Ferry crossings to France

[Twosheds]

We normally go across to France, Dover To Calais and beyond in our Rapido Motorhome travelling with Norfolkline, we found this year that they have increased the cost quite substantially depending on what time the crossing is made, 2am in the morning being the cheapest fare £58.00 and normal day time at £126.00. I emailed Norfolkline to find out why they had increased the fares and this was their response.

"Thank you for your comments which we will pass on, the reason the fare for motorhomes is higher than for cars is that motorhomes or vans do not fit on the car deck so therefore have to go on the freight deck where space is very limited. We now run a fluid pricing policy where price is worked out subject to availability, so therefore if we have limited space the fare is higher than if we have a lot of availability".

Today we booked through 'Ferrysavers' on the Internet for £52.00 return on Seafrance, being a daytime sailing, P & O were £62.00. We found by being flexible on the time we travelled, changing the times and days, the fares varied accordingly

I am not sure about Norfolklines 'fluid pricing policy' if other Ferry companies can offer better prices for us Motorhomers.

 

[terry1956]

Norfolk line

Hi, we tryed to book a crossing with norfolk line for our crossing one way, They wanted £101. P&P £68.00 including £30 for the two dogs, and sea france only £26 pounds. All at around the same time 22.00 hours on a thursday. I e-mailed Norfolk but have had no reply, but it looks like we will not be using them again.
Brittany who are closer to us running from poole, wanted £240 one way, yes I know its a longer crossing but their pricing is just mad.
There was a grand total of 44 people on board, no wonder at the ferrie companies costing ideas. Bring back the days of open costing and please forget this airline booking rubbish.
terry

 

[kell]

U got a deal (or should I say steal) two sheds Well done!!!!!!!!!
WE only have a 2 week holiday in mid summer so time is of the essence. Therefore we travel on the longer crossings. Portsmouth -Caen or Plymouth- Roscoff, or Poole- Cherbourg. or Portsmouth -Laharve.
All very expensive (around £400 return) Brittany Ferries or P&O.
Think that L D Lines are now opperating the La Harve crossing so should be a little cheaper.
We will most certainly use the shorter crossings when we have time!!!
Thanks for the info.
regards graham/kath

Hi Graham/Kath
Keep an eye out for LD lines at Newhaven / Dieppe. they are taking over from the loss making transmanche service somewhwere around Feb or March and have apparrently recieved huge grants from the French for doing so. I can't find any prices yet but I would expect to see return tickets at under £200

 

[roland rat]

Ferry Crossings

Open message,
Hi good buddies,
last year we sailed from Portsmouth to St Malo and including a berth both ways the cost was £500 return which I thought was reasonable. The year before with P&O we paid £80 return Dover-Calais, the year before that we paid £76 return Dover-Dunkirk. When you only have 2weeks holiday you need to make most of the time available. Going to Spain via Calais is hard graft considering the mileage and road tolls but going via St Malo is much easier with less mileage and wear and tear on the old grey matter. If you are retired then you can travel via any route at a more relaxed pace. Anyone who has travelled to Spain as we have will know that the road tolls can be upwards of £200 return then you have the cost of deisel to add so it makes sense to go on the longer sea crossing and relax with a few glasses of amber neckter.
yours,
Roland Rat.

 

[kell]

Hi Kell, I gather u are a international trucker as well. I think we must all be here, maybe its a transgretion to motorhoming.
Anyway thanks for reply, I used Newhaven to Dieppe many years ago when it was Stenna and the boats were flea pits and always breaking down!!!!!!!!!!!
Are they any better now as that crossing always had a bad reputation regarding reliability???
It was always a little cheaper than La Harve & Caen
Regards Graham

Apparently LD are putting two new boats on the route from 1st March.

Also little known crossing is Condor out of Portsmouth to Cherbourg, sunday only, summer only, £105 return, however its the Commadore Clipper that ships freight to the Channel islands for the rest of the week, so bring your own oars!
regards kell.

 

[kell]

But do not mention the Scarvouy or the Purbeck or even the Coutances.
regards graham

Not been on the scabbery or whatever its called but the Coutances is still limping out of Poole 2/3 times a day in all weathers and the last time I saw the Purbeck I was on it, it was standing in for the Coutances while they were painting over the truckline colours to a pretty 'Brittany Ferries' blue & white. I have to say, I hate Brittany Ferries and would never, ever, pay to sail with them.

 

[roland rat]

Ferries

Hi all,
anyone remember Townsen Thorenson spirit of free enterprise she was on the dover zebrugger run and ended on the sea bed due to sailing out of the harbour with her bow doors open. I used that ferry quite regular in years gone by
Roland Rat.

 

[virgil]

Hark...

Wasn't it the Herald of Free Enterprise?

 

[voxol51]

I will 2nd what u say about Spain Via Calais being very hard work & costly on tolls if U have time limitations.

On our recent unexpected return trip, due to ill health, I did the 1450 mile journey from Peurto Motril to Stratford in 26 hours, without using any toll roads, so not costly or time consuming.
Ok, it was an emergency, and I wouldn't want to do it again, and it was adrenalin, and 30 years of trucking, that kept me going.
My experiences in France are that so many N roads are good, fast, roads, and often run parallel with the toll roads.

