Exorbitent Brittainy ferry cost from Portsmouth to France

[mike 202]

Morning to All.

 

I live in Portsmouth and intend to travel to Biaritz via the west coast of France, so I have just looked at Brittainy ferries Portsmouth to Caen, 1 x 6.5m by 3m motorhome + 2 adults out late May around 25th, return late June again mid week. the cost is £550. Nearly had a heart attack . So it looks like Dover - Calais unless someone knows of a cheaper deals form Portsmouth to any of the French ports.

 

Regards Mike

[ham]

Hi Mike. I priced a one way trip from Plymouth and was quoted £495. I worked out the cost from S Wales to Folkestone crossing on the shuttle and driving down to the Toulose Area was around £200.We planned a trip From Santander to the french Med then coming home Via Millau .Limoges and Paris. So its Brittany Ferries that lose out.Phil

[rapidoman]

booked a return crossing portsmouth/caen for sept,priced birttany at £565.00, went on caravanclub same crossing with 14 camping cheques in the deal for £585.00 (?) (?) also booked trip in may dover dunkirk with cc £54.00 return sensible hours :-D

[nowtelse2do]

 

Very little competition now have they, What's the cost from Newhaven, have you tried that. I suppose more to the point, is it still running.

 

Dave

[vindiboy]

It will always be cheaper to travel Dover Calais or Dunkerque, don't use the Portsmouth crossing, I live in Southampton , Portsmouth would be more convenient for me but I always go Dover because of cost, It

depends on if you have the time of course, but with all the super Aires available ,for me it is no contest.

[simian]

Some years ago when Brittany Ferries had competiton on the Western Channel routes they were very price competitive with Eastern Channel routes. I would often take the St Malo crossing and although more expensive than say a Calais crossing, this would be more than compensated for by the road mileage savings. Even these days the extra road miles an Eastern Channel crossing could entail may well negate any ferry fare savings, you have to do the arithmetic, not forgetting to include vehicle wear and tear costs to the fuel costs.

These days I favour the Calais crossing. Living in East Anglia makes this an obvious decision though I'm not so sure if this would be the case if I lived in Western England.

[Keith T]

Got a crossing DFDS Dover via CC out 9th April, back 29th, £54 return. Just looked at a mid May, midweek on the 'non Dover' Crossings, and Brittany Portsmouth or Poole, about £214, (one way), Newhaven -Dieppe about £120.

We always do the arithmetic, and living in Eastbourne our nearestport is Newhaven, but even allowing for less mileage in France - we tend to go down the northern french coast past Dieppe or le Havre anyway- it's still quite a lot cheaper to use Dover, plus there's a greater variety of sailing times.

[Mike B.]

Hi

I got a crossing from Plymouth to Roscoff out and Cherbourg to Poole back for £403 including 7 camping cheques with Caravan Club for July 2011. My unit is 3mH x 7mL with a small M/c trailer 2m x 1.5m. Just checked for a crossing from Portsmouth/Poole to Cherbourg return with same outfit and it is £453 on the fastcraft but would be cheaper on a ferry.

Could you go via Cherbourg as the cost seems to make it more beneficial than driving to Dover, then Calais to Brittany at £1.40 a litre for diesel

Or if you are in the CC ask them for a quote and weigh up the travel time/cost of Dover route.

Mike

[nowtelse2do]

Mike, check with Ferrysavers. It just gave me a return price of £228.00 (not the best of times) :-

 

Portsmouth - Le Havre Tues 24/5/2011 out 11pm arrive 8am

Return :-

Le Havre - Portsmouth Wed 8/06/2011 out 5pm (sorry forgot arrival time in Portsmouth)

 

Extras Standard seat Free outbound

Club Class from £7.50p outbound

 

Return Club Class from £5.50p

No mention of a standard seat (!)

 

Ship's Name - Norman Spirit.

 

 

 

Dave

[simian]

Yes agreed there are usually other factors other than just the ferry cost to consider.I Ieave the UK in the Autumn and return in the Spring, I'm so keen to get to the sun I occasionally take the Santander or Bilbao ferry, This winter the Santander crossing was about £685 return and the Portsmouth to Cherbourg crossing £385 return (2 adults +7.5m motorhome). If the cost of driving the length of France is added to the Cherbourg crossing then the Santander crossing cost doesn't look too bad, but of course you miss out on la belle France. Which option did I take? Neither, it was good old Dover once again..... £80 return.My philosophy being that its the road unless there are "substantial" advantages/savings in not driving. That and being a skinflint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tomo3090]

Just priced up a one way ticket from Bilbao to Portsmouth for the begining of May £490! I can get a one way ticket from Calais for £50.00 and there's no way, even with the cost of fuel through France will it cost anything like that.

 

Talk about ripping people off! And some people are paying it! The boat on the 9th is full and the one on the 7th only has less than five berths left. recession? What recession?

