Trains, flights, car hire, ferries - travel in France

We now have great price comparison searches for car hire, flights and ferries - see the options below which check all the major operators:

We have carefully selected the companies offering the cheapest flights to France, car hire companies and cross channel ferries that we could find for your trip to France. Check out the travel pages above - we believe the companies we have identified offer the best value, reliability and quality of service.

Check out the prices for your cross-channel ferries, flights to France etc on these pages first - if you find cheaper travel prices anywhere else please let us know and we will consider adding them to the France travel info page.

Airport destinations and arrivals

Note: there are now more than 25 regional airports operating in France - to find flights, hotels or car hire for a specific airport location please use the list at French airports to find the destination airport you are interested in.

What is the cheapest way to travel to France?

This is a very popular question! Of course there is no single answer. If you are single or there are two of you travelling, flying and car hire is often cheaper than driving. But for those having to pay for flights for children - and children usually don't receive much discount on flights - it is often cheaper to drive.

But really so much depends on where you are going on France (petrol costs to reach the south of France are not negligible), how long you are staying (car hire will start to look expensive after two or three weeks), that there is no single cheapest way to travel.

More complications? Most holidays run Saturday to Saturday - so that is when flights are most expensive. If you can travel midweek you can often pay less for your travel, but will have less choice of where to stay when you get there!

You can't even assume that the cheap airlines are cheaper than the 'standard' airlines, so to be sure of spending as little as possible I'm afraid you need to do quite a bit of research first.

And lastly...time is valuable! Often by flying to France and hiring a car you can save 12-24 hours holiday time at either end of your stay.