french ferry crossings

[helenmh]

We are in the process of looking at gites in normandy for next summer. I am keen to have a go at booking them independently. My question is what is the cheapest way of booking ferry crossings? Should we ring the companies eg P& O themselves or are there any discounted ways.
thanks
helen

I did it all over the Internet for our last holiday in France. Where do you want to sail to? Are you dead set on the ferry, or are you considering the Chunnel too?

We went to a gite in Normandy this year. My step-mum did all the booking, but I believe we got a discount by going through the company that we booked the gite with. We sailed Newhaven - Dieppe by the way, which I found a good route, although as it was one of those super catamaran things, it didn't have the facilities of one of the super-dooper Dover-Calais ferries.

If you book through French Life you get free crossings from some destinations.

We are happy to use the chunnel too. We are very flexible. i am considering contacting the gite owners direct and not using a company at all. We have a good guide book by alastair Sawday which someone recommended. Thanks
helen

Definately look around - the companiew will probably quote yuou list price, and you should always be able to beat that - try Ferryoffers.co.uk or search for "cheap ferry uk" on google and you'll have a good starting point.

Thanks for that site . I have succeeded in booking one week in a normandy gite with my limited night school french( 14kms from cherbourg) so we are now looking for somewhere for the other week as they only had one week available in the school hols . Cheers
helen