Driving to south of France - any idea of cost?

[minxthemanx]

Went to a fabulous campsite near Argeles sur mer this summer, called Le Bois de Valmarie. We flew to Perpignan and had a taxi transfer. Thinking of going back next year, and am wondering what it would cost to drive - anyone driven to the South of France and can give me an idea? I realise there is ferry crossing/overnight hotel, tolls etc and petrol - but I have no idea what this comes to. Any help appreciated.

We drove from Zeebrugger to the South of France in the Summer. We went over a period of 3 weeks, stayed at 4 camp sites. All in all, we spent €428 in petrol and €279.10 in tolls

We drove to a argeles last years, there and back £300/350 diesel and £80 tolls with a sanef toll tag.

It's a loooong way.

We drove from North Yorkshire to Bergerac in the summer. With 2 overnight hotel stays, tunnel, tolls and petrol it cost £500, that is there and back in a land rover. It is a long way, it took us 12 hrs and that was just the French side......

Many thanks. Thing is we can get flights for just under £500 for four of us, which seems really good compared to driving, and we're only 15 minutes from the airport this end. Was just trying to avoid the taxi transfer from Perpignan to Argeles and back, and also the convenience of having a car there. Doesn't seem to be a lot in it, price wise.

We drove down to the south this year and WOULD NOT recommend it! It cost us about £300 in petrol and tolls, and huge problems trying to get the car fixed after a lovely french couple drove into the back of us

We have always taken the TGV and loved it, but thought having a car to explore would be a nice change. However it is a very, very long way and we didn't use the car in the end.

Back to the train for us next year !

Now I did wonder about the TGV, too! Would like the DC to see a bit of France and I love travelling by train. Can't get any idea of fares as their websites don't have prices for next summer - any idea what it cost you?

A family we met down there had come on the train. They got on the train in Leeds at 5 am and were sitting by their tent at 5pm. What's not to like about that!

We take the car because we can take all the kids bikes and stuff. The drive is a real slog. It took us 2 days as we stopped in the dordogne.

This year we just went to the dordogne.

Give me a couple of minutes and I can find you a rough price Love, love, love the TGV - should never have taken the car

I don't know exact figures- but I know we spend a lot on the drive. However on many of our trips it has been for 5 people - so working it out per head it isn't so bad.

This summer we went to Charente Maritime area. We live in West Yorkshire - so a good £50 of diesel just getting to Folkestone to start with.

Our Eurotunnel crossign was about £90 for the one way.
Return we took Le Havre to Portsmouth ferry which was similar price.

Tolls: I have one of the tag thingies for the tolls. It sits on my windscreen and beeps as we go through the tolls. I then get the bill after a month or so. This years came to just over £100.

We were only in France just over a week - mostly just drove to our destination and back again - so the tolls and most of the fuel was the main journey.

Diesel was cheap though whilst there. i remember going to fill up on our first day, at a supermarket - the diesel was 1Euro 23 - and we had been paying £1.33 or something. Much cheaper.

So: Crossings = £180
Tolls= £100
Fuel = £200 ?
European RAC = £68

There were 4 of us travelling - so just over £130 per head?

Oh yes, and frequent service station breaks to buy coffee and snacks. (despite packing a cool bag full of stuff1!) ;)

Methe, we are always v smug about leaving home at 8am, sitting by the pool bar at campsite by 3pm.....that's flying for you, but the particular campsite we love is a long way from supermarkets etc, so have to buy all food in campsite shop as no car. That's why I was investigating taking the car, but train really appeals....

If you have a look at "Via Michelin" website it will give you all the costings for your journey, road tolls etc. Also will suggest cheaper routes.

Thank you, everyone. Am beginning to think £500 Ryanair is pretty competitive for 4 of us, return, in August.

I love the train....but with 4 of us, it is pricey. Great option if one of us has to join holiday later due to work.

We normally drive, because we need a car, and the cost of flights plus hire car is usually a lot more, especially if going for 2 weeks.

At the end of August we paid 350E for 3 to travel first class from Paris to the south. Takes about 4hr depending on how far south, and is blissfully relaxing with lots of space - bit more cramped in standard class, but OK - very cheap to upgrade unlike UK trains

The site viamichelin.com works like google maps for directions, but also gives petrol/toll costs...

The flights are quite good value then.

Will you want/need a car when you are there?

Only really need a car for getting to the supermarkets. Used public transport/walked everywhere else. Just a pain that the nice cheap Lidl etc was a 40 min walk. Thank you so much for your comments.

I think that if you are going such a long distance then flights are the best value. If you were going to be spending a month or so in one place then taking own car would work better - in order to get around, and would be cheaper than hiring a car too.

Our holidays tend to be staying in a house in the middle of nowhere - so we need our car. We did do a trip to a campsite in Spain a few years ago - I got really bargainous flights to Barcelona and took a taxi to the site. We did use the local bus a lot into the town and to the beach. It worked well. I would not have driven that far- not just for a week anyway :)

Happy holiday planning :)

We drive, because we have toddler twins and a dog and he's not allowed to fly. I actually really enjoy the drive, we always do toll roads and it is expensive, fuel is cheaper than here though. We also make sure we have at least 14 nights actually there - the travel is extra on top of it otherwise I would feel cheated out of some of my holiday.

For us (forgetting about the dog for a while) if you were to factor in travel to the airport, airport parking, flights and car hire at other end it just makes sense to drive.