[terry1956]

we live in yeovil so poole is nearest to us, and caen is only 60 miles from our french home. I have watched britney ferries put their prices up year on year and with their use of airline type booking no one gets the same price. This year we had to bring our motorhome back to the uk as we are selling up in france. britney ferries wanted nearly 600 pounds for a one way crossing with a smart car two people and a one way return with motorhome and car transporter trailer. we ended up taking the smart using britney to cut down the miles in the smart, and used norfolk line to return with the motorhome etc, norfolk line wanted 75 pounds, and whats more they put their prices on their web site for us to see. On the way out to france the total number of people was 20, no lorries at all. how can britney keep asking the silly prices they do. mind you when our french friends booked from france it was always cheaper then we could get.

working it all out, diesel, and so on from caen to port french side, 200 miles and around the same from dover to yeovil. had the end we had over 250 pounds in the bank.

michael

[mirage]

I have a crossing late May Portsmouth-Caen 6.5m motorhome £350 via caravan Club and some Camping Cheques. Booking Brittany Ferries direct has always an expensive proposition. To be fair to them each crossing is substantially longer than a Dover crossing whilst carrying about the same traffic.

[mike 202]

Thank you all for your replies and I will look at Cherbourg. I have just seen in May MMM page 28 - CONDOR ferries are taking motorhomes Ports/Cherbourg for the cost of a car all Summer. WWW.condorferries.com is the place to look.

I will enquire and report back

Mike

[mike 202]

Hi, just phoned Condor ferries and no luck there either. Quoted MMM and got £487.87 plus club class seats out and return Sundays, ie only one ferry per week. Delete club class seats and cost reduces to £400.

So Condors marketing manager Mr Justin Amey is doing us no special favours then CHEAP FERRIES " I dont think so " . But comparing with Brittany Ferries I suppose it is the best we can expect

 

Dissapointed Mike

[Mike88]

If you are a regular traveller you could join the BF Travel Club.

 

I use BF - and I couldn't care less about the cost. There is nothing worse for me than driving the 500 mile round trip to and from Dover from the South West. Many people on here have motorhomes costing in excess of £50k so, in the overall scheme of things, a saving of £200 per trip is to my mind negligible.

 

Driving through France can of course be pleasurable but some have time pressures especially those who need to get to Spain quickly in relaxed fashion and if you are a Winter traveller driving through France can be a nightmare experience in inclement weather.

 

However, it seems from the comments on here that cost seems to be the deciding factor but for me - and dare say others who use BF - convenience enters the equation. And when you take into account savings on tolls (if you use Autoroutes), fuel and detours to find overnight stops (Aires and Campsites) wear and tear on your vehicle etc the excess cost might not be as great as first seems.

 

And mike202 if you are going to Biarritz you may wish to be aware that bathing on the beaches was banned last Spring when I was there due to water quality issues in relation to the EC Bathing Directive. This seemed to be a pemanent thing but you would be advised to check before finalising your plans. Biarritz is a lovely place with a nice Aire and expensive campsites. Pavillon Royale which I frequented regularly many years ago now charge around 70 euros a night in the summer due to its beach location. Its cheaper around 25 euros a night when you go. There is an ACSI site across the road but it never gets the sun as its surrounded by trees.

[mike 202]

Mike 88,

thanks for the info re Biarritz will probably give it a miss then. Have looked at an ACSI site called Le Col Vert, about an hour north of Biarritz which I last visited some 25 yrs ago with the kids. 45 euro high season but using ACSI makes it a good buy.

 

I am retired so time is available to drive through France, however when we just want to get to Spain and not tour France it would be nice to just drive a few miles to the ferry, which I can see from my lounge.

 

Also as suggested, looked at Ferry Savers.com and got £228 basic from Ports or £311 with a cabin on LD Lines. So I guess the moral of the story is to first ask forum members for help and then act on the suggestions received.

 

Thank you to all who replied - Mike

 

 

[terry1956]

will mike 88, i don,t see what the price of the motorhome as to do with the cost of the ferry. if we followed your thinking we would end up paying more to take more expensive cars, motorbikes on the ferries. i worked hard for my money and a rip off is a rip off. and the prices britney ferries ask are a total rip off. mind you they know that there are fools out there who will pay, :-D :-D

michael

[Guest JudgeMental]

terry1956 - 2011-04-08 1:21 PM

 

will mike 88, i don,t see what the price of the motorhome as to do with the cost of the ferry. if we followed your thinking we would end up paying more to take more expensive cars, motorbikes on the ferries. i worked hard for my money and a rip off is a rip off. and the prices britney ferries ask are a total rip off. mind you they know that there are fools out there who will pay, :-D :-D

michael

 

and why sleep overnight on a chair or in a stuffy uncomfortable cabin, when you can be tucked up in your own bed on the other side on an Aire for little or no cost......Tunnel every time :-D

[rolandrat]

Brittainy ferries are a complete rip off now, we used to use them regularly to St Malo but not any more,we now use the shuttle which is far more convenient. Once on board it is a 35 minute crossing and hassle free, ok you have more miles to travel but the savings far outweigh the ferry cost.

