Travelling in and around France

How to get to France

Smart ways of travel to France

Paris, Saint-Malo, Brest, Camaret, Clermont-Ferrand, Saint-Jean de Luz, Perpignan… you’d love to visit those magnificent cities and booked a trip with France écotours… but don’t know how to get there? Here are some insider tips to travel to your dream French city!

FAQs – Most asked questions about the journey to France

• Travelling by plane
• Travelling by ferries
• If you still don't know how to get there
• Travelling by train
• Travelling by car
• Travelling by bus
• Some tips to order a cheaper ticket

Getting to France

Travelling by plane

Flying to France might sometimes be the only way to get to our homeland. However, planes emit a lot of pollutants, and one needs to think about it when catching a plane. That’s why we suggest you take the time to compensate your flight emissions with our partner Atmosfair. This is a climate protection organisation with a focus on travel that publishes climate rankings of airlines ( very interesting!). Just have a look at their comparator, go climate conscious!
To learn more about this eco-friendly organisation, read our post.

Book with a low-cost company: there are more and more low-cost plane companies allowing you to travel for a very small budget. However, you won’t be permitted to bring a lot of luggage on board.
Most popular ones: Ryanair, EasyJet, Transavia.

Book with a travel search engine: many of them will enable you to find your flight at the cheapest price. We recommend: Skyscanner, Kayak, Momondo and Google Flights!
Don’t hesitate to compare the results of those search engines! Although a bit time-consuming, this method might save you a few hundreds of pounds or dollars.

Be assured to pay the cheapest price: with OptionWay, you can buy a ticket… and the website will reimburse you the difference if the ticket goes any cheaper!
Does not work for low-cost and group tickets. OptionWay takes a 30% commission.

If you are from Canada: Yulair will tell you all the cheapest flights from Montréal.

Some useful tips to get the cheapest flight:

• Book your flight ticket on Tuesdays or Wednesdays between 1 and 4 o’clock.
• Book as early as you can.
• Use Incognito Mode to search your flight. / Before booking it for real, delete your Google browsing history and reboot your internet box. Many flight companies will else track you and make you pay more expensive prices.
• Be flexible: coming one or two day(s) earlier can help you save dozen of euros… and give you more time to discover your departure city!
• Before paying, check that you didn’t accidentally book for any extra-option (reserved seat, meal, etc).

Traveling by ferries

Book a ferry: you can book through several companies: Brittany Ferries, Condor Ferries, DFDS Seaways, Irish Ferries, P&O Ferries, Stena Line.
However, we recommend using the following comparison website A Ferry. This site compares all the ferry companies and routes to France for you.

You still don’t know how to get there?

Search with a comparator: Gopili will help you find the cheapest way to get there (plane, bus, carsharing, train…).

Travelling through France

Travelling by train

Warning!! Strike in France March to June 2018: Unions want to strike for 2 days out of 5. More information under this link.

Book an exchangeable and refundable ticket: book as early as you can to benefit from SNCF offers. And with those “exchangeable and refundable ticket” (make sure to chose this option !), you can exchange them for a few euros if you can't make it!

Take a night train: in France, night trains are often cheapers and sometimes more direct than regular day ones!

Take a Ouigo train: those “low budget” trains are stopping at less-frequented railway stations, but can be an amazing way to travel through France. However, keep in mind that you shouldn’t check only this website, but also others such as SNCF, as “last minute” train tickets with SNCF can be cheaper.
/!\ Website in French.

Take a regional train: regional trains are much slower, but at the same time cheaper. A nice way to discover magnificent French landscapes and to easily get to the starting point of our hiking. Moreover, you can take your bicycles with you!

Book with a train tickets comparator: we highly recommend you use TrainLine. Register with an email address and fill up your profile to have the best prices in whole Europe.

Buy second-hand tickets: many people book a train they won’t be able to attend and then resell it on the Internet. Why not getting yours here?

In region Languedoc-Roussillon (where we offer a lot of travels…): you can get a regional train or a bus for 1€!

If your flight lands in Belgium: Izy offers you Brussels-Paris from 10€!

Be clever and use the interrail'pass if you intend to travel through several European countries!

Travelling by car

Share a car!: Carsharing is cheap and eco-friendly, so why not using it? You can choose your partners over some particular criteria: non-smoking, ladies-only, luggage size, etc. We highly recommend Blablacar , a website really easy to register to!

Rent someone else’s car: TravelerCar enables you to rent a car from someone who left on holiday. The car is insured. You can also have a look at Drivy.

Travelling by bus

Buses are one of the most eco-friendly means of transportation. Besides, since Macron’s Law in 2015, it’s really cheap in France.

Book directly with the bus company: FlixBus, Ouibus, Eurolines, etc. Journeys will be longer, but these buses often offer Wifi, WC, and plug sockets!

Book with a comparator: ComparaBUS or TicTacTrip analyse most of the bus transfers in Western Europe to help you get yours at the cheapest price!

Some tips to order a cheaper ticket

-Book your ticket as soon as possible, as soon as you know your departure date.
-Do your research in private navigation. Before ordering your ticket, once you have done your research, remember to completely empty your history/cookies and disconnect and reconnect your Internet box (obtain a new dynamic IP). It is known that airline websites profile you and offer you prices that are often higher than your previous searches.
-Set your computer/smartphone to only accept cookies from visited sites and refuse geolocation if it is not necessary.
-Use more confidential browser software like Brave or Tor browser
-Be flexible on your departure dates: arrive one or two days before the start of your organized France écotours holidays can save you several tens, even hundreds (if you come by plane) euros… and leaves you extra time to discover the area!
-Before paying, remember to check that you have not inadvertently ticked any additional options (snack, seat reservation, etc).