Any tips for booking ferry crossings to France

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Hi, we went to France last year and paid a fortune to cross with our caravan - Portsmouth to Caen.

We dont want the Dover to Calais crossing because the drive with young children is just too much. Any ideas/tips/websites for getting discounts/cheaper ferries please.

We would like to sail to either St Malo or Santander or Bilbao (I know these are expensive crossings and it bumps the price up because we will need a cabin overnight).

How about the Plymouth Roscoff crossing.

You used to be able to use Tesco vouchers to pay for P&O ferries, but not any more it seems. However, if you convert Tesco vouchers for Airmiles, you can use Airmiles to pay your ferry crossing with either P&O or Brittany Ferries.

One possible solution for both cost and young children - get an afternoon crossing (from Plymouth maybe) as they tend to be cheaper and then, arriving fairly late in the evening, drive south during the night. Hopefully the children will sleep most of the journey and when you arrive at your destination will be ready for their holiday. You, however, will require a days pampering for staying up all night.

We did this one time and was by far the best way to get down south with the least hassle. We arrived at our camp site early in the morning and to the wonderful smell of croissants being freshly baked in the camp bakery.

Thanks for that Mrs C, will definitely look into the Tesco voucher thing. I did look on their website and noticed that I couldnt trade in my vouchers but didnt know about the airmiles thing, thanks very much.

Dont think we could do the driving through the night bit, DH is a big grumpy when tired and I would have to stay awake to navigate, but not sure I could