We’re going to France at the end of the month for the family holiday and I have yet to book our crossing.  We’re off to camp in the Loire and with take either a top box on the roof if I can find a decent sized one cheap enough (will happily rent) or a trailer if I need to as I have a small one of those already.

What’s the most cost effective way to cross the channel if travelling from Cheltenham? On price it looks like a 2 hr ferry to Dunkirk/Dover @ £136-150 vs £250+ for the tunnel or £400+ for Portsmouth to Caen.  I like the idea of the latter as I don’t like the drive to Dover much and would rather spend the time on the  boat if it’s relatively time neutral overall.  It would have to be good though to justify the extra cost.

Anyone any ideas/tips/discounts?

Cheers

Gary

Check out Newhaven Dieppe, we crossed in May and it was cheaper than the others. Mind you it was like crossing in a floating Poundland.

I took the Newhaven Dieppe in June and it was fine. A bit basic but the food was good quality/value. However I would say that Newhaven isn’t the easiest place to drive to. We cycled down but if I was driving it would be Dover and Chunnel each time for me.

Cheapest is the tunnel if you have tesco club card vouchers. You can trade in at 3:1. Its also very slick and there is no extra charge for high vehicles. That said the Portsmouth Caen route is much nicer. Shorter drive at both ends and the ferry is nicer. The trip out of Portsmouth past the naval docks is great, the boat is a bit cruise ship like with entertainment, and into Caen is quite nice too. If they were the same price it’d be a no brainer, versus an effectively free tunnel its hard to justify.

Poole – Cherbourg with Brittany ferries is often overlooked. Easy drive for you from Cheltenham. They did a pootling overnighter which was really relaxing.

I’ve got a 10% discount code for Brittany Ferries – PM me if you’re interested.

Shorter drive is always nicer if you’re on holday and the cost isn’t too much.  You don’t arrive wiped out

£400 for the ferry sounds very cheap, I paid well more than that booking in February (Portsmouth > Le Havre) – family of 5 cabins both ways with a van. Tunnel was cheapest for me last time I checked but it was adding 5+ hours driving on.. no ta.

We did Portsmouth -> Caen from Ciren. Longer ferry, but easy to get to Portsmouth and it was a pretty decent one, nice food and all that.

Thanks for all the responses, I can’t log in at work so this is the first time I’ve had chace to reply.

Looking at the travel time there’s a not a huge amount in it (1 hr difference between most of the major ports to the camp site) so I think we’ll probably just go for the cheapest which looks like a ferry from dover-dunkirk/calais. Even if it adds an hour to the drive on both sides, it’s a 2 hr shorter crossing and at least £200 cheaper.

Unless anyone’s got any Tesco Clubcard points they don’t need. ;o)

Cheers for the offer of the 10% code PaulX, I may be in touch soon.

Gary

Aferry.co.uk is good for comparing prices. We got the Normandy Express Portsmouth to Cherbourg a few weeks ago which was nice and quick but don’t know how much the prices go up in school hols.

Dover-Dunkirk has always been the cheapest for me.

Not the most convenient, Portsmouth-Cherbourg would be easier for example but even factoring in the extra diesel Dunkirk is still by far the cheapest.

Also depends how risk averse you are – more chance of something going wrong with traffic or operation stack et al on the way to Dover than there is on the way to Portsmouth. The quicker crossing is attractive, but I’d avoid going to Dover every time if I can help it. Also Brittany Ferries are nicer than P&O for lunch etc but that doesn’t matter to everyone.

We use the long ferry (from Scotland), as the saving on a hotel room & fuel balances out with the extra cost of the ferry.

I’d guess you can do the Loire in a day from Cheltenham though, so would you loose a day of being their by taking a long ferry?

What’s the most cost effective way to cross the channel if travelling from Cheltenham?

Kayak?