Heading to France end of the month, anyone have any tips for making it cheaper on the eurotunnel!?
Currently looking at £300+ for a 8 day return. Ideally need a flex time for the return…

Can I get a cheap day / short break return and not use the return?
Same thing on way back!? Or are they wise to that!?

Yes I should have booked earlier but it’s a last minute thing

3:1 exchange rate on Tesco Clubcard vouchers. ‘s what I did recently, £150 trip cost me £50 in vouchers.

Daft answer: ferry.

Also – ring them with queries. Their customer service is brilliant.

Ferry?

I travel to Europe a lot (family in holland) and never use the tunnel. Ferry is also a nice break. Returns seem to vary between £70 and £120 for a car full of people, depending on when I book/travel. They will let you on a earlier/later ferry for free normally…. I think my husband uses myferrylink.

As for using the cheap returns and only using one leg of the journey, I think they have cottoned onto that a long time ago and it won’t work (but I’d say ring them to check).

Simone

You get 2 hours either side on a standard booking anyway (as I may have had to use this time), but we’ve always been fairly successful in just changing onto a different train if we’ve got there at a different time. Occasionally we’ve been charged €30-40 more but that’s been when we’ve arrived massively early.

Ok cheers. Hoping to go thru the night so hoping the kids will snoooooze all the way through (yeah right) so ferry not ideal…. Maybe will ring them

Just bite the bullet. You are late booking, and there is a premium for that. It is not huge, but you will have to pay it. Fixed out and flexible back. Wave at the queues on your return. Customer service is superb. We rebooked by phone sat on the M25 in behind a crash last time. They are very accommodating.

But definitely booked flexible return, it is worth the extra.

How do you work this Tesco thing then? We seem to get money off food and stuff, can you redeem the vouchers against other things?

Hoping to go thru the night so hoping the kids will snoooooze all the way through

Have you ever done this before? We did once, we drove all night, our kid slept, arrived at our destination at 7am pretty wrecked, nothing open, and having to try and figure out how to entertain a now wide awake toddler all day.

Have driven thru the day last yr with kids and I don’t think anything could be worse, so willing to give it a go!!! 😐

How do you work this Tesco thing then?

http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=3223

If you have paper vouchers, the website still knows what they’ve sent you. So you tick off the unspent vouchers you want to use and they become void.

Note that you actually assign vouchers, you don’t just say “use fifty quid’s worth,” so it’s worth working out how to add them together so you don’t overspend.

^^What Cougar said.

Spending Tesco clubcard vouchers in-store is the worst thing you can do with them!
Loads of good stuff on their website, including the Channel Tunnel.

You get 2 hours either side on a standard booking anyway (as I may have had to use this time), but we’ve always been fairly successful in just changing onto a different train if we’ve got there at a different time.

This. You have a massive window with the standard fare so really no need to buy a flexible ticket. We had no problem getting a train 1.5 hours earlier than planned on our way back from the Alps.

Have you ever done this before? We did once, we drove all night, our kid slept, arrived at our destination at 7am pretty wrecked, nothing open, and having to try and figure out how to entertain a now wide awake toddler all day.

We got there at 8am, had breakfast and did the shopping, it was fine. It beat having to entertain a 2-year old all the way from Alpe d’Huez to Calais, which is what happened on the way back.

Well, if you are capable of driving all night and not being tired, then all credit to you 🙂

On our way back we just had regular food and play stops, worked out better for us all.

If you’re happy to drive through the night then you’ve got it made – Book the tunnel for around 10pm -midnight and its loads cheaper, and the motorways are delicious to drive at that time of night so you can break the back of the journey in the wee hours – Last time I did it I had a power nap around Dijon and was in Annecy for breakfast.

Yeah I’m hoping to get the bulk done overnight. Fuel up / snooze then tackle the final bit on the last couple of hours..

Buy some shares. IIRC, shareholders get 2 crossings PA FOC.

Looks like it’s just a 30% discount for shareholders now: http://www.eurotunnelgroup.com/uk/shareholders-and-investors/shareholder-guide/travel-privileges/

I got to the tunnel a full 24 hours early a few weeks back and got straight on the first available one with no charge.

Moving back from Germany we arrived at the tunnel to find my wife had accidentally booked the ticket for the previous week. D’oh!

Well, if you are capable of driving all night and not being tired, then all credit to you

I can’t, but we shared the driving so we both could get some sleep. Strict 2 hour rotation and strong coffee, it worked pretty well.

That’s not last minute. I’m going tomorrow, in an oversize vehicle.

Luckily my mate has an account and appears to have just got me £100 of the online price of the ferry.

Suspicious dog is suspicious though. I forsee mucho wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth in Dover tomorrow evening. Probably ending in me handing over mucho dosh to the man in the little booth.

I’ve used it 3 times in the last couple of months. Booked online, no flexible bookings just standard. Turned up 1.5hrs early on 2 occasions and straight on the next train, on the way back I’ve always been able to just turn up and hop on.
Can’t say this will work all the time, but it’s happened to me each time I’ve used it.

HTH

I always book the cheapest ticket on the day I want. Usually about
3am and arrive “late”. Most ever paid is 70 quid. Longest wait about an hour.

I’ve looked at this as going to WR 6th September.

The cheapest I found for a small van..
EuroTunnel to France – £71.00
DFDS Ferry back to UK (Flexi) – £105.00
TOTAL: £182.00

Nice tip for the Clubcard vouchers / EuroTunnel!
EDIT: You can also use the Clubcard vouchers for DFDS !

Eurotunnel – is there a cheaper way!?

Cover yourself in Lard and swim?

oh, might have to check out the shareholder thing (if it’s a good investment).
not only is it not possible to do the tesco thing, for those of us on mainland EU doing return trips the other way around, the price is higher too. I’d estimate at least double the price of the ferry, typically.