Help please: We booked the afternoon crossing with Brittany Ferries some time ago, hoping to stop the night at Riva Bella. I read on here that they are closed until July.
I emailed Des Capucines having read their reviews on here, only to be told that they don't accept arrivals after 7.00 pm.
Has anyone any suggestions for somewhere to stay that does open late?
I'd rather not drive through the night or stop at an aire for obvious reasons.
There must be others out there that find themselves in a similar predicament and could suggest a solution.
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We were in a similar position a couple of years ago and ended up driving for a few hours then stopping in an aire, was absolutely no problem at all, just the usual caveat that, if it doesn't look right, drive to the next one, we found that parking between two lorries in the lorry park was probably the safest bet and had no issues at all, the alternative if you can't find a site would be to see if you can amend your sailing
Personally I would change the ferry booking.
Overnight sailings from Portsmouth to Caen are too short to get much sleep , but the overnights from Portsmouth to Cherbourg on one of the two new ships are more appealing - but they only sail on two nights a week.
Thanks both, we decided to bite the bullet and change our booking to the overnight sailing. No outside cabins available so moved to an inside. Only £161 extra to pay. What price piece of mind?
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After countless Channel crossings on the western routes over decades in just about every option possible, we've firmly concluded that the overnight PO-Caen is the best route for us and the most relaxing. Despite previous comments about 'not enough sleep', we've found it's adequate, and compared to alternative breaks in our journey either UK of France it's the most relaxing.
Never done it with a caravan, but done it solo vehicle, smallish camping trailer and huge horse box trailer (no horse, but glamping/camping gear, and real ale bar!). Arriving French side late evening has proven to be hugely disappointing re food and drink options, tired and trying to find unknown accommodation is also a PITA! As to inside vs outside cabin, always favoured the cheaper inside cabin, what's the point of an expensive window/porthole in the dark!
Never put it to the test, but stayed in Les Capuchines a number of times, always thought they used to be very accommodating re ferry times, maybe things have changed!
The arrival time in Caen most days of the week is 0545 Uk time and they play wake up music and start saying Please vacate your cabins at 0500 UK time. Not for me !
Quote: Originally posted by Netherton on 22/5/2023
The arrival time in Caen most days of the week is 0545 Uk time and they play wake up music and start saying Please vacate your cabins at 0500 UK time. Not for me !
We've stayed in many various hotels overnight around Portsmouth to catch the early morning ferry at 8.15am departure. Need to check in at least 1 hour before, so need to be at port around 6.45am (we travel at a very busy time and ship is usually at capacity, with long queues booking in), allowing for departure from hotel and journey to port, we're still awake before 6.00am anyway, but then faced with things to do and potential delays on the road, so the (albeit annoying bing-bongs, music and harrying) on board wake-up is not by far the worst option. I'm certainly not an early bird type, so departing a remote hotel and driving soon after waking is far from a good option for me. At least on the ferry, there's an opportunity to awake more or less at my leisure, and grab a bit of breakfast, before the amble down to the car deck to get ready to disembark, by that point I'm far more suitably awake and fit to dive.
A well practised routine now, and we like it (well, perhaps prefer to the other options is more accurate!), but perhaps not for everyone. We did the short Newhaven-Dieppe overnight crossing once, now that really was 'not enough sleep', it bu**ered us, and none of us really recovered for the duration of our 5 day stay in France.
I think the overnight crossing and shortish sleep/early rise takes a certain mindset to come to terms with, but we've endured far worse in multiple ways, so we are sure in our own minds that it's really not a bad option. We build it into our overall agenda, leisurely drive down to Portsmouth, nice meal somewhere before boarding, a beer or two on board before bed, a relaxed rise in the morning, shower and a bit of breakfast, a leisurely drive down into France to arrive early afternoon at our camp site, maybe picking up a little lunch on the way. Somehow it sets us up nicely for the more relaxed French way of life, and of course we are nicely chilled so can have a good night's sleep and maybe a lie in on our first night in the tent.
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We took the overnight ferry last year and had a pleasant crossing despite a delayed departure from Portsmouth. We thought the afternoon crossing might be better, but not if we can't be guaranteed a place to stay on the other side.
Monty 15 - you have echoed my thoughts exactly.
Thanks everyone for your contributions, can't wait to go now!
Apologies for thread-jacking in advance, however, I find this an very interesting read even though I have made the decision to use only the Tunnel for crossing the Channel.
Some of the posts echo my own findings after my first trip to France recently, in that I was on the road for 14 hours for the return leg, leaving that campsite just after 10:00 their time, and arriving home at 23:15 our time; stopping for 1 nature break, 2 meals and 2 lots of shopping for French goodies and duty free.
Even with the stops, it was still very tiring, and I felt completely washed out the following day and did nothing except to rest.
For my next trip to France and the Netherlands in 2024, I shall break up the return leg, so that there will be less driving and time spent on the road.
I aim to overnight at a campsite in Dunkirk and have a nice meal. The next morning will the the shopping for French goodies before driving to LeShuttle for the inbound crossing, allowing time for duty free shopping.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
DK, you live and learn, not necessarily from disastrous mistakes, but sometimes you just find better ways of doing things, or perhaps in our case, ways that suit us better. We have undoubtedly got wiser as well as older.
We're damned good at planning, for many of us it's a professional skill as well as an amateur gift, and we've been doing this annual trip for nigh on 40 years so plenty of practice, but we're prepared to try different things, we've never had a total disaster, but we've certainly developed our preferences, and one is that we build in as much slack as possible and do the whole trip in as a relaxed way as we can find.
Some of those that join us at our destination later in the week do so in a 'just in time' fashion, arriving frazzled from stress and exhausted from not enough rest, we laugh at them and question WHY they choose to make things so difficult for themselves!
We regard the whole trip from the moment we set off as a leisurely adventure, we arrive at our destination in good spirits, pitch camp with a degree of ease and lack of desperate 'need', then settle down to a chilled rest of the day, because we've been on top of the task from the outset, and don't need any 'decompression' time!
I think it's easy to underestimate distances and time needed for travelling in France. Nowadays, we too consider the holiday has started the moment we leave home and try never to drive for too long between sites. By stopping mid-afternoon it makes for a relaxing and more interesting day. But, i totally understand that, for people with time constraints, they often just want/need to get to their holidaydestination ASAP. This especially applies in high season, when sites in more popular areas may only accept weekly bookings.
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A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Late arrival in Ouietreham / Caen
via mobile 20/5/2023 at 8:16pm
