I flew to La Rochelle last year, for a week in August. In my seven days, I didn't really visit many places - but I stayed in La Rochelle quite a lot.
Where we stayed: At the south of La Rochelle is Les Minimes, the world's largest marina. I stayed there in a hotel called "Fast Hotel", a 2* 50€ per night place. The room was tiny, floor filthy and breakfast was expensive.
Transport: You can get to La Rochelle by plane, train, car or boat. Train: Take the TGV from Paris or the TER from Bordeaux. Boar: From Île d'Aîx, Île d'Oleron, Île de Ré. Car: Various routes from around France. Plane: From Southampton, or Nice. Now from Birmingham. Around
La Rochelle you can hire a bike or a car. Bikes: Free for 2 hours then 2€ an hour after. They take your passport (or national ID card) as a refundable deposit. The state of the bikes is terrible and the people aren't very helpful if you don't speak much French. Car: It's quite easy to drive until you get into the main town where there are people everywhere! Remember to drive on the right of the road!
The Airport: The airport is small, with about 3-4 flights per day. It has 4 checkin desks and 2 ticket desks. There is a bar, it's used by the locals and not by the tourists. The airport toilets were lovely - they were the cleanest in La Rochelle. No-one was there (except for the locals in the bar) until 30 mins before the flight. It then gets really busy. The departures lounge has one departure gate. The arrivals hall has one luagge carousel and one toilet. Go to the toilet on the plane if you need to go, as lots of people want to use the one toilet in the arrivals hall. There are usually about 5 taxis waiting after every flight. They get to the airport about 3 hours before the flight to ensure they get some customers!
Day Trips: My main day trips were to the island, Fort Boyard and the beaches. The islands: The boat trips are't that expensive and there is a good choice of companies. Please scroll down for my experience of these boat trips. Fort Boyard: You can see the fort, but you cannot go onto the fort. They now only use the fort for the gameshow you can see on the TV. Chatelaillon-Plage: About 8 miles south is a lovely beach called Chatelaillon-Plage. It costs about 12€ for three people return on TER (diesel trains). The train station people don't speak english, but the ticket machines do. ** If visting Chatelaillon-Plage make sure you use the toilet at the station in La Rochelle for 0,40€ and on the train. The 40 cents is worth it. The toilets are Chatelaillon-Plage are covered in human excrement and the floor is filthy.**
My Experience of the Boat Trip: I went on a boat trip with a company called Croisières-Océanes. I can't remember the exact cost. The whiteboard at the ticket office said "Mer Agréable" which literally translates to "The sea is wrestless". We departed from the "vieux port" (old port) and enterted the Atlantic Ocean on the 30 minute trip to Fort Boyard. The sea was so rough, the boat almost capcised. They made no effort to comfort the distressed passengers.
Places to eat: Morning: We ate at McDonalds most mornings, for 2€ you vould get a coffee or tea, egg and bacon muffin and orange juice. We also had coffee somehwere else, but I can't remember it's name. Lunch: There are many different shops selling baguettes. I cannot remember the name of my favourite, but it is near BNP Paribas in the centre of the town. Evening: We ate in Les Minimes every night. We had a few drinks in "Cap Chris", a bar - where they spoke very good English. We ate a couple of times in the restaurant directly to the left of "Cap Chris" . Their food was lovely nad had excellent prices. There is also "Go Pizza" which served nice pizzas, perfect as snacks for the little ones!
Shopping: There were a couple of places we did some shopping: Near the train station was a small mini-market shop that were quite cheap. But they didn't open on Wednesdays or at the weekend. In Les Minimes, there is a nother small minimarket. Very reasonable prices and they were open everyday. We culdn't find any large supermarkets, although we believe there was a "Chamption" and "Carrefour" nearby.
Overall opinion: We had no method of transport other than foot and train when we were there. I would recommend to anyone who is visiting, to hire a car. The places to eat are very varied, and shop around as some places charge for service on top of your main meal. The beach at Les Minimes isn't very good, unless your into wind surfing. I would recommend the Chateiliion-Plage beach - but make your you go to the toilet at the station.
A little bit of advice about anywhere in France: If you don't pay for the toilet, it's not usually very good. ublic toilets that charge are usually clean and hygenic whereas free toilets are usually messy and no care has been taken to look after them.
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very helpful by (20%):
helpful by (70%):
somewhat helpful by (10%):
