This is surprising, because booking a ferry though siblu is actually the cheapest way to pay for your ferry crossing.

The drop in ferry bookings could mean a couple of things: our customers are booking directly with ferry providers, or they are choosing others forms of transport, most likely flights.

If you are going on a siblu holiday and you book a crossing directly the ferry provider, you are probably paying more than you need to.

If you are travelling with a low cost airline then don’t forget to add up the total cost of your journey: the tickets, taxes, baggage charges and car hire. For families especially, a ferry booked through siblu could be the cheapest option.

One Minute Language lessons are basically short podcasts that you can download or listen to on your computer, that give you phrases and a few words to get you up and running abroad.

They start with ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and then move on to introductions and pleasant greetings. It’s really basic stuff and my first thought was that it’s a bit too easy, but by the time I’d moved on to One Minute Japanese and One Minute Romanian I realised that lots of people don’t know how to say “hello, how are you” in all sorts of languages.

It’s also a great way to get your kids excited about a trip abroad, and it’s something you can all do together.

At the moment there’s French and Catalan, but no Spanish or Italian for the moment.

The clock is ticking, let’s get learning… There still plenty of time before your next siblu holiday!

But are the headlines right? We’ve been asking our customers if they thought their siblu holiday was value for money and a whopping 93% wholeheartedly agreed (and the other 7% said it was satisfactory). 

A quick check on the web and I see that catching a plane to the Canaries costs over £2,000 for a family in a b&b hotel in July; fly to Florida and the lowest price gets closer to £3,000, for a room only hotel. Well, stay with siblu in late July and the cost is about £1,000 for a family, staying seven nights with Dover-Calais ferry, in accommodation with ensuite bathrooms, fully equipped kitchen, a sun terrace and a grassy play area!

On top of that, we’ll entertain your kids for free (what parent can say no). Our pool complexes are free, our children’s clubs run twice on most days, we have free stage shows every evening, there are free sports and you don’t need to pay for travel and parking, everything is available on parc. So, can you beat that by staying at home?

I think self catering is another smart way to save. French markets are great and seasonal foods are low cost, healthy and it’s fun to try new things. We’ve just launched a small selection of really easy recipes which can be cooked in your mobile home – even I managed the asparagus and ham and the scallops with Muscadet (okay, with a bit of help from my wife).

To see how an expert handles them click here, or for other recipe ideas I like the Small Time Cooks blog – Jessica’s ‘My Monsieur’ sandwich is a winner! If you want to find out more about our cooking schools, have a look here.

So, 93% of siblu customers say their holiday gave great value for money; a few newspapers say there’s a price panic – take your choice!

Why not tell us you tips for great value family holidays?