I’m looking at popping over the tunnel next week with my parents and wondering where’s worth seeing within about 3 hours drive from Calais? Bruges is one idea I’ve already had, but interested in anywhere else we could work into the same trip, or any complete alternatives.

Right now, i’m in Le Mans about to leave for Calais. It’s a 4 hour drive, very nice place.

Well you could just stop in the area and chill out. Anywhere within 30 mins up and down the coast is worth a visit as there are some great beaches.

Food good, really great beaches all along the coast, good shopping anywhere other than that horrid mall, no crowds, no driving for hours on end….

Brugges for a day? We did that once…. left over a week later, broke but happy, pondering on how we could live there permanently.

Chill babe. Just do the coast there for three days.

Haven;t been there for over 10 years but Le Touquet used to be nice and Gent is worth a visit. Reims is on the edge of a daytrip IMO but also worth a visit, likewise Brussels and if you hammer it you can even do Luxembourg in 3 hours from Calais but I’d not recommend it 😉

Dunkirk town is surprisingly nice, Boulogne has some nice bits and some rough bits great aquarium that is worth a visit. Le Touquet is great.

We stayed overnight in Amiens on the way to Paris – we didn’t see a great deal but from what we did see it looked very nice – might be worth looking at.

I should add it’s not a daytrip – we’re looking for 2 nights / 3 days.

+1 Amiens, if only for the cathedral.

On a similar vein, Arras is an annual stopover for us. I love the Flemish architecture. And the WW1 cemeteries aren’t too far away and worth a visit.

Brugge (it is in Flanders after all…)/Bruges is a beautiful place. And is within a shirt drive of Gent (and Oudenaarde if you fancy visiting the RVV/Tour of Flanders museum). Antwerp isn’t far away either.

Well you could do worse than Luxembourg. It’s a great country to explore for a few days (that’s kind of all you need) and it genuinely one of the most beautiful capital cities anywhere. Plus you can get over to Metz in France, Trier in Germany etc.

Bruce is about an hour away an amazing place, with yepres and the meningitis gates not to far we’ve spent many a long weekend there

A bit too much autocorrect by any chance?

just a bit stupid phone user, We spet many long weekends in Brugge, this time of year there is the klinkers music festival, and its not to far from the menin Gates at yepres, its a easy hour drive from calais.

http://www.bonifacius.be/engels/evenementen.htm here’s a list of events, and a good old fashion race up the belfry is always in order.

Brugges and surrounds perhaps the best bet from there if you intend on bypassing the coast; Luxembourg I didn’t get at all, and was slightly bored of it. The Belgium coastline has some surprisingly classy towns. You could always ditch the car and train it to Paris? Now there’s a great city.

Indeed thinking about it, three hours from Calais includes so much great stuff.

Giverny is about 3 hrs away and is the home of Claude Monet.

Apparently a very nice place and is on my list for a visit.