# price from britanny ferries



## rocky1968

i have rang britanny ferries the cost for a car and cabin for two from portsmouth to bilbao £748 and for the motorhome from plymouth was £1040 with cabin i dont want to buy the boat for gods sake


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## DTPCHEMICALS

Thats the trouble my friend. Customers are buying the boats.

Have a nice day.

dave p


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## lucy2

Shuggy68 said:


> i have rang britanny ferries the cost for a car and cabin for two from portsmouth to bilbao £748 and for the motorhome from plymouth was £1040 with cabin i dont want to buy the boat for gods sake


 Thats to pay for loss of earnings during recent strike.

Try short channel crossing, then St nazaire ( west coast of france) to Gijon ( 40 miles west of santander) LD lines , we did 2 years ago lot cheaper.


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## damar1

Give it up we did its great to drive through france not on toll roads with free over night stops, and remember when you get to bilbao you still had 600 miles to drive to get to the south of spain this is almost half the distance from the uk to spain.


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## olley

lucy2 said:


> Try short channel crossing, then St nazaire ( west coast of france) to Gijon ( 40 miles west of santander) LD lines , we did 2 years ago lot cheaper.


Just got a quote for that, late October midweek sailing, back late November, two people, two cats, 9m RV there and back £1011. Stuck in 8m out of curiosity £927

Ian


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## jurrasicspark

*Brittany ferry*

My quote 1 way 7mx3m Motorhome plus 3 m trailer for nov £489 saves 710 miles from Calais leaves 630 to as far down southern Spain as possible before the Atlantic and morroco


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## raynipper

My wife was hoping to pop back for 5 days to her sisters birthday.

£61.20 foot passenger.
£268.00 with the car.

And thats with a discount code.!!!!!

And BF keep telling everyone they are losing money. I can see why but they obviously can't.

Ray.


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## Mike48

The boats to Spain are full or nearly full. Cost for outward journey in September and return November for a 6m motorhome and club cabin with discount is £693. As I live near the Port and save a 500 mile round trip to Dover the cost for me and others living in the South West is not unreasonable.

BF has introduced new pricing arrangements - the later you book the more expensive it becomes.

I agree though that the costs of ferries to France are expensive.


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## Mrplodd

BF are a commercial operation not a charity. they must make a profit.

Just think how much fuel a ship uses going to Spain, just over 24 hrs worth. on the the Cherbourg run its about 5 hours worth. 

Then you have all the staff to pay which, I would assume, on the Spanish route will be two complete sets of staff (cant have people working 24 hrs non stop!) whereas on the cross channel route you can change staff at each docking point.

If you work out the cost of doing Portsmouth to Cherbourg via ferry, and then driving down to Santander or Bilbao, I think you will find that the ferry isnt that bad. Also its much quicker.

It seems a lot of money when you first look but when you look at it logically its not actually that bad (from a purely total financial cost perspective) 

Portsmouth to Cherbourg ferry is about £450 return for me. 
700 miles at 25mpg = 28 gallons of diesel @ £6 a gallon (roughly) = £168
Mulitplied by 2 (return trip) = £336 
Which, with the ferry cost, comes out at about £800.

Plus 700 miles at 50mph (assuming no stops and 50 mph average speed) = 14 hours of driving once you have got to France) which realistically is AT LEAST 2 days of constant driving.

I have also looked at the ferry to Gijon BUT by the time you have added in your cross channel ferry costs and fuel costs to get to St Nazaire (or is it La Rochelle?) the cost is pretty much the same as the (quicker) option of Portsmouth - Santander direct. 

I have no connection with any ferry operator and I am just as keen to pay as little as possible but I try and look at it logically rather than just gasping (which I still do) at the cost of ferries these days.


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## teemyob

*Costs*

Well, if you read my recent posts Shuggy, you will see how p1ssed off I am with Brittany Ferries.

