 8 and 10.5 years old at the time), but is super flexible and could easily be adapted to suit your family. Whether that means adding extra nights in each destination, or choosing different ferry ports for convenience..

We tackled this adventure during the six-week school summer holidays and found the balance of distances between stops and the number of locations just right. In the past, we’ve done done epic, long-haul drives in a short amount of time for a week’s stay at Camping le Brasilia in Canet-Plage and this road trip to Les Prairies de la Mer. But this, time we opted for much shorter hops between campsites – and it made all the difference!
Having also done a camping road trip to France and Spain which included THREE different campsites, we decided to cut this trip down to just two campsites. This meant only having to set up and pack down our Berghaus tent twice, given the amount of time it takes.
This French road trip was a great budget option for the summer holidays for our family of five.
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France road trip highlights
- Bodyboarding the famous Atlantic coast waves
- Day-tripping to San Sebastian, Spain
- Paddleboarding on Lac Leon at sunrise
- Cycling the seemingly-endless traffic-free bike paths through the pine trees of Les Landes
- Paddleboarding down the Dordogne river
- Visiting incredible medieval castles and towns built into the rock in the Dordogne
- Exploring the clifftop Jardins de Marqueyssac




Tips for doing this French road trip itinerary
With the increased costs of flights, travel and living in general, camping with our family of five has increasingly been the most affordable option, especially when wanting to travel for longer than a week.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a campsite. I grew up on campsites, so as well as all the nostalgia it brings, I love the freedom camping affords, the outdoor living, the simplicity and the beautiful locations you can stay in on a budget. Where else can you sleep beside the banks of the Dordogne River, or stroll out for a morning paddleboard on a glassy French lake for less than £70 a night?


Book early in the year
After our last-minute stay at La Croix de la Vieux Pont in 2022, higher prices and a lack of accommodation and ferry options due to it being peak family holiday season, we decided to get our France family holiday sorted and book early in 2024 (Jan-March), maximising on discounted deals offered by campsites for doing so.
As we live in the South West of England, we tend to go for Brittany Ferries leaving from Plymouth or Poole – these are so much closer and always seem to be much easier and relaxed than Dover-Calais (where we have had SO many bad experiences). While the South West ferries are a bit more expensive, we tend to balance this out by saving on fuel and tolls (Dover is four hours from us, whereas Poole is just 1 hour 20 minutes).


Let the ferry do the hard work
This time around we decided to try the Brittany Ferries Plymouth-Santander ferry, a 23-hour crossing which would get us to the coast of Northern Spain – 3 hours from our first French campsite – while we were free to eat, drink and play on board. Previously, we have travelled in the opposite direction, from Bilbao to the UK on a similar ferry and loved being able to go to the cinema and watch movies while we were whisked to our destination.
Starting in Northern Spain on this trip, the aim was to work our way back up through France to the UK via our various campsites and stopovers.
For the return journey, I booked a cabin with a window on the ferry from Cherbourg to Poole.


Day 1-2: Ferry from Plymouth to Santander
- Crossing time: 23 hours
- Four berth cabin with window
While 23 hours may sound like a lot to some, I highly recommend this crossing – and that’s coming from someone who has a very car sick child! With the help of travel sickness medicine phenergan (which we use for our daughter for all our long road trips, and all took before the crossing for peace of mind), we were vomit-free!
Booking a cabin with a window means you have a space, with ensuite facilities, all to yourselves. Even though we’re a family of five, my youngest is still small enough that he was able to share a bed with me and nobody from Brittany Ferries has ever questioned me on a fifth person in a four-berth cabin.


The crossing left the UK at dinnertime, so we had a drink onboard (it was so warm when we left England, it felt like we were on a cruise) before dining. There was also onboard family entertainment, a cinema, swimming pool (pack your costume into your ferry bag!) and different dining options to keep us entertained.
We arrived into Spain at 3.30pm, giving us a relaxed afternoon drive to our first campsite, Le Col Vert. The ferry for five of us with a roofbox, bikes and a backbox cost £669 – almost a third of the cost of flights for our family to France in the summer holidays.


Day 2-10: Santander to Camping Sandaya le Col Vert
- Driving time: 3.5 hours
- Where we stayed: Read my review of Camping le Col Vert here
For a family camping trip in France with a touch of lakeside magic and heaps of activities, Camping Sandaya Le Col Vert in south west France might just be the one. Sat on the shores of Lac Léon, close to breathtaking Atlantic beaches and epic waves, and surrounded by towering pine forests, this four-star campsite ticks a lot of boxes.
Add to that, traffic-free cycling paths, a big playground, a swimming pool with splash park and a perfect combo of lake and beach vibes, it’s a great family campsite with enough activities to keep kids of all ages happy.


We chose a lakeside pitch, lured by visions of G&T evenings by the water, although in reality dense trees blocked a lot of the view and much of the sunshine. Next time, I’d spend the money on a pitch with private sanitation—so handy when you’re camping with kids. As this is the Atlantic coast, weather can be changeable, but in August we still got plenty of sunshine alongside a bit of rain.
On-site dining hits the spot with lakeside pizza and themed moules frites nights (kids can bounce on the nearby castle while you sip rosé).
For adventures, there’s everything from horse riding to surfing lessons and Spain’s San Sebastian is an easy day trip away.


Day 10-17: Camping le Col Vert to Domaine de Soleil Plage, Vitrac, Dordogne
- Driving time: 4 hours 15
- Where we stayed: Domaine de Soleil Plage, Marvilla Parks
This French campsite was a joy. I wanted a campsite right on the banks of the Dordogne River, we’d previously stayed twice at Camping le Capeyrou, but wanted to try somewhere new. The pitch we were given was so close to the river, it took less than a minute to walk there from our Berghaus tent. Stunning, towering cliffs were also visible from our pitch, and we had great weather – really hot, in the thirties every day.


The kids loved the swimming pools and waterslides, and there was mini golf, table tennis, basketball, an indoor free soft play, onsite restaurant and kids clubs too. We certainly made the most of our proximity to the river, with lots of days out floating and paddling down it on paddleboards or canoes.
The campsite is also in a fantastic location for visiting medieval castles, magnificent caves and the stunning villages and towns of the Dordogne region. If you didn’t fancy camping in a tent, Eurocamp has lots of mobile homes on this site.


Day 17-18: Domaine de Soleil Plage, Vitrac to Saint Georges-sur-Cher
- Driving time: 4 hours, 15 mins
- Where we stayed: AirBnB in Saint Georges-sur-Cher
When planning our stopovers, it’s often easier and cheaper as a family of five to go for an apartment or AirBnB as it means we can all fit in one space, and avoid having to book two separate rooms. This place also had a swimming pool, which I thought would be welcome after a day of packing up and driving.
As our return ferry from Cherbourg to Poole, wasn’t until 6.15pm the following evening, we could potentially have done the driving in one stint, but having done a mega journey the year before, we really just wanted a shorter, relaxed driving day with the kids to take the stress out of the journey.
I chose this area in the Loire valley as it is brimming with stunning castles and had hoped we may have time to visit Chateau de Chenonceau just across the river before hitting the road. However, we decided to just get going the next day instead, allowing plenty of time for stops en route.


Day 18-19: Saint Georges-sur-Cher to Cherbourg Ferry port
- Driving time: 4 hours 15 mins
Back home to the UK on a Brittany Ferries crossing to Poole from Cherbourg, an easy drive from our house.


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