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looking at a cheaper alternative to our original cycle tour plan for the summer which involved flying to vienna and back from venice, all in about £500 for 2 people and 2 bikes.
I thought i'd look at getting a ferry to north france and getting the eurostar back from calais. the ferry is £140 for 2 people including a cabin for the night (portsmouth-caen) ehich is good value. Eurostar from Calais to Ashford, a journey of 32 minutes is [b]£380[/b] for 2 people. how on earth can they justify that?
how have people got cheaply to and from the north coast of france in the past?
Boat?
Declare war on Germany and get some locals to come and take you back?
the original reason is that we wanted to get a cottage in the Loire or around Angoulem and then train back from there. getting the ferry involves riding back to the coast which we didn't want to do. it's easy and cheap enough to get to Calais on local French trains. seems odd that we are supposed to be discouraged from flying and yet the alternatives are so expensive!
I like the German Idea
When we looked at going to Brussels with our bikes a few years ago Eurostar couldn't be sure which train the bikes would go on. All they will say is that they'll be there within 24 hours! How useful is that!
May have changed now.
try pricing up a return at some odd time at least a week away.
just pick the cheapest fare for the bit of the return you don't use and there must be a weekend between the 2 dates.
i used to get a first class ticket and a cheapest 2nd class 'return' that i wouldn't use which often resulted in a one way fare 1st class fare the same price as a second class booked one way. the uk website wouldn't allow you to do this so would go to the waterloo ticket office (or a belgian train station) and book the ticket over the counter.
this was a couple of years ago so i don't know if this is still doable.
thanks Gary, I'll look into it
Try calling Eurostar bookings rather than internet, you often get better service that way.
Bikes in bike bags, then you take them on the train with you. We had 12 of us go to Lille for a long weekend in January with no problems at all. It was a group booking so they knew we were all together and knew we were taking bikes. Once they are in a bike bag they are no different to a large suitcase, and they don't stop people taking them.
I bet they don't but at £380 I shall be taking my business else where, and I'm not carting a bike bag around France for 2 weeks
Start with the ferry if you want better price.
Eurostar is horrible price (though my employer normally pays for me)...
If you took the ferry over to Ostend (rail station is integral to the ferry port) in Belgium then train (or cycle if you fancied!) to Brussels then you have an excellent range of train options.
Train never seems cheap though if you ask me...