This is a bit of a long-shot, but I'm wondering if anyone has much experience with fares on the Rosyth to Zeebrugge route with Norfolkline or the Hull to Zeebrugge or Hull to Rotterdam route, or the Newcastle to Amsterdam route? At the moment there is a fairly decent offer on the Rosyth to Zeebrugge route for travel up to the end of this month but fares for end July to mid August seem very high. Has anyone any ideas whether offers are likely to be available on any of these routes around end July - mid August period? We would be travelling from Scotland, so it would be nice to be able to use these routes but not at a very prohibitive price. Currently I'm being quoted £636 return for Rosyth to Zeebrugge. We're wondering whether to wait and just travel further South if we can't get a decent fare (around £350 was more what I was thinking). Any suggestions?
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we stay in Aberdeen and have never been able to make the economics of Rosyth sailings stack up. There are far too many people willing to pay a premium for the time saving it brings. If the old boat is anything to go by, most peak sailings are likely to be sold out well before the date.
We generally drive right down to the tunnel, or recently to a channel crossing. £58 return this year for the first two weeks in August.
We have done Hull to Zeebrugge and Felixstowe to Zeebrugge in the past, but only because we got them as a package deal with a tent on a campsite.
Hi, thanks for letting me know - it's shocking really, isn't it?! Perhaps there will be enough people unwilling to pay a premium in years to come and the prices will begin to come down. The Spring offer of £250 they're doing until the end of June is a pretty good one (though once you've added on the 'extras' they don't mention (including the kids in our case!), it's more of a £330 price. Still, that might have been worth the extra as it would mean so much less travelling by car - so we'd be able to go further into Europe if we fancied without making it a seriously long journey. We probably will opt for driving down South and taking the Tunnel crossing (we're quite fond of the tunnel even though it tends to be more expensive) and, perhaps, fit in a visit or two to friends and/or family on the way.
Thanks for your comments. Where are you going this year? We're off to Strasbourg ultimately - where my cousin lives - and we thought we'd take the opportunity to explore some of the Netherlands and Luxembourg on the way.
Have you priced up the DFDS Newcastle-> Amsterdam crossing? It's quite a bit less than the Rosyth one and about half what we would normally pay for any of the Portsmouth-> France crossings that we would normally use. We have an over height vehicle, bike racks and long trailer so it's all going to be expensive whichever crossing we use, but it's still a better deal for us. And only a two hour drive to the port from here (near Edinburgh) so we save on fuel costs as well.
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Hi Adriatic......I booked Rosyth Zeebrugge back in April going out 18th August and returning October 28th with recliners to save on cabin costs and with an overlength payment (13m train length) for £451.50. I'm prepared to do without a cabin for a few hours to save around £400.00 and it would have cost most of what I'm paying on fuel costs anyway, and saving the hassle and cost of an overnight stop to the South Coast + the Channel Ferry cost.......but don't be surprised if the cabin costs come down in future as I think they are going to be forced to re-think their priceing......who wants to pay for a 4 berth cabin if you are a single or a double?
Thanks, Val, perhaps if we had a bigger vehicle and the potential savings were larger, it might be a good suggestion still for us, too. However, I have priced up the Newcastle - Amsterdam crossing - it's still around £500+ unfortunately. I'll keep my eye on it for offers. The cheapest price I came upon was Hull - Rotterdam at around £430 - though I think it meant leaving to return a day or two earlier than I had hoped.
Your suggestion was also appreciated, jocko, looks like you've got yourself a fairly reasonable price - though it sounds as if you're either on your own or in a party of just two. Unfortunately, we're a family of four and we were happy to do without a cabin - but it's actually more expensive to take the recliners for us! I think they charge at least £80 each for the recliners. We have a diesel car with a roofbox and a tow-bar bike carrier, so the fuel costs are lower than yours, I think. I do wish they would re-think their pricing for the cabins as it does seem pretty prohibitive. Surely the pricing was the major factor in why the previous operators on the route couldn't make a success of it?! I know quite a few people who have considered it and discounted it purely on cost. We would usually drive through the night and avoid an overnight stay, so again another cost we don't usually have to bear - though, last Summer, we camped for the night en-route, and that didn't work out expensive.
Hi Adriatic. We also live in Aberdeen and fully agree with Septic's post. We drive down to a Travelodge near Dover for an overnight stay (£25, booked months ago) and an 05.00 Dover/Calais crossing with car & trailer for £140 return.
------------- Ally
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We usually drive down overnight as well, grab a short sleep in the car at a Service Staion and cross early on.
We tend to not go very far into France in the summer, as my family struggle with heat! We have always been very lucky with the weather, having been in France twice during a heatwave. We are only about 60 miles from Calais this year.
I don't understand why the previous operator couldn't make it work. We often couldn't even get a price from them because the crossing was fully booked. When we had a caravan we were priced at over £1100 return for 4 of us.
There is also an issue for me in extending my holiday, and the times of Rosyth crossings would have necessitated taking at least part of a Friday off work if I remember correctly. All-in-all it seemed like a dream come true when it was introduced, but we just couldn't make it work in practice. We have a small car and will hardly use more than £300 in fuel the whole fortnight. Our savings are unlikely to be more than £100-120. A Rosyth crossing would add on £500+ to save £100.
One factor for us is that neither of us will even attempt driving overnight to either Portsmouth or Dover and getting the day ferry, then driving again before setting up the tent. We've always driven down during the day and taken a night crossing and slept on the ferry and find that quite tiring enough, especially when the kids were small. I don't like having to spend the first couple of days of my holiday recovering from the journey. It's just as bad coming home. Have to say that last year the two hour drive to the ferry and a nice relaxing 15 hour crossing with comfy cabin, nice meal and a decent night's sleep was worth every penny. Money is not the only factor in deciding which route to take.
In fact on the back of last year's amazing ferry journey we're going camping in the Netherlands this year. Off the ferry at 9am and a one hour drive to the campsite. We'll be set up and in the pool by lunchtime, yeah!!!
Choices are individual depending on your own circumstances. All of my family, except me, are really bad for travel sickness. That gives them all an underlying tension about a long crossing.
I also recover pretty quickly.(or at least I did!) Driving most of the night, followed by most of the day leaves me tired, but I go to bed really early and get up completely refreshed and ready for my holiday. In the early days it was also a trade-off for time in France. I couldn't get more than two weeks off work and to get two full weeks there required getting there and back as quickly as possible.
Thank you all for your suggestions. Just to round things off, here's what we decided to do:
Newcastle to Amsterdam on the way out - £262 for family of four with car, roofbox & bike carrier
Eurotunnel on the way back - £56 for family of four with car, roofbox & bike carrier
Don't know why I didn't think of it earlier - we get to arrive in Amsterdam, where we start our touring trip, and leave via Eurotunnel and, perhaps, fit in a quick visit to friends on the coast there just before we get on the train the following day.
Long hours of driving are probably fairly inevitable for us in Scotland given the distance from the continent.
Thanks, all,
Liz
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I live in Aberdeenshire and I'm not long back from a holiday in Europe. It was a bit of a drive down to Dover in the motorhome, but we had a free night at daughter's house in Manchester both coming & going.
We used Norfolk line to Dunkirk (£96 return), so even with the obscene cost of fuel, it was better than Rosyth, Hull or Newcastle. As our first stop was in Brugges, Dunkirk was convenient too.
I'm really annoyed about the high cost of the North Sea routes - especially when you add in a cabin, meals etc..
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Offers Rosyth to Zeebrugge or Similar?