But, we have just had to treck 1200 miles from Zebrugge to get to Spain. We did it in two days with 4 drivers. Had to have Hotel Stops and lots of tolls and much more fuel.

Would have much preferred to board the boat we had paid for and booked with BF.

The trip from Bilbao to Javea is just 454 miles with hardly any tolls. We can drive that in around 7-8 hours with no need for hotels.

The cost for us with two standard cabins for 8 people came out at £790 for a 5m x 2.6m vehicle. This included breakfasts as we are BF CDVS members.

So for us, the costs of driving via BF Spainish routes comes out around one third of the cost of flying and much less than the cost of driving from Zeebrugge or Calais.

Not sure where in Spain you need to be to make it 600 miles from Bilbao to get to southern Spain as damar1 suggested. I consider Javea as being South!?.

A Large Family sized car can get across to Spain with BF and a Cabin for 4 from around £190 each way (low season). So that is £380. Try flying and hiring a car for that ?.

A small motorhome up-to 6m costs from £210 each way with two people.

TM


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## teemyob

*MH*

Here is the Motorhome quote for 6m

TM


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## raynipper

Mrplodd said:


> BF are a commercial operation not a charity. they must make a profit.


BF in my opinion do not seem to be interested in maintaining the Cherbourg service.
They took the Barfleur off complaining they had been making a loss for 12 years.
We have travelled many times on the Barfleur and other BF boats almost empty. 
Only in July/August school holidays were the boats full.

We bought our home near Cherbourg in 1994 when there were THREE ferry operators plying the Cherbour route. BF, P&O and Sealink. They were competitive and well used.

When BF ended up the only carrier the charges rocketed overnight. All BF have done is make people drive further to Le Havre, Dieppe or Calais to get a more competitive ferry and then complain their boats are running at a loss.??? 
Cherbourg Chamber of Commerce are up in arms but as BF are part of SNCF or Government, there is little incentive to offer a service.

'Rocket Science' .. I think not.

Ray.


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## DTPCHEMICALS

Quote Ray:
Cherbourg Chamber of Commerce are up in arms

Dave p there is little incentive to offer a service. 

Is this an error BF are an independant company are they not?

Dave p


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## Hymervanman

"Then you have all the staff to pay which, I would assume, on the Spanish route will be two complete sets of staff (cant have people working 24 hrs non stop!) whereas on the cross channel route you can change staff at each docking point. "

Got to disagree with factoring in the manning costs; I think you'll find that the ferry companies operate a one/two week on and one/two week off pattern. This will be irrespective of whether it is Dover-Calais or Plymouth-Santander. On board work is usually based round a watch system of 4 hour periods( 4on/8 off).

When I worked for Belfast Freight Ferries between Heysham and Belfast, we made the return crossing daily for 6 days with a lay over day once a week. Two ships operated the route and I worked 6 hours on/6 hours off for two weeks after which a replacement crew took over for the next two weeks whilst we had a well earned break.

As for the cost of the crossing, it is probably good value when considered pro-rata against Dover- Calais at £50 for 26 miles.


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## Hymervanman

"Then you have all the staff to pay which, I would assume, on the Spanish route will be two complete sets of staff (cant have people working 24 hrs non stop!) whereas on the cross channel route you can change staff at each docking point. "

Got to disagree with factoring in the manning costs; I think you'll find that the ferry companies operate a one/two week on and one/two week off pattern. This will be irrespective of whether it is Dover-Calais or Plymouth-Santander. On board work is usually based round a watch system of 4 hour periods( 4on/8 off).

When I worked for Belfast Freight Ferries between Heysham and Belfast, we made the return crossing daily for 6 days with a lay over day once a week. Two ships operated the route and I worked 6 hours on/6 hours off for two weeks after which a replacement crew took over for the next two weeks whilst we had a well earned break.

As for the cost of the crossing, it is probably good value when considered pro-rata against Dover- Calais at £50 for 26 miles.


