How to Plan a Cycling Trip to France Part 2: Accommodation, Campervans and Car Hire

Introduction

In this part of the How to Plan a Cycling Trip to France series, we look at accommodation choices and car hire versus campervan hire.

At the end, I'll do a case study on our 2010 planning, so you can see how to practically apply these ideas to your own trip to get a great outcome.

In Part 1, we covered the creation of an itinerary (initial planning) involving Tour stages, climbs to do, as well as what airlines you might look at.

In Part 2, I'll discussing accommodation and car hire.

Accommodation
I find sourcing accommodation overseas to be particularly frustrating. You invariably have two options which I discuss below.

1. Use a local agent, who uses wholesalers.Pros: this is good for convenience as someone else does the work for you.

   Cons: almost certainly reduce the number of properties you can access thus increasing the price.

2. Do-it-Yerself!Pros: you can find many more places, and lower your costs dramatically.

   Cons: can be a pain in the bum trolling through endless sites looking for something.

The solution? Word of mouth, and spending time looking. Use very specific search terms in Google.

For instance, we found a very affordable place near Pau (actually in Aramits), that is about 1/3 the cost of what we could access via an travel agent. This is an apartment for 700Euros for 10 days. Perfect.

Now, this is NOT an agent bashing exercise.

The simple reality is some people can't afford to spend (or would prefer not to spend), too much on a trip, and need to minimise their costs.

This is a way of doing that.

My advice is to search specifically in an area for what you need, then do some legwork. For instance, you might search on “self catered apartments in the Pyrenees”.

If you ever plan on going again, this experience will serve you well.

Car Hire
Car hire is a very straightforward affair in my opinion. Depending on whether you do the car hire + accom or campervan hire option, decides if you have a car.

I've discussed in the Guide to Cycling Through France the pros and cons of campervan hire and car hire in great detail, as well as providing links and other suggestions and things to consider.

But basically, if you plan on staying in one spot for any period of time, hire a car. It's cheaper, easier to get around on the road, and you can day trip from where you're staying. Just use someone like Avis to book.

If you want to move around, and can't be bothered with checking in and out of hotels, then a campervan is for you. Campervans are great fun but aren't for everyone. Read more about Campervanning France in my mind-bogglingly detailed guide.

There are a bunch of things to watch out for when hiring a campervan to do with driving and camping, which you can check out in the Cycling Through France guide.

Wrap-up
That's it.

Most of this stuff is largely informed by your intinerary. I've created a rough matrix below which roughly captures the decision you need to make.

IF you are going to be moving around a lot and can't be bothered with hotels = get a campervan. Could be more expensive with the campervan, but is way more flexible and convenient, plus you can cook.

IF you are moving around a lot, happy to move in and out of hotels = hotel + car. If you want to pre-book your hotel rooms, you will potentially have reduced flexibility as you move around and change plans if you like or dislike a particular spot.

IF you are happy to stay in one place for a bit of time, and day trip and are not near a major airport = car hire + self catered place to stay. You won't see as much of the country, but you can explore an area of 250km or more out from your location very easily.

Stay tuned for Part 3, where I'll cover booking, which basically summarises what we've discussed.