Just a note on nightmare journey's to Dover, the M20 is normally a better bet than the M2 for the last leg (and you get a lovely view of the port and Castle as you come off the last bend). No major roadworks that I know of planned (famous last words), the only thing to be aware of is the occasional implementation of "operation stack", when the motorway is closed at Junction 11 (my turn off) and used as a lorry park. This occurs when there are delays on the tunnel or ferries or when there are simply too many lorries, usually a Tuesday teatime for some reason! However this isnt happening quite so much lately, I guess us locals trying to get home from work are making too much fuss!
Clare
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I've just spent the last few days going up and down the "ferry" wicket trying to find the best deal for my holiday in Southern Brittany next June.
Conclusions? In rising cost order Norfolk Line Dover/Dunkirk was the cheapest by a country mile, then P & O Dover/Calais and the Channel Tunnel. These three are fine if you don't mind a drive of over 400 miles on the other side to your destination with the additional fuel that you'll use not to mention wear and tear on the outfit AND yourselves, toll fees that you'll incur and an overnight stop each way that we would require.
Next was Transmanche Newhaven/Dieppe. This seemed to be a fair bet except that they don't appear to have timetables beyond the end of next March and they seemed unable/unwilling to divulge information regarding cabins etc. So I ruled these out on the basis that if Norfolk Line, P& O and Channel Tunnel can, why can't they?
Next in the price climb came LD Ferries Portsmouth/Le Havre. We are now at the £260.00 return mark and bearing in mind that Norfolk wanted £144.00 there's only a differential of £116.00 so far and that by going on LD you're saving at least 180 miles each way not to mention the additional fuel costs, tolls etc. Sadly their return sailing times didn't fit in with our needs.
Then we arrive at what is ostensibly the "funny farm" when you look at Brttany Ferry costs. I was quoted via the internet well over £500 for Portsmouth/Caen. This is our most favoured route, but when I added in site fees, insurance etc, this little excursion was going to cost me 850 smackeroonies.
I had done all this investigation because I had heard and read that it was cheaper to handle all this yourself than book through a booking service and that it was more fun doing it this way. I had wound up frustrated and disillusioned. So before I gave up the ghost completely, I thought I'd give my friends at Select Sites a bell and see what they could come up with.
Surprise, surprise! 13 nights at Camping de la Baie on a full service pitch, one night in each direction just outside Ouistreham at Camping les Haute Coutures with electric, daytime ferry crossings in each direction Portsmouth/Caen with booked seats and the top insurance all for the princely sum of £583.00. This by my reckoning was about £30.00 over what my total would have been booking everything myself, using any of the Dover routes except Norfolk Line and it was only the same sort of dosh more than Brittany wanted to charge me just for the crossing.
"Result!" I screamed.
I'm not that hard up for £30.00 and I can rest assured that everything is taken care of first class, so Select Sites got my business.
Quote: Originally posted by Andy R on 08/11/2006
You could go for Hull - Zeebrugge with P&O and an overnight stop in the Loire area. This way, you cut a lot of journey time in the UK, but do have an hour or so extra in France. In our experience, the worst bit of the journey is always getting to Dover, so we'll be doing this crossing in future, as we'd much rather drive in France - easy roads, good motorways etc. You can pay for it with your Tesco vouchers - £50 of vouchers = £200 of ferry costs.
£634 they quoted us for this crossing in july !!
its "only" 1100 euro portsmouth-bilbao with AT ferries.
It's just gone up! I got a quote a few weeks back and it was £365 - now it's just over £600 for the days we're looking at - July/August. Caravans go free on Saturday and Sunday nights (in the week, they're about £270 extra I think) - and this price does include a full dinner and breakfast for 4, and club class cabin with a free mini-bar! For £150 of Tesco vouchers, it's looking good to me (but maybe not if you're paying cash).
just tried this out of interest.Hull- Zeebrugge on a saturday night in July , returning calais-Dover on a monday morning mid august , car/caravan 7metres length + 4passengers, standard cabin outward leg, £334.50 . works ok for us, a short drive to Hull and a nights sleep before attacking France for the hols. shopping in calais before return home the long way up the m/way
Quote: Originally posted by Nimrodphil on 10/11/2006
Hi Vic, SeaFrance are often cheaper than the other Dover sailings you mentioned'.
Phil.
Yeah Phil, I realise that.
It's getting my head around the fact that you can save a lot of money by using any one of the Dover routes over Brittany Ferries, but then I would have this massive drive across to Southern Brittany which, by my calculations would probably all but cancel out the savings made.
I think the only REAL saving that can be made is by using Tesco vouchers with P & O or the Channel Tunnel. Regrettably, we don't use Tesco's enough for this to work for us and anyway, neither of us can sit for hours and hours while that endless ribbon of tarmac passes beneath our outfit. A couple of hundred miles suits us just fine and the difference is so miniscule in the overall scheme of things, that we're happy to pay that bit extra to reduce the number of miles we'd otherwise have to drive.
we did dover calais last year and wouldnt do it again i priced fuel tolls over night stop cost £300. its not worth it plus the three days travelling. go to st marlo either the condor fast craft 4 1/2 hours crossing.or look at other crossings. ie caen/cherbourg
we went to royan just north of bordeux
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Quote: Originally posted by nora on 11/11/2006
we did dover calais last year and wouldnt do it again i priced fuel tolls over night stop cost £300. its not worth it plus the three days travelling. go to st marlo either the condor fast craft 4 1/2 hours crossing.or look at other crossings. ie caen/cherbourg
we went to royan just north of bordeux
My point entirely Nora. You wouldn't drive from London to Snowdonia via Newcastle upon Tyne so why take this sort of drive on especially for someone like you. All the way across from South Wales to Dover, then all the way back again. I would have thought you were all exhausted weren't you?
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: Help please with channel crossings.
