Arranging Cheap Vacations in France

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Lots of travelers are looking around the web for travel options that do not require flights. The cost of flights can be prohibitively expensive. Lets look at the options and ways to get cheap travel to France.

Traveling to France by Euro-tunnel or Euro-star is a trouble free, fast and simple. We suggest you making your travel reservations 14 days ahead of travel in order to get the best rates. Additional discounts are offered when booking off peak journeys so avoid weekends a good travel agent can offer advice on which are the cheapest fare options to go for.
It is not only the price of flights, some people are frustrated you have to arrive up to 2 hours or so before the flight is due to leave. On long haul flights this is not too much of an addition to the journey time but on a short haul flight of up to 4 hours or so you can literally spend more time waiting than you do traveling.

For this reason many people are taking their family car to France and looking to get a cross channel crossing. There are a surprising number of travel options to France and we shall look at the most popular ones and how to save money.

Ferries, usually come in at the lowest prices and there are a number of popular ferry services from ports along the south coast of the UK. Carriers such as P&O, Seafrance, Condor and Norfolk line. There are 2 main classes of ferry, a traditional ferry which has many on board facilities and a capacity for 100’s of cars and passengers and a relatively sedate speed or the smaller catamaran ferry which has a smaller capacity for cars and passengers and doesn’t have as wide a choice of on board facilities as the Ferry but will typically make the cross channel crossing in a fraction of the time a ferry would.
Rail travel is another popular option ever since the channel tunnel opened. The two carriers from the UK include Euro-tunnel and Euro-star and it is worth noting that the two offer very different services.

Euro-tunnel is for vehicles only (Goods vehicles and cars), people stay inside their vehicles for the journey (or can get out and wonder the compartment they are in). Travel takes place from Folkestone to Calais only with no stops on the way or beyond these destinations. Travel is fast and convenient with trains running at least every 30 minutes running 24/7.

Euro-star is more akin to a flight, where foot passengers only are taken. Journeys can start from Ash-ford in Kent and London and go directly to Paris and other popular European cities in very short journey times. For those wanting to use the excellent continental passenger services around cities this is an ideal option and gives one the freedom and a hassle free way to explore northern France. Once in a main destination you can easily get connecting trains to other French destinations. Even if your hotel is a distance away from the station there are excellent and helpful taxi services. Euro-star runs daytime/early evening only and times vary from hourly to 3 or 4 trains per day, depending on the destination selected and the season you travel in.

Euro-star cater well for business travelers with plenty of facilities and a comfortable first class upgrade service.
Booking direct is not as you might think always the best way to do it, a good travel agent is able to offer a c
ompetitive package deal on hotel and travel and through their bulk booking are able to offer generous discounts. Plus if a single element of your travel plans were to fail the tour operator can re arrange this seamlessly giving you just one point of contact.

When it comes to getting the cheapest price we suggest that you get quotes for different times of the day and different days of the week. An off peak travel rate can be much lower priced than an on peak rate. A good travel adviser or tour operator is able to provide advice on the most cost effective times to travel in. With so many travel options it also proves to be much cheaper the further in advance you wish to travel. Book at least a couple of weeks in advance for the maximum discount.
We also strongly recommend that you take out travel insurance which covers you in the event that due to health issues (your party or even close family members) you are unable to travel.

Your hotel selection is another major part of the price of your holiday and there are often deals around like 3 nights for 2 or packages including meals so it pays to shop around and we would suggest visit sites like Short Break Market to get the best offers and deals and find out what the latest offers are.

It always pays to ask your preferred travel providers for details on offers and deals.