Travelling with children

Driving through France to Italy

We like to break our journey up every two to three hours or so. Driving through France is great as they tend to have designated areas spaced out about every 20km, alternating between service stations and rest stops. This makes it easier to plan stops especially when travelling with children.

The main difference between the service stations and rest stops is that the service stations have the restaurants and petrol stations (and can be expensive). Rest stops will have more basic facilities, like toilets (remember to have loo roll and hand sanitiser with you); picnic benches and sometimes a children’s play area. The signs on the motorway advise you of the service types available.

Travelling with children

Fuel

If we need fuel, we tend to use our satnav to locate a large supermarket with petrol station near to the motorway in order to keep costs down. Breaking up our journey this way has enabled us to discover places we’d never have come across otherwise.
Our car runs on LPG and we need to remember several things before we set off:
  • You need an adaptor to fill up with LPG fuel on the continent
  • Although you can borrow one from some service stations, it’s worth buying your own
  • But one adaptor doesn’t fit all across the different European countries
  • On Sundays and Bank Holidays be wary at supermarkets’ un-manned stations - petrol and diesel may still be available to ‘pay at pump’ but LPG is not.
  • Check your route before travelling – there are some roads that LPG-powered vehicles cannot use