My cousin lives about 30 miles south of Paris. Using toll road from Calais is about 20 mins quicker than the N road - in my opinion not worth paying the toll.

I will agree that toll roads are easier on the concentration and less tiring.

The company I worked for on international haulage wouldn't pay us for tolls - with diesel and tax it was already a problem trying to stay in profit.

Voxy.

 

[boatman]

Ferries to France

Hi everybody,
We have just booked up to go to France in Sept. with LD Lines from Portsmouth to Le Havre. The fare was only £249 + a cabin. It came in, in total, at under £300. You can get cheaper seats, if you want to keep the cost down and don't mind slumming it. Personally, we like a bit of comfort, and like to feel refreshed before we set off to who knows where. We have used Norfolk in the past, but have been put off by their price hike, and the lovely M25, which you can't really avoid when you are coming up from Somerset. By the time you have added up the extra fuel costs and stress, Portsmouth seems very attractive. graham/kath, I owe you an email, and I will take care of it shortly.
Boatman

 

[GARY ENGLISH]

france crossing

Just like to say, had two crossing to france last year.Both with Sea France, price 59 pounds return, from dover to calais.They are always emailing with offers as these were booked on line.One was a lunch time crossing and other evening.Strange thing the year before they wanted twice as much for a van a lot smaller.

 

[JezzaD]

Ferry Crossing to France

Hi....This is my first reply to a thread, so I hope it ends up in the right place!!!!
I travelled to Dunquerk from Dover, this time last year, through Norfolkine at 2am for a cost of £29.00 (one way). I checked for prices last week and the cheapest price quoted was £99.00.
I too emailed Norfolkline complaining, and got the following reply:-

"Thank you for your e-mail enquiry, our £19.00/£29.00 fares are available on return trips travelling from Dover.

Our single fares for 2007 have not been released as yet. The single fares are hopefully going to be available from Monday 22nd January.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Regards
Steve

Passenger Services Duty Deputy Supervisor
Norfolkline Shipping B.V "

Hope this helps...It didn't help me, cos I could't understand the reply.
Best regards

 

[SNODGRASS]

Norfolk Line Knockers

Looks like its lets have a go at Norfolk Line time again ,I've used em for several years ,they give you 7 mtrs when most only allow up to 6 mtrs before supplement,the boats are quick and clean.I find it easier to stop around Dunkerque than Calais and I've just booked a return in May for £58 [7 mtrs] nothing confusing about that ??

 

[Nosha]

LD Lines to La Harve

We were thinging of joining some friends nr La Harve in July, and so far the best deal was with LD at £245 return plus cabin!!

I wonder if a shorter crossing and spend more on fuel (at French prices) may be a better bet?

Perhaps Two Sheds should set up a booking agency!!

 

[Twosheds]

Hi Nosha how much did you to want spend and whats the bottom line!!!!!

We always go Dover -Calais rather than from Poole even though we live in Bournemouth, probably because we can get allot of French fuel for the cost of £200-£400 to Le Harve/Cherbourg and we are....... retired and wrinkly!

 

[Nosha]

Crossing & Fines reply

VERY sorry all, I seem to have mislaid this thread... if you get wot I mean!?!

Regarding crossing price, I guess I would need to knock quite a bit off the £245 to allow for fuel and driving each way, although a shorter crossing may not require a cabin each way - I'm not a great seaman so normally try and sleep each way ( a lot better than chucking up each way! Sorry too much info).

Graham, perhaps you can make direct email contact; if you're a UK trucker then you'll know that the system works VERY well i.e. PG9 prohibitions, fines etc. However the system fails if you live abroad as we don't persue unpaid fines or non production of driving licence etc for Mr Foreigner!

That's where the spot fines WILL work, at the moment the best you can do is hold up a foreign trucker until he misses his crossing when he's found to be overloaded, over hours etc. So really these spot fines (as per France) will hit him and are NOT designed for UK... but who's to say they won't cut down on admin at some stage and use them across the board.

At the moment all I know is that for the first time in VOSA/HWA history they will be able to issue roadside spot fines from July 2007. I will try and contact you as and when I know more, you can always keep an eye on www.vosa.gov.uk although I appreciate it's a huge site... and as such find it almost impossible to find what I'm looking for - hope this helps, and puts your mind at rest!

 

[billy1000]

On a sadder note about ferries. It was 20 years yesterday that The Herald of Free Enterprise went down in Zebrugge Harbour. Doesn't seem that long ago does it?

 

[terry1956]

crossings

Hi all, well last year we had to make a few trips to france towing a trailer. The best crossing for us would of been poole to cherburg, due to us being in exmouth and the french house being 60 miles from the port. Nowever BF wanted £300 return, so we took norfolk line, cost of crossing at that time £75
fuel was just under £100 all in. But god it was a long way to go, up to dover and back down the french side to the house, took 30 hours. We did this two times, never again.
BF are total rubbish with their pricing, but they cover the longer crossings, Norfolk line have just no idea anymore of what they are doing, and sea france is the best price wise just to far for us.
PS, on the stop fines are at the ferry port of dunkque (sorry for the spelling)
they have a policeman with a pc who checks that you have no outstanding fines on the french side. They have been watching the police here in the UK and are getting fine happy.
terry