I’m driving back to the UK for summer and am not 100% sure yet when I’ll get to Calais (Driving from Cadíz)
But rather than booking a ferry and being well early or worse stressed about being late is there much of a difference in price if I just turn up?
Any regular ferry users who can give me the heads up?
Cheers

In advance!

The popular times will be full so worth getting an advance ticket. There are a few flexible options.

Cheers guys. I think I need to find a good route planning package so as I can start to work out some timings with stop overs etc. Looks like I’m now driving it alone so not going to bee pushing the driving hours each day. Not found anything yet online where I can put in variables such as start time from Cadíz and max driving hours per day. Might have to load an old copy of Autoroute to give an idea.

Via Michelin for your route guide online.

Book in advance!!!

Already tried Via Michelin but it doesn’t let you set the variables I mentioned above. I know I can just work it out from the driving times, but I’m being lazy and want something just to tell me where to stop after say 8 or 10 hours driving each day. Autoroute used to be great allowing you to put in things such as driving no later than X o’clock each evening, max driving hours etc etc.

Dunkirk is usually cheaper than Calais, only 20 mins down the road.

We dont book returns in advance as a) we dont know when we want to come back and b) I dont like the idea of having deadlines on holiday. So we just rock up and get on the list for the next free slot and chill out till it comes free. Loads of people miss their slots so you dont wait long.

LD lines are running a once a week service from Gijon/Santander to Poole in Dorset.With the prices I’ve seen I wouldn’t bother driving through France.Loads cheaper than the 2 Brittany ferries routes.

Good tip Joeegg. It’s quoting me 230€ for July one way, which I think would be way cheaper than driving through France (petrol, tolls and probably a night in a hotel).

Dunkirk Dover is showing at 95€ one way where as Calais is showing 55€ on my approximate dates (around 8th July. I’ll also be in a minibus so price goes up a little).

Will have a look at LD lines too as my first search was 530€ one way from Santander and roughly the same from Bilbao.

370€ one way with LD Lines, plus their Friday crossings would have me hanging around in Spain for 4 days. So looks like the drive through France might still be my best option.

I just had a look on their website. Looks to be £120 return, which is about the same as I was seeing for the Folkestone crossings. Have you seen cheaper offerings?

Who is that question directed to Cougar?

Ah, ouch. It says “from” £119, sods. Plugged in a couple of dates for when I was looking to go away and got told £616 (coming down to £472 if I don’t have the bikes on the roof).

Back to the Eurotunnel and triple-value Clubcard points it is, then.

Who is that question directed to Cougar?

Sorry, Joeegg. Half a dozen posts appeared whilst I was typing.

Well, looks like I’m going to make it a bit of a steady road trip. Cadíz to Salamanca for an overnight, then on to Bordeaux for another before heading to Calais for late evening ferry to Dover. May then blag a bed for the night with relatives near Leeds in Kent, so only a short drive from Dover. So total journey including time on Ferries would be 6 days.