Canvas Holidays discounts - how much?

[prupert]

Hi

First time poster (and Dad) so please be gentle (and sorry for not using all the acronyms).

My wife and I are hoping to go on our first holiday with our baby daughter in September - she will be 6 months by then. After three months of colic, which thankfully is now finally over, we need a holiday! We've pretty much decided on a campsite (mobile home) holiday in Brittany with Canvas Holidays, as they seem to get some good reviews on mumsnet and are cheaper than Eurocamp / Keycamp and include a ferry ticket as well.

We have read here on mumsnet that if you wait till early August, you can get some good discounts from Canvas. However, we don't want to risk missing out on the holiday entirely by waiting too long. It seems a bit of a risk, especially as September is near the end of the season.

I was hoping people who have had experience could say what level of discount you can get (is it 5% or 50% off the main price for example) and how quickly these deals sell out? We can afford the prices as they are now, but if we can get the same holiday for much less just by waiting, that would be better. I just don't want to risk waiting and loose the holiday only to save a tenner!

Any other relevant advice relating to this also very welcome (like is it worth travelling overnight by ferry to Brittany, or trying to drive from Calais - which looks a loooong journey with our Baby Lily wont be keen on I don't think)?

Thanks in advance mums and mums to be!

It can be a bit of a gamble leaving it till the last minute, but IMO, the bargains can be good. We went to the Vendee 3 years ago at the beginning of Sept, and only booked in the August as our son was born in May so we wanted to make sure he was healthy etc before booking!
We got 50% off a really nice mobile on a good site, so there certainly was decent availability. If you are flexible regarding type of mobile and site, then I'd gamble!
I'm a dreadful traveller, especially on ferries so we either go by chunnel with an overnight stop not far into France (we are in the Midlands) or have done an overnight crossing (with lots of sea sickness drugs!!). The overnight crossings do tend to be more expensive though.
It is a long drive from Calais into Brittany, esp if you're making regular stops. The autoroute is great, but there isn't one once you get into Brittany.
If I remember rightly, we have used camp4less which is owned by the Eurocamp/Keycamp people and they soley deal with last minute hols so might be worth a look.

Thanks very much for the reply - wow, 50% off - that's pretty awesome.

I travelled on the overnight Plymouth-Roscoff crossing earlier this year, & can recommend it, but it costs quite a lot more than Dover-Calais so you need to weigh up travelling times & costs, both sides, quite carefully. Diesel is much cheaper in France, unleaded quite a bit more expensive.

If you can manage without a cabin (they have aircraft-type seats instead) it's a lot cheaper. You could also look at Portsmouth-Caen which has several crossings a day.

You do need to go early in Sept though, esp in seasidey places, as things do shut down; but Brittany has some beautiful scenery & beaches