Find cheaper fares when travelling to France

Find cheaper fares when travelling to France

We travel between the UK and France all the time, here are some of our tips on how to get the best fares.

Flights to France

We have all seen those adverts 'fly for £1' or only £5 return to France' flight deals, but how do you find them. One way is to open all the websites and keep altering the dates until you find them. We use a tool called Skyscanner to book our flights to France.

We enter the route and set the search to 'whole month' rather than specific dates. The website then  displays all the fares for the month from each airline that flies that route. You can then see when the cheapest seats are. We use the tool and book flight for the whole year by searching 'whole year'. Please don't forget that their may be some extras if you take extra luggage on the flights and when you book by credit/debit card.

Ferries to France

Once again the key to finding the cheapest crossing is flexibility. We use a tool which allows us to select a date and then compare the prices for the different crossings on that date. The tool will search all the different crossings options from all the different ferry companies and display the cheapest first.


Unless you need to arrive in France at a specific port, for most UK residents it doesn't matter which crossing you do.

Driving In France

Our partner provides us with a comparison tool that searches all the major car hire companies in France and you can choose the cheapest car hire option to suit your needs.

While large distances can be covered using the péage motorways in France you may think you can save money by using the smaller roads, HOWEVER, in our experience this can be just a expensive. The reason being the fuel costs. Smaller roads can be longer and include a lot os stop/starting through towns. Add that to the extra hours of driving due to the traffic and slower speads we always choose the péages.

If you have a bit more time on your hands and want more of an adventure then the small roads are excellent as you see many of the things that you otherwise wouldn't.

Trains to France

With new routes and the extension of the TGV taking the train is rapidly becoming a popular choice for many travellers. With prices comparable to scheduled flights and much less waiting time, some jourenyes can actually be quicker by train. The key to finding the cheapest fares here is preparation. Tickets are released approximately three months before teh date of travel. This is when thay are at their cheapest. Our train travel section will allow you to serach for a train that suits you.

Find cheaper fares when travelling to France