As requested we include the costing details for this holiday. These must be taken as a guide only as:

 

Ferry - Dover to Calais and return

We tend to use SeaFrance from preference, more comfort etc.

Cost varies dependant on sailing and day of week etc - special offers start from about £45 return.

We tend to book a fixed sailing outward but have a flexible ticket for the return.

 

Autoroute tolls - Calais to Toulon and return

Tolls were paid using a Sanef transponder which meant that from past experience we saved half an hour on each of the outward and return legs of the journey. Queues can be quite lengthy at some péages. No queues in the orange Telepéage lane! We’ve not received any bill as yet but estimate around 180€.

 

Hotels - France (3 nights including evening meals)

We tend to use hotels in the Campanile chain having over the years tried most of the cheaper establishments and found them lacking in one way or another. You know what you are going to get at a Campanile even down to the menu which is published on the net.

200€ approx (for 3 nights) - actual price depends whether or not the reservation is pre-paid - meals from about 15€ per head + drinks etc.

 

Ferry - Toulon to Ajaccio and return

We used Corsica Ferries booked through Ferries Direct and both crossings were made at night with an outside cabin on each occasion. Not necessarily cheap but must also be compared to the ferry crossing plus a night in a hotel.

£326 for the return crossing with outside cabin accommodation. The quality of Corsica Ferries (Mega Express was the ferry for both crossings) far exceeds that of P&O and Brittany ferries - in fact would make a good small cruise liner . The cabin accommodation was far better than we had experienced on sailings to Santander in Spain.

Meals and drinks at normal ferry prices

 

Hotel - Bastia

We chose the Best Western Bastia Centre which was definitely not the cheapest hotel. We used the secure car park as we had two electric mobility scooters that also need safe garaging when not required for use.

We paid about 87€ a night plus 7.50€ per night for the secure garaging.

 

Breakfast in Bastia

We did not use the hotel breakfast facility but instead used cafés associated with supermarkets (we could buy the ingredients for lunch at the same time).

Price varied from about 3 to 8€ per person for a 'large' coffee and croissant or pain au choc.

 

Lunch

In the main we bought the ingredients on a daily basis - beware, Sunday the only shops open are the boulangeries.

Bread is price regulated throughout France and a flute or baguette ranges from about 52 to 78 cents.

We tended to have pork slices, cheese or paté as a sandwich filling - total of about 1.25 to 1.75€ for two people.

 

Drinks

Coffee varied quite considerably with espresso (the mini cup) varying from about 1 to 2.50€. Café Americain (larger coffee) varied from about 1.50 to 4€ per cup.

Soft drinks, Fanta, Orangina etc 1.50 to 3€.

Beer - imported from 1.50€ per 25cl, local from 2.00€ per 25cl, draught imported from about 3.00€ per 50cl.

House wine from about 5.50€ per 50cl carafe.

 

Evening meals in Bastia

We tended to eat the 14€ menus plus drinks and coffee. These were plenty large enough and varied to satisfy our eating habits.

 

Fuel

We mainly used hypermarket fuel but the cost will be very much dependant on the price of fuel at the time you go and of course your driving style and the mpg you expect/get from your vehicle.

For this reason we have omitted the cost of fuel but we did approx 2,275 miles. By trial and error we arrived at a true (GPS) speed of 115 kph on French Autoroutes as giving a good compromise between speed and economy but this will of course be dependant on your own vehicle and requirements. On our journey, fuel we bought varied from about 1.28€/litre in France to 1.35€/litre on Corsica.

 

We hope that this gives you some idea of the costs involved but if you require further details then don’t hesitate to contact us. For our part, yes it was quite expensive but worth every euro!