Please help book our holiday, we're so embarrassingly inexperienced.

[SparklingGenius]

We've put a (teensy) deposit on a cottage in SW France, fully aware that if we cock this up we'll lose our deposit but we didn't want to miss the booking. It's for 4-11 August.

We want to travel by ferry and drive , we've never taken the kids abroad and haven't been abroad ourselves for over 15 years . I've perused a few websites and ferry crossings seem to be about £600+ for us (2 adults, 3 kids). Is that right? Was I naive to think it would be cheaper?

Any advice welcome. We don't care where we depart/arrive. We don't really want to fly.

Where abouts in SW France??

Shorter ferry crossing or tunnel to be cheaper, but will obv increase drive somewhat.
We drive down to south France and just cross Folkestone to Calais on tunnel.

Depends which way you go. We've managed Dover-Calais for around £200 return in August before now, booking with less than 2 months to go. Longer crossings such as Portsmouth-Caen always work out a lot more.

Thanks all, still researching.
Ruthie, a little SW of Bordeaux

We booked Eurotunnel last week and was amazed it was only £61 each way (although we paid extra for a flexible return) after using Portsmouth in the past. I looked up ferries to Calais too and they were only £55 for a car!!!

OK, will check out Eurotunnel.

We're travelling from Somerset, btw

£415 from Portsmouth to Le Havre with LD lines

It will be a long drive from the ferry port to SW France.You may need to overnight somewhere in France

Agree, it might be considerably cheaper to go with short crossing and pay for a night somewhere in France on the way.

If you are looking for an overnight stop in France and want it to be inexpensive then I recommend www.hotelbb.com. Thier family rooms are for 4 so if you want to stay all together book another twin room (dont risk overfilling rooms as you wont be able to book breakfast). Do book your overnight stops (out and back) ASAP unless you like sleeping in your car.

We always use the short crossing as we find the long crossing boring beyond belief.

It is around 3 1/2 hours driving from Yeovil to Dover. It is 8 hours drive from Calais to Bordeaux.

Ww stayed in that area (ish) last year.

Not a huge fan of ferries- I think they are quite expensive, and time consuming. I prefer to use the Eurotunnel and do the extra driving.

We are doing a similar holiday this year - but not going quite as far south.

As we live in W Yorks - it is quite a drive to Folkestone. We tend to book an early slot on the'chunnel' - about 7am. So we can drvie through the night whenthe roads are quiet. We have booked an Etap hotel in Chartres this time for an overnighter to break up the driving. We could do it all i one, but there is no rush, and it is quite nice to have an afternoon and evening in a different city.

Last year we stayed in Daglan, which is probably not too far from where you are staying. Our stop over was in Blois -which was interesting and there wereplenty of nice restaurants and bars to check out.

On that trip we stayed in an independent hotel, which was nice. We do usually pick the Etap though - as are pretty standard. Cheap enough, have always been clean - and have parking (some free, some to pay a small amount for).

Our Eurotunnel crossing is £180 return -which is maybe slightly more than the ferry Dover to Calais, but much less hassle and quicker.

Try different ferry companies.

Ld lines is normally quite cheap. As is the one that sails to dunquerke (sp), think it's norfolkline??

driving in France

There are many options, but a few important things to consider.

Motorways in France on Saturdays in August are so so busy. If you go by ferry you will have a very long drive, and in such heavy traffic it will be hard going.

The Eurotunnel or Ferry from Calais is def the cheapest, but... its a nine hour drive to Bordeaux (and longer on a Saturday).

Brittany ferries will cost you about £600. LD Lines about £300, but a longer ferry ride and still a long way to drive.

You def need to consider going on the Friday and staying overnight (around Le Mans or Alencon). Then get up early and carry on the drive before the roads get packed.

BUT

I would not rule out flying.

Bristol to Bordeaux with Easyjet on your dates is £759 for the five of you. I appreciate you would need to hire a car, but it would save so much time, minimal petrol costs, and no toll costs!! As you are only going for a week I think its a good option.

Car hire will be around £250+ for the week - being a family of 5 means that you dont fit in the smaller (ie cheaper) cars!

Driving to France will cost:

fuel & tolls £370 return
crossing £150ish return
overnight hotel £200 inc breakfast (2 rooms in Hotel BB) (assuming overnight stop each way)
Recovery £80
Total £800

Driving is cheaper than flying but then you have to allow for the extra time (one extra day each way)

Of course there is food to add on but I assume you would eat something in that time anyway!

You don't have to do overnight stops. We drive to Italy in one long day.

From your end of the country the dover-calais would be cheapest or the tunnel ...we've always booked our ferry with eurocamp as usually staying at one of their camps which this year worked out £200 cheaper than booking direct with P&O - not sure if you'll be able to book only the ferry with them tho....

Doing the drive in a day could be tough - guessing it's a 3-4 hour drive to dover (depending where in somerset you are) plus you have to get there a certain amount of time before sailing then a 9 hour drive the other side and the ferry crossing which is a lot in one day. For a super cheap overnight you should try the formule1 hotels - a basic room sleeps 3 and they only cost about 30-40 euros - they are BASIC, the bathrooms are shared but always very clean, and breakfast is extra but VERY cheap. The hotels are just off the motorways with parking included - very handy!

We've got a Portsmouth - Cherbourg (short crossing) for £350 return, same number of adults/kids (though youngest two are under 4). Leaving end July and returning beginning of Aug (though we booked back in Jan)

These days I'm afraid that I wouldnt recommend Formule 1 unless you really cant afford the extra for a basic hotel with own bathroom. Shared bathroom means middle of the night trots down the corridor for toilet visits with small children.

The family rooms for 3 are really too small for 5 (bitter experience) so you will be looking at two rooms anyway.

I would recommend doing an overnight stop especially as this is your first go. It is a long drive and new/different so extra tiring.

I second the overnight stop.

Make it a part of your trip. It is nice to explore somewhere else.

Also if you do that, then you can take the ferry/tunnel on the Friday.

Going home is fine to do it all in one go - but going needs to be relaxing and enjoyable. It gives you time to get used to the roads and hopefully the temperature.

I am sooo looking forward to our holiday!

Oooh, popped back and there you all are with lots more helpful stuff!

At the moment we're looking at ferry from newhaven-dieppe, arriving in france in the early hours on the saturday.

Dieppe to Bordeaux is around 7 1/2 hours driving time. Tolls will be about 60 euros each way.

Grr... third time lucky.. my posts keep failing.

Try and shop on the Saturday, or bring some groceries from home. There aren't many shops open on a Sunday. We were in the Dordogne and chose to stop off at a supermarket on our way to the property. It was a good thing as there wasn't anywhere open on the Sunday.

We didn't buy enough wine, so went out for a drive to find an open supermarket. Nothing. We found a bar and had a beer -but daren't ask for a takeout bottle of wine