[francisgraham]

JudgeMental - 2011-04-08 1:36 PM

 

terry1956 - 2011-04-08 1:21 PM

 

will mike 88, i don,t see what the price of the motorhome as to do with the cost of the ferry. if we followed your thinking we would end up paying more to take more expensive cars, motorbikes on the ferries. i worked hard for my money and a rip off is a rip off. and the prices britney ferries ask are a total rip off. mind you they know that there are fools out there who will pay, :-D :-D

michael

 

and why sleep overnight on a chair or in a stuffy uncomfortable cabin, when you can be tucked up in your

own bed on the other side on an Aire for little or no cost......Tunnel every time :-D

 

Yes, all very well but I presumed that you noticed that Mike88 lives in Devon and has a 500 mile round trip to the tunnel!

 

And there's nothing stuffy or uncomfortable about the cabins that I've had on the Santander sailing. On the contrary mine have been very spacious.

 

I have a similar policy to Mike88. I a new motorhomer but I've done the crossings many times with my car and I always take the most convenient route. If I'm going to many areas of Europe I'll use the tunnel, but for Brittany, it's Portsmouth-Cherbourg and for Spain it's Plymouth-Santander.

 

Life's too short to mess about to save a few quid but I speak as one who can afford it. If you're on a budget than I can fully understand why people would drive hundreds of miles extra if it's a lot cheaper than a ferry.

 

I would also refrain from accusing any company of rip-offs. Fuel prices have gone up 50% and I remember reading in the financial pages that P & O has cancelled its Spanish sailing because it couldn't make a profit!

 

It's very simple really. A company tells you its prices, up front and honestly. If you're happy with them, you pay them, if you're not you go elsewhere. It would appear that many customers do not feel 'ripped off' as members have had trouble getting on certain ferries as they're fully booked.

 

 

 

 

[malc d]

I've been using the Portsmouth - Caen route for years now, with a very rare Dover -Calais crossing, because we usually head for southern or western France.

 

As I live in the midlands I regard Dover - Calais as ' the tradesmens entrance ' to France because it involves the M25 and the Dartford Crossing, ( but I can quite see the cost savings on that route ).

 

We got re-routed once through the tunnel when the French fishermen were blocking Calais and I must say it was excellent - nice and fast.

But then I had to face Dartford and M25 - which spoiled my day.

 

 

 

 

;-)

[Mike88]

terry1956 - 2011-04-08 1:21 PM

 

will mike 88, i don,t see what the price of the motorhome as to do with the cost of the ferry. if we followed your thinking we would end up paying more to take more expensive cars, motorbikes on the ferries. i worked hard for my money and a rip off is a rip off. and the prices britney ferries ask are a total rip off. mind you they know that there are fools out there who will pay, :-D :-D

michael

 

Terry. You have taken one comment in isolation. My views were based on the fact that some of the earlier comments objecting to BF were about cost whereas I felt other factors should be taken into account including convenience and other savings which offset the increased price. How could only cost be the issue when affordability is probably not that relevant was my point.

 

I understand Terry's opinion and he is welcome to it. But for me its convenience over cost every time and clearly other BF users agree. And Terry just because some of us disagree with your views does not mean we are fools. We merely choose to put convenience over cost. What is wrong with that?

 

Mike202. Don't change your plans solely on my comments. My wife reminds me that we were in Biarritz/Bidart in May 2009 so things might have changed. Why not e mail the French Tourist Office or start a thread enquiring about the current state of play.? As I said Biarritz is a very nice place or you could always visit St Jean de Luz a few miles down the road and nearby places such as St Jean Pied de Port or even Northern Spain.

[simian]

The term "Rip Off" can be a very subjective term. When P&O operated on the West Channel routes and gave Brittany Ferries a bit of competition, I usually paid less than £90 each way and on occasion as little as £55 Portsmouth to St Malo, invariably I took this option in preference to the Dover/Calais route even had it been free. When P&O left the scene Brittany fares more or less tripled within a season....... rip off, or just good ol cut throat business practice ?? At least I had an alternative,... Dover/Calais, so thats my choice now.

[Keith T]

Interestingly,even on the Dover routes,many prices are very much up on last years, other than DFDS 'specials' of Sundays out, Fridays back, which we book via the CC.

I notice that via their own website there appears to be an 'add-on' fuel surcharge of £6 to all the prices quoted. That said they are still considerably cheaper most times than the competetion.

SeaFrance have in previous years produced some good prices, but this year, certainly on the searches I have made, they are at the very top end price-wise.