Archive for April, 2009

Writing in the Telegraph recently, Sophie Butler compiled a list of budget family holidays and it was nice to see Dordogne destinations listed a couple of times. There’s naturally some great picks in that list – but our holiday home would also provide excellent budget family holiday.

In her article, Sophie calculated prices as “per person, per week, based on a family of four (unless stated), travelling in peak season (July and August) and are subject to availability.”

So let’s take a look at our own home and see how it would fit:

We currently have a two week availability in July (4-18) and costs £850 per week. And the return ferry with LD Lines (car + family of 4) would cost £266 for these dates according to www.FerryCheap.com (Portsmouth <-> Le Havre).

The total cost for travel and accommodation would therefore be £245.75 per person per week!!

Not bad considering you would get a private pool.. something Sophie seems to think would be difficult for values close to this:

For under £200 a head, you can buy a package combining Channel crossing with a simply furnished cottage in France but you’re unlikely to have a pool unless you are prepared to stay in a cluster of properties and share with others.

Don’t forget that these prices are for PEAK season prices.. if you travel in other months the prices would be FAR lower. For example – the same scenario in June would be £180 and in October it would be £145 (ferry crossing largest cost).

So if you are looking for a budget family holiday to France – then please get in touch.

Before we bought our holiday home in the Dordogne, we looked in other areas of this region. One of these was the area around Brantôme known as the Green Périgord.

This area gets its name from the lush landscape full of forests, rivers and green meadows. It is totally different from the areas further south and well worth a visit (perhaps on your way into the region).

We stayed at “Le Moulin du Roc” which is located just outside the town of Brantôme and is simply gorgeous. Here’s a few photos from our trip to this area: