UK to South of France - travel options/suggestions?

Bob_the_Saver

slinga wrote: »

It's because the diesel consumption is so much lower than petrol consumption that produces the major saving.

If you ignore purchase and servicing costs (and major repair costs if it's a French made vehicle).

I'll stick to LPG/GPL thanks even though I can't use the tunnel.

Lower fuel costs,
Lower servicing costs,
Engine/exhaust lasts a lot longer
Better for the planet and that b*****s
etc etc etc.

Jamie_Carter

Why don't you fly by low cost airline, and then hire a car?

JimmyTheWig

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Why don't you fly by low cost airline, and then hire a car?

How would you get all your stuff there?

Jamie_Carter

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

How would you get all your stuff there?

They are going on holiday. So I assume they would take it in suitcases.

hairbrain05

in 4wks we will be on our way from Inverness > Luton > Folkestone > Paris > Languedoc

we plan to return Lauguedoc > Oreleans overnight > Calais overnight > Folkestone > Inverness

we couldn't book any of the Etap/F1 hotels due to size of family so have booked with this chain who seem pretty reasonable & can be cancelled if necessary
http://www.hotel-bb.com/fr/home.htm

driving with 3 kids in a diesel car....

Slinga - does this mean diesel is cheaper in France?


x

savagevixen

We have driven to the South of France several times with our 7 children. Once in a minibus and the other times we have both driven people carriers.
The worst crossing Ever was an overnight from Plymouth to St Malo. I thought we would have a sleep over night and arrive refreshed for our mammoth journey. Hahahahaha.
We arrived at Plymouth and our 11.55pm ferry was delayed by 2 hours This meant it left at 2am. We managed to settle the children by 3.30/4 am. The bloody boat then regained time and arrived at its original arrival time of 8am. So we were woken at 6.30am. We were in such a bad state we had to hire an accor hotel for the night and arrive late for our accommodation. I would never travel these hours again with children!

jackomdj

savagevixen wrote: »

We have driven to the South of France several times with our 7 children. Once in a minibus and the other times we have both driven people carriers.
The worst crossing Ever was an overnight from Plymouth to St Malo. I thought we would have a sleep over night and arrive refreshed for our mammoth journey. Hahahahaha.
We arrived at Plymouth and our 11.55pm ferry was delayed by 2 hours This meant it left at 2am. We managed to settle the children by 3.30/4 am. The bloody boat then regained time and arrived at its original arrival time of 8am. So we were woken at 6.30am. We were in such a bad state we had to hire an accor hotel for the night and arrive late for our accommodation. I would never travel these hours again with children!

We have often done the overnight ferry with our children, worked really well for us, they had a good nights sleep.

They only reason we have started to use the tunnel is the price difference (even taking into account extra travel & overnight accommodation)

This year we finish work, travel o folkeston, early morning tunnel, about 8 hours to our hotel, next morning up and travel the rest of the way to languedoc. On the way home we will get up early, full days travel, late tunnel then a few hours on the UK side to get home.

STSAVER

Some goos tips and websites mentioned on this thread. Thanks all.

Looks like we (wife, 3 yo son and myself) are going to be off to La Baume, Frejus for 12 nights at the backend of August. Not cheap these holidays thats for sure, but the perils of being bound to school holidays due to the wife being a teacher.

Anyway, current tentative plan to arrive by 4pm in Frejus on 17th August is to either
1) drive from home (Tyneside) to Dover on Wednesday night (14th), and get an early morning ferry to Calais on 15th then give ourselves 2 night stopovers on the way, or

2) get a ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge overnight on the 14th, to arrive well refreshed on the 15th ready to start the drive down to the South of France.

Second option more expensive, but would be a lot easier, and puts less strain on the driving distances.

As long as the costs all add up we're happy to spend a bit extra time to make the journey so that its all part of the holiday / experience rather than it being one long slog.

mcfisco

I do Thirsk to France a couple of times a year at least

Hull-Zeebrugge was seriously expensive during the Summer Hols when I last looked at it.
I tend to leave home 5am ish for a midday tunnel crossing and then do another 3 or 4 hours before stopping for the night.

I also find the A1 a better option than the M1 for the Channel ports as it avoids the very busy bottom end of the M1 and a good bit of the M25

andygb

hairbrain05 wrote: »

driving with 3 kids in a diesel car....

Slinga - does this mean diesel is cheaper in France?


x

Diesel is a lot cheaper in France, but please only use supermarket stations for the best deals.
We came back yesterday and the diesel cost us around 1E30 per litre - that is about £1.11 - happy days:D