Just had a quick look for prices for the car, caravan, 2 adults and 2 kids, early August. The tunnel came out at roughly £250 for a return, but Poole-Cherbourg was £750! Poole being closer to us in SE Wales.

Any tips or experience for saving money? Our destination might be Languedoc in SW France so I did consider the possibility of getting to the ferry all the way to Bilbao. Must cost a fortune though.

Only ever travelled via Dover/Calais ferry, which is always peanuts for us, as we normally book it though the holiday company (Eurocamp normally). I think it only adds about £50 to the cost of the holiday (including the return crossing). It’s very flexible as they have crossings every hour, so if you get there early then you can normally travel early.

We’re are only 2 hours from Dover, though, so it’s easy for us, and only a 1.5 hr crossing. But I’d rather drive than be on a ferry. We did it last year when we drove down to Austria, through France and Germany…

It was a big drive though. Just me and the wife. Not sure I’d like to do it with kids, so you may think it’s worth paying the extra to go further on the ferry, but the cost seems to sky rocket beyond a certain point.

Edit…just noticed you said you have a caravan, which we don’t. So I guessed you’d be paying a lot more than we would.

For the tunnel crossing. Just book the cheapest crossing on the day you want to go (usually abou 2am) and arrive “late”. You have 24 hours. I’ve never paid more than 75 euros and never waited more than hour. (of course I didnt have a caravan, but have a look)

Having done Poole-Cherbourg and the tunnel, all I’d say is that the road links from Calais are worth a lot more than £500. That Bilbao ferry is a long journey with two kids.

Have you priced up the train that takes your car down south for you?

EDIT: I found Poole to be a bit of a pain to get to as well. Cross country is an arse, so really you have to do M4-A34-M3-M27

Have you priced up the train that takes your car down south for you?

Do they still do that? I’m pretty sure I looked in to it a few years back after someone recommended it to me, and they’d stopped the service.

Oh right, I stand corrected then jon1973. I haven’t looked at it in years.

Brittany Ferries do seem pricey at the moment; P&O seem to be polar opposite. We’re paying £350ish for 3 blokes + 2 cars, Hull – Rotterdam in May, 16hr overnight crossing. P&O still do Dover-Calais, should be pretty cheap? Failing that LD were cheap as chips from Newhaven to Dieppe, although that was for a bike. Might be worth a look, its not too bad a drive from S Wales either.

Ah.. the train all the way – nice idea.. never thought of it before.

Bilbao ferry is £1150 ish, so not a real option.

Fuel, tunnel and tolls maybe £600 or so, at 35mpg.

Discontinued in 2010 mol 🙁

(And they didn’t take caravans anyway.)

OOPS EDIT: discontinued from Calais. Still run from Paris, but still no cavarans

Oh! OK. Interesting. May have to look at that for next year.

Off to Normandy as the beginning of June, so quite a quick run compared to previous years – 3 hours from Calais. France is a fantastic country for camping….can’t wait, although I do find it slightly depressing that in 6 weeks time we’ll be half way through the year.

There are still sites advertising it… Comparable to the Bilbao ferry it seems, but you’re right no caravans, even if they did still do it.

The convenience of the tunnel wins it for me every time, even if we’re heading towards SW France. I assume you’d be making a stop halfway down anyway, no?

You can (or could) get a good deal if you have a pile of clubcard points.

I believe club card pounds are worth double for euro tunnel vouchers aren’t they? Wish nectar would do it. 🙁

Same as DD with the tesco club card pints and Eurotunnel. It’s so quick and easy, I won’t be using the ferries again.

My fokes did this a few years a go and bought their ticket through the camping and caravan club. The caravan effectively went free compared to booking it on line through the normal ferry websites.

They do club card pints?

Hmmm…maybe I will start collecting after all. 🙂

Tbh mol, £250 for car and caravan in high season doesn’t sound too bad.

No it’s ok, just wondering if there’s any cheap tricks I don’t know about. Like the Camping and Caravan Club one above, cheers 🙂

have you considered that if you take caravan fees for the ferry and extra fuel it might be significantly cheaper just to stay in a hotel or self catering apartment?

I’d like to see an apartment or hotel for 14 nights in August for the £400 or so difference in costs 🙂

Plus I prefer staying in a caravan. If I weren’t to take it, I’d take a tent.

+1 for what was said up there about the tunnel, it’s awzum

another one of Maggies bright ideas,..they’re French,…leave them be…

I’d like to see an apartment or hotel for 14 nights in August for the £400 or so difference in costs

Plenty in the alps – although if you went as soon as the uk schools break in July it’d be cheaper, it was cheaper than camping based on 2 people.

Basically, stick it all into one of the mapping things and work out the cost difference between getting to Dover and from Calias to the other options. That how much extra the options can be… there were a few comparison sites for Ferries a while back.

We used to do the Portsmouth – Cherbourg/Le Harve stuff as kids when we were heading over that way. Risk of a rough crossing but with a cabin it was part of the trip and knocked a chunk of driving off the journey.

We’re paying £400ish for return ferry Portsmouth to Caen in June on the overnighter with cabins and stuff. Really looking forward to it. It was either that or do the tunnel, save a bit of cash but have a 6 hour drive along the north french coast (vs a 1.5 hour drive once we get to Caen).

8 weeks from now I’ll be eating cheese and drinking wine whilst fishing 🙂