London Dalais Pascchendaele Dover in one day
 

In July we are planning to drive from London down to Dover leaving early morning. Leave the car at Dover and catch the ferry to Calais to visit two cemetries in the Passchendale area (Tyne-Cot at Zonnebeke and Messines Ridge at the British Cemetry at Vlaadereen) where my husband's two great uncles are buried. We will return to Calais and catch the ferry back to Dover - all in the one day.

We were thinking about ctching taxies to and from Calais. We don't want to hire a car just for the day. Are there better alternatives? Any idea about what the cost will be for the taxi rides - one from France into Belguim and one from Belguim into France?

Is there a reason not to take your car?

It is over an hour drive from Calais to Zonnebeke. The British cemetery is near Ieper, on the Rijsselseweg - you need the right address for it if you are going to take a taxi - but that seems an expensive, and not very practical, option to me.

You would need to arrange for a French Taxi to meet you at Calais port, and maybe take you into Belgium. I'm sure if it was all booked ahead of time the French taxi would do the whole journey but as I say it would cost a lot.

Thank you hetismij for your input. We have had another look at it and think perhaps you are right and we should take the car across.

We will have a rental car and thought there could be a problem taking it over.

Also we have had another look at the map and realized the distance between Calais and the cemetries is much further away than we first thought.

Check with your car rental company about taking the car across - you may have to pay a small supplement to do it. Don't take it unless you are certain it is allowed or you could end up uninsured.
The alternative would be to hire a small car for the day in Calais.

"We will have a rental car and thought there could be a problem taking it over."

There's also the "problem" of driving a R/H drive car on the R/H side of the road.

Don't take the rental car! It will be expensive, your steering wheel will be on the wrong side and there could be an insurance supplement...

Have a look at renting in Calais. National/Citer
has a desk right at the ferry terminal:

http://www.citer.fr/

I checked for a one day rental July 7... prices are in the 100 euro range but still better than
bringing an English car and definitely cheaper than taxis! There are also ADA, Avis and Hertz offices in Calais but on Google Maps they show as in town.

Rob

Thank you everyone for your input. Some very good advise.

My husband is used to driving on both sides of the road but as you say ParisAmsterdam the steering wheel will be on the wrong side of the car.

So, we will look into what is involved in taking the hire car across and also renting a car at Calais which, to my mind at this stage, would appear to be the way to go.

"There's also the "problem" of driving a R/H drive car on the R/H side of the road."

There isn't. Millions of us do it all the time without blethering on about non-existent "problems".

Partly because we've got some bloody backbone. But mostly because there really isn't a problem any more.

From Calais ferryport to Ypres is a dual carriageway almost all the way. When it's not, the Belgian roads are almost entirely flat, straight and (at least by the standards of SE England) empty, and the route avoids town centres anyway.

Driving an RH drive car in, say, Normandy's Bocage or in central Paris or Rome can be slightly trickier than driving an LH drive car.

But virtually all Britain's imports from mainland Europe arrive, and are transported round Britain, on "wrong-sided" lorries. Their Turkish and Romanian drivers happily cope. Without whining about what a "problem" it is.

Agree with Flanner - the times we've driven down to Calais with our car (AND towing a caravan) driving on one side of the road, cross the Channel and drive off on the 'other side' of the road once we got to France - usually heading down to the south of France or to Italy. Thousands do it every day without any problems whatsoever.

"But virtually all Britain's imports from mainland Europe arrive, and are transported round Britain, on "wrong-sided" lorries. Their Turkish and Romanian drivers happily cope. Without whining about what a "problem" it is."

I think someone needs to take their medication and lie down in a darkened room!

Someone who's probably used to driving a L/H drive car on the R/H side of the road MAY not relish the experience of driving a R/H drive car on the R/H side of the road, as we've seen from previous posts on this forum that is something that sometimes gets overlooked by people thinking of taken hire cars from the UK to Continental Europe. I don't find it a problem personally but I'm used to a R/H drive car but on the subject of foreign lorry drivers, it's enough of a problem of L/H drive lorries pulling out into the overtaking lane and crushing/forcing cars into the central barrier that they had a whole program on TV dedicated to it.
Oh, and BTW, no one is whining.