Information about self drive holidays in France.

Self drive holidays in France are all about fun, freedom and having a good time. Hopefully the sun will shine for you and you can relax in the knowledge that driving through France is a completely different experience from driving on the crowded roads in the UK. That means a great deal really as France is between 2 and 3 times the size of the UK with roughly the same population, so apart from the cities which you are mostly guided round, you barely see much traffic other than at their "rush hours" which are not on the same scale as ours by any means. Driving is actually fun in France!

If you don’t have your own car then you can find cheap car hire throughout France at reasonable prices.  It is sometimes worth paying a little extra on car hire and rent a larger car such as a people carrier with 7 seats.  Even if you don’t have many people with you, you will definitely appreciate the extra space they offer. Car hire in France is a must when camping if you don’t have your own car.

There is little point in doing a whole section on our site for self drive holidays in various parts of France because the pages would be virtually the same. However, it might benefit the reader to take a look at our Holiday Savings page which has quite a few fuel saving tips aimed at self drive holidaymakers. You may as well try to save a few Sovs along the way because holidays are expensive enough without wasting fuel.

If you are booking your holidays through a travel agent or tour operator and staying at a designated camping site in France then you will almost always be offered the Dover/Calais ferry crossing in your holiday costings. That's fine as far as it goes, but you shouldn't really just accept that without thinking about it first; you might betravelling down to Provence or anywhere directly south and if so that is probably the best ferry for you. On the other hand you might be going to Brittany, the west coast - Vendee, Charente or further south even, then the Calais crossing means a large amount of extra driving for you, and possibly another day in the saddle.

You can easily arrange to have the crossing changed to somewhere more suitable such as St Malo if you are travelling down the western side. OK, this costs extra per trip but it means less driving and you could easily claw back some or all of this in what you save on fuel alone, never mind the tiredness and possibly needing to have a night's accommodation somewhere, and as petrol is roughly the same price in France as it is here (possibly a tad more) your savings could be considerable. But it isn't just about money; it is about the quality of your holiday too, and if you aren't used to making long trips then all that extra driving makes you tired the next day.

Your self drive holidays in France should be enjoyable and a pleasure rather than a grindingly long drive. Worth a thought.