Ferry Interesting.....

*Kol*

wonderworm wrote: »

We usually take the 2115 sailing to Fishguard, overnight in the car park and leave the next morning at 730, it takes 7-7 1/2 hours including a rest stop to drive to Dover. We usually book a ferry going at 1700, if you arrive earlier you can change your sailing usually costs about £10. The only congestion can be on the M25 around London, but to be honest we have only had a problem with traffic once and we have been doing the drive for 5 years, summer and winter. A full tank of diesel takes us from Rosslare to Dover and we fill up there before we sail. There are two areas in Calais where you can overnight if you want, we usually drive for an hour, 1 1/2 hours and then park up. There are loads of aires where you can overnight on the way down south. If you go to www.outdoorbits.co.uk they have all the aire de service books for each of the regions in France.

If you leave Roslare for Roscoff at 5 or 6 in the evening you will be off the boat and well into France (Bordeaux for example) by 5 or 6 the next evening. I cant see the logic in using up 24 hours of my life (8 of those hours driving) to get as far as Calais.

wonderworm

It's all about personal preferences, don't knock it till you try it!

*Kol*

wonderworm wrote: »

It's all about personal preferences, don't knock it till you try it!

I would like to give it a go. Just checked out Rosslare-Pembroke then Plymouth-Roscoff for the days I have already booked this year. Gets me to France in the same time as the Roslare-Roscoff direct boat (3 hours earlier actually but I would have to leave home around 4 hours earlier for the Rosslare boat). The down side is that its €636 dearer!!

wonderworm

*Kol* wrote: »

I would like to give it a go. Just checked out Rosslare-Pembroke then Plymouth-Roscoff for the days I have already booked this year. Gets me to France in the same time as the Roslare-Roscoff direct boat (3 hours earlier actually but I would have to leave home around 4 hours earlier for the Rosslare boat). The down side is that its €636 dearer!!

That's a major downside alright:( Haven't tried that route, we always went the dover calais route, it's much cheaper and we never minded the drive down through france. I will be interested to see what it's like on the direct sailing to france in the summer!

*Kol*

wonderworm wrote: »

That's a major downside alright:( Haven't tried that route, we always went the dover calais route, it's much cheaper and we never minded the drive down through france. I will be interested to see what it's like on the direct sailing to france in the summer!

Hopefully like last year. On to the boat, Food, few drinks, bed, lie on in the morning. Got to the car and the whole row of cars in front of us on the deck was moving off already!! Ideal timing!!

dowtchaboy

Coming back from Germany last week I used SpeedFerries from Boulogne to Dover. Think they are using the old (defunct) HoverSpeed base.

£44 sterling for driver plus campervan (up to 7metres) one way - that's a LOT cheaper than those crooks at Calais (P&O and SeaFrance) and it's a 40 minute crossing on fast catamaran.

Tried out NorfolkLine from Liverpool (Birkenhead) to Dublin.
Found you have to pay for using the tunnel to get to Birkenhead unless you plan ahead - oh well. Price was £155 sterling including cabin - day sailing - I booked online 36 hours before sailing so I expect you could do better if booked say 2 weeks or more ahead. Crossing was ultra smooth but then again the conditions were ideal. Food was OK - not as good or as much as P&O. Boat was smaller that P&O I think. Good cabin, great sleep, seriously strong shower! Pleasant and helpful staff at Liverpool and on board.

Warning: exiting the port of Dublin watch out - the signs are dreadful. Your choice is City Centre or M50 - what that really means is (City Centre) South to The Point and the East Link; or (M50) the Port Tunnel - once you go down ths route you CANNOT turn back - this can cost you up to €12 each way! This drops you out near the Airport/M50 - that is not where you want to be if heading south - long delays at rush hour and yet another toll to pay at the Westlink bridge. I found out the hard way......

There's a new and huge Statoil service station inside the Port area that's good to know about, especially if you are running on fumes 'cos of UK fuel prices!

db.

FrCrilly

See below Motor Facts Ferry Ticket forum

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/forum-20.html

Here's a thread I notice of interest to Irish based motorhome owners.

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopic-42245.html

chrisblack

There seem to be a good few sites out there where you can book ferries online - can anyone suggest which offers the best prices??

Thanks

Chris

dowtchaboy

chrisblack wrote: »

There seem to be a good few sites out there where you can book ferries online - can anyone suggest which offers the best prices??
Chris

I am very suspicious of the sites that pop up on Google ads at the top or right hand side of the Google search results - many of them like aferry.to and so on that I have tried do not come up with fares as good as the ferry companies' own sites. There are even sites that look like the official site until you read the fine print.
I have found the best prices on the ferry company sites, and that it is worth poking around in these to find a bargain - for instance clicking on Landbridge in Stenaline gave me better prices for Ireland - UK - France than just Ireland-UK alone. Also once or twice I did a Google search for discount codes that worked. Strictly speaking these are for Camping Club members or whatever, or there's some festival somewhere that is doing a promotion - worth a try. Good hunting - let us know of any bargains or tis/tricks. db.