Camping holidays on the south coast of France: are they value for time and money  compared to some other regions of France?

A camping holiday on the south coast of France is to die for, but have you given a thought to other places which are just about as sunny (to within a degree or so) like the Vendee, Charente-Maritime like la Rochelle or Royan, or the south west coast of France down to the Spanish border?

For the most part, depending on where you start off from in the UK, these are accessible in one long day, but the true south of France is a far longer drive which involves much more time on the autoroutes and, therefore, an added cost, added to which is the time out and cost of a night's accommodation both ways. It costs more still if you use the very scary Millau Viaduct on the A75 between Clermont-Ferrand and Beziers at about 6.5 Euros a pop, even though it does save some driving time and is most probably worth it.

We always try to put things in perspective in that the cost of buying a camping holiday on the south coast is no more or less than it is elsewhere in France, but things like your extra travel, overnight stops, and especially eating out when you get there can tot up to an appreciable amount

We love the south coast of France and have been camping there for many years, albeit in mobile homes these days, but the drive is over 700 miles from Calais to the Riviera and we have come to believe that there are other, more accessible areas which are just as nice if not nicer, and most certainly cheaper to spend a couple of weeks camping.

Take a ferry to either Caen or St Malo and potter down the fast (free) dual carriageway around Rennes in Brittany and Nantes an hour further down the road and from there to the Vendean coast for a camping holiday from heaven in about 3 to 4 hours max.

The Vendee and especially Charente-Maritime have nearly as many annual hours of sunshine as the south coast, but when you get temperatures of 30% and above there and on the Med coast who's counting? Isn't that enough for anyone?

The south west coast is very popular for camping holidays and there you have the added attraction of being able to surf, which you can also do in the Vendee and all down the west coast. The seas down most of the west coast there are superb for water sports including surfing, kite surfing whatever.

OK, let me try to convince you to take a camping holiday down the south west coast of France as opposed to the one you have already tried on the south coast: Take an overnight Brittany ferry crossing to St Malo and set off down the dual carriageway to Bordeaux. You are skirting the Nantes peripherique (ring road) in about 2 hours, and another two and a half hours will see you doing the same around Bordeaux.

We reckon that it is about a further 1.5 hours to the Spanish border after exiting the Bordeaux peipherique, so let's say 6 or 7 hours driving from St Malo to the Spanish border + stops of course, and half of that journey is on free dual carriageways (the same width as autoroutes but free).A no brainer isn't it?