Ferries to France, help?!

[poppyboo]

So we want to go camping in France for a while, possibly into other parts of Europe too. We have six weeks and we have no clue how long we want to be away for, or where we're even going really...we're packing the car squeezing in our bell tent and sort of going for it in a very disorganised fashion, we plan on finding small campsites on the way etc so I have a couple of questions:
a) are we mad being this disorganised with a 4 yr old and a 7 year old?
b) is there such a thing as open ferry returns or do we need to buy a single ticket on way out and can we just turn up at ferry port on way home and buy another single back again?
c) has anyone ever been as disorganised as we are and it's worked out OK?

I think you would be better to book a ferry crossing each way before you go - they can get busy/full at peak times - so you may find there is very limited or no space if you just pitch up and chance it; and it's not a lot of fun hanging round a ferry port with young kids. If you're booking for this year and you're planning to go next week, you may find choice limited by now for ferries (prob Dover/Calais would be better, but you may be limited to night crossings).

By way of explanation, we booked our Eurotunnel some months ago, and are coming back on Sept 1st. We were told when we booked to make sure we arrived in time for our return crossing as it was a peak day and all the crossings were full, so there was little hope of getting on a different shuttle if we were late.

Making up the rest of the holiday as you go along sounds fun though, and as long as you avoid the more popular areas/sites at peak times and are maybe looking for simpler sites with fewer facilities or entertainment (eg. municipals are usually good basic sites in France), you'll find space on a campsite somewhere. We always go the last 2 weeks in August and there are always places (although admittedly we avoid Brittany, Dordogne, south coast, so this may be why!).

stringbean thank you so much for getting back to me, it's not the answer I was hoping for as we really wanted to be free to stay as long/short as we wanted
It was definitely the municipls we wanted to stay at.
Maybe I need to rethink stuff?
We just really have no clue how long we want to be away. Turning up at ferry with no crossings available wouldn't be good though...

We usually go the last two weeks of August as that's when you don't really have to book campsites. If you want to use municipals, then I should think you wouldn't have to book at all, but be warned, some municipals are just that - campsites with no extras at all. They might not be within walking distance of a town/village, either, but you could be really lucky, as we have been, and they are on the banks of a river/lake so you can swim in them.

As for the ferry - no you can't really have an open-ended ticket, or if you could, you'd pay an absolute fortune. You'll probably have to pay a fortune if you are wanting to go this year and leaving it so late, anyway. Have you checked the prices and availability?

I haven't looked? I am so disorganised! I didn't even know they were expensive if you just left it late booking
can you tell I've never camped abroad before

P&O seem to have plenty of space on various crossings next week from Dover to Calais. They also do a flexi option, which allows you to travel 4 hours either side of your booked time. They also have availability for the weekend before the schools go back at the beginning of September.

I honestly don't know how easy it would be to buy a ticket in the ferry port - they all seem to expect you to turn up having pre-booked. However, I seem to recall my dad changing ferry bookings in the past when we were on holiday so we could stay longer; I think they would charge an admin fee for this. Maybe this would be an option for you? I'm sure P&O can tell you how much it would cost to change a booking.

Actually, I recall one holiday when we pitched up to Le Havre only to discover, as we handed over the ticket, that we were a day late! (They still got us on though).

It's about £200 each way, but Eurotunnel do an open return, you have separate check in and get to use the posh lounge with free drinks and things. They say you can turn up and go on the "next available" train - in practice they seem to create availability for people with an open return (and bump back people with cheaper return tickets to later trains). Not sure if this is out of your price range but if not probably the only way to get the flexibility you want.

Sept 1 is obviously the peakest of the peaks, and saturdays gereally, but we have never had a problem going eitehr way on a week day in the summer. You don't need to just turn up anyway, you can book online so just find an internet cafe anywhere, or if you have pc/laptop/smartphone book from there a few hours before you get to the port

Aaah, MrsGuy, I'd never thought of that! I think we're still camping in the 20th century (no SatNav, iPhone, laptop - we still take a map with us). It did occur to us last year that an iPhone to book campsites ahead would be useful, but never thought about the ferry.....

There's hope for us yet then!

also, with the eurotunnel ( which I prefer to ferries - easy easy, and never disrupted by weather/strikes, and DC can just carry on sleeping rather than having to leave the car, loos nearby, no-one being seasick around you...) you can very easily change the booking online with no fee or minimal fee - in January with snow situation in the Alps/probs with car/ill DC I ended up changing our return time several times online with no penalty and with the further assurance that if we turned up two hours ahead, or two hours behind the time we eventually had online we would get on the next available. It did de-stress quite a a stressful time...

Agree with flexi crossing, it is a lovely bit of luxury at the start and and end of a holiday. We are booked to go flexi this year and already DCs are discussing the free packed lunch!