Trying to nail down our holiday in South Brittany today. We're travelling to Concarneau from North staffs.
1.Poole - Cherbourg, quick 4hr cheaper crossing & longer drive in France.
2 . Portsmouth - St Malo, overnight crossing, not as long a drive as from Cherbourg.
3. Plymouth - roscoff, much longer drive in the UK, expensive overnight crossing, short drive in France.
Thoughts & tales of experience plz.
Thanks
Poole or Portsmouth Cherbourge - use the 'quick ferry' road from Cherbourge down to Concarneu is dual carriageway all the way, even round the one city Rennes you by pass easily roads usually quiet no holdups, done it most summers, Concarnea is a nice area.
If you decide to go on one of the overnight ferries, book it in plenty of time to get a cabin.
Poole and in particular Portsmouth are easy to access by road from Midlands (M40/A34). The fast ferries mean you don't need a cabin, and as noted above cabin's sell out before capacity so if you don't book early on the overnight routes you can end up sleeping on the floor (been there done that and it's not great). So my choice would be fast cat Portsmouth/Cherbourg. Cars are faster than boats so less time on the water is better unless you want to go for the "cruise" bit.
Watch out tons of speed cameras on the route National dual carriage ways) although French don't seem so efficient at sending tickets to UK). Area around Concarneau is great, make sure you visit Benodet/or small place opposite and a trip to Belle Isle is worth it (you don't have to take the car) and can rent bikes. If you've time to get inland the area behind Brest is lovely, lots of hills. Dournanez has a cool little harbour with some historic boats. If you want to do some research the French OS equivalent maps (IGN) are available online on "geoportal", google it.
We go Portsmouth - St Malo every year. Brittany Ferries most comfortable, and plenty of entertainment if you have kids.
Definately book cabin. It's like the holiday starts when you get on the boat.
Cheaper option LD Lines, smaller boats with much less to do.
We wouldn't want to drive for too long with kids, if that's not an issue for you, then shorter ferries will work out cheaper (even including fuel/tolls)
Just as a follow up to @sc-xc if you've time and you take St Malo ferry the town is well worth a few hours to look round when you get off the boat in the morning, ramparts, boats etc.
BTW the little place opposite Benodet is Sainte-Marine, small village on water front with nice little creparie. Thee is a small foot passenger ferry which runs across.
The Cherbourg ferries aren't as cheap as I thought they might be. We've only got a 3yr old so we're going off season in late June.
Plymouth-roscoff with cabin on both journeys = £360
Portsmouth/Poole - Cherbourg = £250.
So £110 more expense to save 3hrs driving in France & we get the 'fun' of sleeping on a boat.
Plymouth-roscoff it is. Cheers for your help & tips lads.
@jekkl enjoy it. Roscoff you wonder sometimes how they get the ferry in there 🙂 Leaving Plymouth by boat is quite cool too, the harbour and bay are lovely. I've sailed/holidayed around the Brittany coast a lot, very dramatic, rugged cliffs all around and nice beaches in the South. Have a couple of friends who've semi-retired there.
Given the disproportionate numbers of drivers flashed and having accidents in other countries the rules have changed and all the forward-thinking countries in Europe have agreed to make fines payable by all EU citizens except those from a few backward places where their leaders watch Top Gear.
Quite why anyone would want to speed and put lives at risk I don't know, especially when they're on holiday, but if you do I have some good mates who'll enjoy teasing me if you give them a reason to take your licence off you and confiscate your car.
[url= http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2013/11/09/1749510-20-des-automobilistes-flashes-sont-etrangers.html ]21% of speeding morists are foreign[/url]
I'd rather sleep on the floor than a vibrating, over-heated, rolling cabin in the bows.