There's nothing quite like the freedom of a self-drive holiday - pile as much luggage as you like into the boot, avoid airport queues and travel at your own pace. With ferries and the tunnel linking the UK with countries as far flung as Spain and Sweden, there's still plenty of choice if you've not made arrangements yet. Book as soon as possible: pricing generally works in much the same way as low-cost airlines: costs rise as places fill.
P&O still has one-way fares to Calais from £40 for a car and up to nine people; SeaFrance has off-peak one-ways from £38 for a car and up to five people if you can be flexible about timings. Remaining spaces on Eurotunnel are mainly off-peak, with singles from £49. A FlexiPlus ticket costs £200 each way but is valid for peak travel.
Heading to other parts of France or to Spain by ferry is more of a challenge: crossings such as Brittany Ferries ' Portsmouth-St Malo and Plymouth-Roscoff routes book up early, particularly for weekend and overnight sailings. There is space midweek and in afternoons, with some availability on the Plymouth- Santander route after mid-August. P&O services from Hull to Rotterdam and Zeebrugge and from Portsmouth to Bilbao are very busy, with Friday nights to Bilbao almost sold out, but there's some availability at other times. Depart Portsmouth for Bilbao on Bank Holiday Monday and come back on 11 September and it will cost £663 for two people, including car and en suite cabin.
On the North Sea, Stena Line still has availability on its Harwich-Hook of Holland route, with fares from £49 one way. The ferry operator also has spaces on its Irish routes, especially on weekday crossings.
Irish Ferries has availability on its Holyhead-Dublin and Pembroke-Rosslare routes throughout the summer. Sail between Sunday and Friday and you could save £100 on the Saturday price. A midweek crossing to Rosslare costs from £116 in August for a car, two adults and two children.
If you are looking for a package holiday, operators still have availability. Family favourite Eurocamp has pockets in France - in the Dordogne and on the west coast, particularly from late August. If you can leave this week you could save £452 on a week at the International Holiday Park just outside Paris. Departing on 10 August it costs £554 for two adults and three children in a mobile home, including ferry crossing from Dover to Calais. Travel in September and there's a 20 per cent discount on holidays of seven nights or more at selected sites; a trip to the Dol-de-Bretagne in Brittany departing on 2 September would cost £283 for a family of five, with the saving.
Brittany Ferries Holidays is offering up to 25 per cent off selected cottages in France, and three nights for the price of two at selected hotels. A three-bedroom cottage set among vineyards in the Herault region of southern France is available for a week from 25 August for £602 (with discount), based on two adults and two children and car, with return ferry from Portsmouth to Caen.
Alternatively, SeaFrance Holidays , SeaFrance's web-based tour operator has three nights at the three-star 17th-century Chateau d'Etoges, in wooded parkland in Champagne, from £199 per person, including ferry crossing, based on two sharing. Dates include 20 and 21 August and 4 September. Further south, VFB Holidays is offering £150 off a detached house near Avignon, with south-facing terrace, pool and garden. A week from 25 August costs from £1,254, or £209 per person, based on four adults and two under-14s sharing, with ferry.
DFDS Seaways has offers for late bookers, too. A five-night break to Norway, staying in a chalet at the Vradal Resort on Lake Nisser in the Telemark region, costs £109 per person (for four people) sailing from Newcastle on Sundays between 12 August and 16 September. Or head to Spain with Inntravel. Its Inns of Northern Spain self-drive trip costs £1,025 per person in August and £885 in September, based on two sharing, including nine nights at hotels with breakfast, most dinners and crossings from Portsmouth to Bilbao.
Irish Ferries Holidays has a week's self-catering £25 August at the four-star Aughrim Holiday Village in Wicklow for £478 for two adults and up to three children, travelling from Holyhead to Dublin. Stena Line, meanwhile, has some deals left on its Short Breaks to Ireland programme, including stays at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dublin from £130 per adult per night.
The website www.sailanddrive.com, operated by the Passenger Shipping Association, is very useful, detailing all the routes of 15 ferry operators; there's also a handy map that allows you to check crossing times.
