Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenhagen?

[Anonymous]

Just thinking about crossing the Channel via Eurotunnel and turning left to drive throgh Belgium, Holland & Germany to Denmark.
Has onyone tried this before? If so, what are your tips?

Luke

 

[calikev]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

Had no experience yet but Germany is definatly on my places to visit. I would love to visit
The vw factory and museum.

 

[sebking]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

We did Oxford to Silkeborg last summer - Boat Dover to Dunkirk and drove. Stopped at a nice site in Venlo, and then straight on up.

Denmark is super fab for Camping so chilled and every answer involves relaxing with a beer.

Watch out for Hamburg though shocking traffic via the tunnel.

 

[Fin]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

Love Denmark, have a number of friends there and have been there few times at least a couple of times in the previous California, however we've usually done the route the opposite way i.e. ferry from Harwich to Esjberg then spent time at many great campsites in Denmark before heading back via stops at Bremen and Amsterdam.

I'm a very big beer fan of craft beers and beer festivals and combine much of this with much of our European travel, give us a shout if you want to know about an decent bars in Denmark I've been to a good many in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Skagen, Esbjerg and Kolding.

Fin

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

for the tips folks.

 

[T5WOB]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

Had no experience yet but Germany is definatly on my places to visit. I would love to visit
The vw factory and museum.

have done germany many times .the auto stad Wolfsburg .and old museum in the town .also done Hannover factory tour .when we went there for the vw 60yrs show .and Nuremberg ring in the t4 westie the porsche museum is near to .

 

[Ewan]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

We're just back from a trip to mainly Holland, which I'd highly recommend. The Dutch are really into camping and the sites we stayed at were laid back, very well run and among the best campsites we've been to anywhere.

Camping de Kooi http://www.campingdekooi.nl/ is on the island of Terschelling, one of the Wadden Islands and a 2 hour ferry north. Terschelling is an absolute gem of an island - largely car-free, white sand beaches, laid back and great towns, restaurants etc. The Dutch know about this place (we were recommended to come here by a Dutch friend) but apart from one German car we saw we were the only other foreigners on the island.

Camping de Roos http://www.camping-de-roos.nl is further south near Ommen and a 'natural' site spread over a large area beside a river. It deserves its place in the Cool Camping Europe book.

The interesting thing is that both of these sites are car-free. Obviously we took our van onto the site but we weren't then allowed to move it. This means that the pace of life slows down and you do as the Dutch do and cycle everywhere which is great.

 

[MichaelB]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

A day in efteling is worth considering. It is the number 3 visited theme park in Europe and is near Tilberg in the Netherlands. California's get to park right at the front of the car park too.

 

[Fin]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

We're just back from a trip to mainly Holland, which I'd highly recommend. The Dutch are really into camping and the sites we stayed at were laid back, very well run and among the best campsites we've been to anywhere.

Camping de Kooi http://www.campingdekooi.nl/ is on the island of Terschelling, one of the Wadden Islands and a 2 hour ferry north. Terschelling is an absolute gem of an island - largely car-free, white sand beaches, laid back and great towns, restaurants etc. The Dutch know about this place (we were recommended to come here by a Dutch friend) but apart from one German car we saw we were the only other foreigners on the island.

Camping de Roos http://www.camping-de-roos.nl is further south near Ommen and a 'natural' site spread over a large area beside a river. It deserves its place in the Cool Camping Europe book.

The interesting thing is that both of these sites are car-free. Obviously we took our van onto the site but we weren't then allowed to move it. This means that the pace of life slows down and you do as the Dutch do and cycle everywhere which is great.

Thanks for the great tips. Last year we spent a week in the Netherlands after the Borefts Beer Festival went to Texel the island at the bottom of that chain last year and stayed there for a few days, easily cycling around the island one day, thoroughly enjoyed our time there. This year we will go to the Borefts Beer Festival once again (its one of the best beer festivals on the continent) and we'll be spending another week in the Netherlands afterwards and actually fancied exploring one of the other more northerly islands that you have visited, so that info' is great.

This is a great campsite http://www.campinghetrietveen.nl/ very close to Amsterdam in a small town called Landsmeer, it is just outside the Amsterdam ring road and is situated to the north, north east of Amsterdam and yet in superb surroundings, beautiful waterside location and loads of wildlife. We've stopped here probably 10-12 times over the last 5-6 years. It's a 20-30 minute easy cycle ride into Amsterdam catching the free ferry at the end of the cycle ride that drops you at the back of the Central station, thoroughly recommend this site.

Fin & Loz

 

[Ewan]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

Hi Fin,

My brother in law lives in Hoorn, not far from Landsmeer so we're familiar with that neck of the woods. We almost made it to Texel on our last trip there but the weather wasn't great so we changed plans at the last minute.

It's a bit pricey taking the van over to Terschelling. However I discovered that you get a 50% discount if you take the last (6pm?) ferry from Harlingen. That makes it affordable, especially for only a few nights.

 

[Fin]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

Hi Fin,

My brother in law lives in Hoorn, not far from Landsmeer so we're familiar with that neck of the woods. We almost made it to Texel on our last trip there but the weather wasn't great so we changed plans at the last minute.

It's a bit pricey taking the van over to Terschelling. However I discovered that you get a 50% discount if you take the last (6pm?) ferry from Harlingen. That makes it affordable, especially for only a few nights.

Great information, thanks Ewan. Yes I guess any saving would be great as there are a couple of other places we'd like to visit this time so it would only be a max of three nights. I would thoroughly recommend Texel, it has a cycling network which pretty much circumnavigates the entire island and criss-crosses it as well. nice little towns and the Texel brewery and tap to quench your thirst.

 

[Mark Thomas]

Re: Anyone tried going left at Calais and driving to Copenha

Just an update for anyone following this old thread still interested in going to Denmark. The Harwich Esbjerg ferry route will stop after September (2014), the last route linking UK and Scandinavia directly. A real shame that but it's just not economic for DFDS any more.