Cheap travel offers for
France : tips and warnings
Cheap.
Or not so cheap? Don't
be taken in !!
Survey reveals "cheap ferry" scam
"Cheap ferries?" Don't be fooled by
Internet sites offering "cheap" ferries; they may not be as
cheap as they seem, they may well not reflect all the special
offers that the ferry companies have on their own websites, and they
may even charge inflated rates.
About-France.com recently checked the
cost of a number of cross-Channel standard return trips,
getting quotes for identical journeys offered on the ferry company
sites and on eightprominent internet sites
supposedly offering cheap ferries. None
of these Internet sites offered any
of the journeys we checked for a price lower than the actual ferry
company itself; in other words, none
were offering discounted ferry tickets. On the contrary two
of the eight sites supposedly offering "cheap" crossings actually
charged more
than the ferry companies themselves. One of these supposedly "cheap
ferry" sites was indeed more expensive than any of the other sites
tested for five out of six of the journeys for which quotes were
obtained. Moral of the story: you're certainly no worse off,
and may well get better bargains, by booking directly on Ferry company websites .
About-France.com survey carried out
in Feb. 2010. Quotations for six different standard cross-Channel
return journeys operated by three different ferry companies were
obtained from eight prominent online booking sites and from the
operators themselves. The journeys tested ranged in time from Spring to
Summer 2010.
There
are hundreds of sites out on the Internet, claiming to
offer you the "cheapest
fares", the "best deals", the "lowest costs", and the best
special offers. But don't be taken in! Agencies and resellers will
offer you special deals, maybe, but since they are only offering what
the airlines and the ferry companies are offering in the first place,
there's a fair chance that you may end up paying more than necessary
for your trip. A lot of "cheapest deals" are certainly
not what they claim to be, and "low cost" airline tickets and ferry
tickets can be considerably more expensive than necessary, when booked
through a third-party site than when booked
directly.
For instance, there are plenty of "cheap
travel" or "travel bargains" sites that only
propose flights, ferries, packages and hotel rooms from operators who
pay them a commission. They simply fail to mention services provided by
other operators, that may be cheaper, but on which they do not get a
commission.
And if you're wanting to book a flight last minute, take
note! Seats with so called "low cost" carriers may well turn out to be
more expensive than with established airlines. Whether you're booking
seats to France, Spain, Italy or wherever, the same is true.
In many cases, particularly
for ferries and hotels, but sometimes for flights too, you'll find that
the
best prices can be had by booking directly with
the operator (see below for direct
links to operators websites), and by doing so as early as
possible. And if you book directly, then there's no chance of
losing your booking when some internet booking agency goes bust, as
happened last year with more than one....
Don't be fooled by the "50% discount"
scam ! What does 50%
off actually mean?.... 50% off what?
You can find plenty of "cheap hotel" sites on Internet offering such
apparent bargains as "up to 50% off".... or even more. But read the
small print; it's "up to
50%" ! not "50%"! That could mean just 5%.... or nothing at all.
Sometimes hotel reseller sites will offer you "50% off full room
rates"..... forgetting to mention that in fact the "full room rate" (or
rack rate) only applies at the busiest time of the year, and then only
to people who turn up at the door for a last-minute booking. Otherwise,
no one pays it !
Of course it does happen that sometimes you may get a special
deal from an Internet booking site, better than you can get anywhere
else. Internet portals use "loss leaders" to attract customers in the
same way as supermarkets do; but the chances are that this will not be
the case.
Book
direct and cut out the middleman
Bying direct from the operator (ferry, hotel, etc) means cutting out
the middleman, and is often the best
solution, in terms of price and reliability. In the list below, you
will find direct links to cross-Channel ferry and transport sites, and
to the sites of some of the main hotel chains in France. Click the
links, and you'll get taken directly to the operator's own website,
where you can check out their special offers and book directly, at
their prices.
Book
directly with the operators.... Ferry
companies and Channel tunnel service operators
Eurotunnel
(Putting your car on the train from Folkestone to Calais)
Eurostar
(Train service from London to Paris or Brussels)
The most
convenient means of travelling by train from London to
Provincial France is to
take the Eurostar (click for prices) from
London, Ebbsfleet or Ashford to Lille, and connect at Lille to a
French TGV. There are direct TGV connections from Lille to a large
number of French towns and cities, including Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes,
Dijon, Besançon, Avignon, Aix en Provence, Marseilles,
Montpellier, Perpignan or Nice. By changing at Lille, travellers do not
need to change stations and haul their luggage across Paris. At Lille
Europe station, Eurostar trains from London and Brussels use the same
platforms as French TGVs going all over France.
The Rail
Europe booking form on the left allows you to book your
European rail journey from London, Paris or other major European
locations. If the departure city or destination you are looking for
does not come up in the roll-down menus of the booking form, click on
the link below for further options and offers.
