UK to South of France - travel options/suggestions?

Bloomin_Freezing2 · 5 February 2013 at 5:18PM

Hi

Next August we (2 adults, 9yr old and 5yr old) are holidaying in the South of France.

Accommodation is sorted we just need to decide how to get there. We want to take our own car, but I want to weigh up costings of making our way there.

Can anyone give suggestions? Do we drive all the way down from Calais? Or would we be able to catch a ferry to south france/north spain (and have a shorter drive) and not have it cost much different? i.e the cost of petrol for driving down wouldn't be much different to having a longer ferry ride.

If anyone has experience or has recently done this please do pass on any info which may help.

Many Thanks.

[FONT=&quot][threadbanner]box[/threadbanner][/FONT]

securityguy · 5 February 2013 at 5:24PM

There's also a service from Paris in which you put your car on the train, travel down on some other train and then collect your car at the other end. Probably expensive for four, but might be worth if if you don't fancy a long day's driving with your children.

See here.

DCFC79 · 5 February 2013 at 5:29PM

You can get the ferry to North Spain, not sure if any UK operators go toSsouth of France.

You can go by tunnel instead of ferry to calais.

Would you split the journey into 2 or 3 with some overnight stops ?

The voyages sncf link provided by securitguy looks quite good as rich says half the work is done for you.

Just done a dummy quote and for 2 weeks in april its given a price of £452 rtn, the site said you can book up to 4 months in advance.

mad_rich · 5 February 2013 at 5:29PM

Whenever I've looked at the costings, it has worked out cheapest by far to go for the shortest crossing (Dover-Calais or Eurotunnel) and drive the rest.

More relaxing to have the ferry or Motorail take the strain though.

kdband · 5 February 2013 at 5:46PM

It depends whether you are planning any overnight stops en-route to/from Calais. You'll pay more on the long ferries, but will save in petrol, accom is included and you arrive fresher than if you've driven all the way.
You could try sailing to Santander in N Spain, or somewhere like St. Malo may be a decent compromise depending where in France you are headed.
You could use "Get Directions" on Google Maps to give you an idea of how far and how long it is from each of the ports to your destination, then if you know your average mpg, you can get a reasonable estimate of the driving costs.

Bob_the_Saver · 5 February 2013 at 7:19PM

Where exactly do you mean by the South of France? I guess not Nice.

Going4TheDream · 5 February 2013 at 7:31PM

We have a family place in southern Languedoc and drive down. We stop off twice on route, the first day we cross to Calais, drive passed Paris and stop off, next day drive and stop off around Clermont, then arrive the following afternoon. We use the toll roads as they are quick and the non toll routes busy (about £65 each way for tolls), and have a diesel car, cheaper than petrol over there. it actually cost more to take my petrol baby car than to take our 5 series diesel! We have found what you save on tolls you lose in time and also fuel costs if you choose the non toll routes, but you dont have to look at motorway all the way

We use either Formula 1 or the new Etaps, around £40 a night, ideal for an overnight stay.

We have checked the ferry to Spain with a view to driving across but it was massively expensive and there were still a large number of miles to cover to get to where we wanted to be.

We dont have any children and find that 6 or 7 hrs we drive a day are fine as we stop off a fair few times for a break. We try and stop in different places overnight on the way down in towns that have a little interest so its not all driving and it becomes part of the holiday.

We have talked of doing a straight run and sharing the driving but to be honest we have never got round to it, we see the journey as part of the holiday

I would say that it probably costs around £600 (or less actually) to get there and back from Wawrickshire, but to fly and get to and from airports each end is not a lot cheaper for us and taking the car we get to drive to a lot of places in the area when we are there.

http://www.drive-alive.co.uk/autoroutes.html

http://www.autoroutes.fr/en/routes.htm

jackomdj · 5 February 2013 at 9:43PM

We travel down to Languedoc from Caen or Calais in one go (well a few toilet stops!) have done it for the last 3 years so DD's were 3 and 5 the first time we went.

We priced up the Santander ferry and it was too expensive and ate into our holiday time too much.

We have done the overnight ferry and the middle of the night tunnel, both worked well.

We make sure we have lots of food, drink, books, usually take DVD players but last year I messed up and put the wrong case in the car :mad:, lots of little bits for the girls to do. Dsi's etc.

Due to te distance we use the toll roads but these are usually not too busy.

jackomdj · 5 February 2013 at 9:45PM

Oh and don't forget all the legal bits like brethaliser (x 2), fluorescent jackets accessible from front, full set of light bulbs, triangle, cuddly toy....

mgdavid · 5 February 2013 at 10:33PM

jackomdj wrote: »

Oh and don't forget all the legal bits like brethaliser (x 2), fluorescent jackets accessible from front, full set of light bulbs, triangle, cuddly toy....

the 'carry 2 breathalysers' has just been deferred *again* due to supply problems.

Bloomin_Freezing2 · 6 February 2013 at 8:44AM

Thank you everyone for such helpful advice!:T

We are travelling to Puynomand (Aquitaine region).

It's rather daunting doing this trip, we usually have all inclusive package holidays but next year we wanted to try something else.

I'll have a good look at the links and look into all of your suggestions once the kids are at school.

UK to South of France - travel options/suggestions?

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free