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## CurlyBoy

We stopped using BF several years ago, due to cost. Now use chunnel with Tesco vouchers and it is cheaper for us even though we live in Cornwall. The difference in mileage Calais to SW France or Roscoff to SW France is minimal, so only the cost of fuel to and from Folkstone. As we usually go for ten or twelve weeks we are not concerned with the few days to and from Folkstone. And we prefer the tunnel and the aire at Calais is, in our opinion, better for a few days than Roscoff, we have the dog to see vet prior to return.

curlyboy


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## teemyob

*costs*

As I have said before.

Work out the Nautical Mile cost of Brittany Ferries and then compare that to the Dover-Calais prices and Eurotunnel.

Be interesting what the new UK-Norway ferry costs are if it ever comes to fruition!.

TM


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## SNandJA

*Re: costs*



teemyob said:


> As I have said before.
> 
> Work out the Nautical Mile cost of Brittany Ferries and then compare that to the Dover-Calais prices and Eurotunnel.
> 
> Be interesting what the new UK-Norway ferry costs are if it ever comes to fruition!.
> 
> TM


My brother who lives in Norway says there have been mutterings about reinstating the service ever since it was withdrawn and he'd seen something within past month about it. However when he read the link from the other post he felt it looked quite promising. Fly drive with car hire is his preffered crossing to UK nowadays but he did say it wouldn't be quite as economical from UK to Norway as car hire more expensive..


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## raynipper

DTPCHEMICALS said:


> Quote Ray:
> Cherbourg Chamber of Commerce are up in arms
> 
> Dave p there is little incentive to offer a service.
> 
> Is this an error BF are an independant company are they not?
> 
> Dave p


Sorry Dave and others.
Brittany Ferries is a Public limited company. 
Somehow I was under the impression it was an offshoot of SNCF.

My mistake.

Ray.


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## teemyob

*Rather*

Well I would rather pay the money rather than drive all the way through 3 countries like we had last week.

I would also rather go by Brittany Ferries than fly.

TM


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## Ian_n_Suzy

Hi,

I've just had a look as I do every year at the option of Brittany Ferries to Spain, and I've instantly dismiss it as a non-starter as I have done on every previous occasion. It just seems way to expensive to me - £1,722 buys an awful lot of Gazole.


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## MyGalSal

Barcelona to Santander is 437 miles. Barcelona to Calais is 822 miles.

We travelled end of August on the BF Santander-Plymouth £750 and enjoyed it but we won't be doing it again. Can't justify that cost against the cost of fuel for 385 miles, free aires for overnight stopover and a free tunnel cossing courtesy of Tesco vouchers. And 385 miles is only one day's travel (two drivers).

Sal


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## 113016

With a fully freighted Artic, Barcalona is less than 2 days drive with only one driver and keeping to the drivers hours.
Done it many times!
Used Brittany Ferry's, for years but no more as they are taking the piddle with the monopoly prices.
Bilbao and Santandare are only of any practical use if going further west or south west, and even then it is debatable.


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## teemyob

*expensive*



Ian_n_Suzy said:


> Hi,
> 
> I've just had a look as I do every year at the option of Brittany Ferries to Spain, and I've instantly dismiss it as a non-starter as I have done on every previous occasion. It just seems way to expensive to me - £1,722 buys an awful lot of Gazole.


Geesus, that is expensive. I would not pay that. Maybe they dont want larger vehicles at that time of year.

I could get 10% discount for you. But not sure if you were taking pets\/?


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## damar1

hi teemyob 

We lived nr Almeria and from bilbao it was 608 miles


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## teemyob

*bilbao*



damar1 said:


> hi teemyob
> 
> We lived nr Almeria and from bilbao it was 608 miles


Thanks,

Our destination is Javea, 454 miles.

TM


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## TDG

The fuel will probably represent about 50% of the total running costs of the vessel so about 50% of the costs will be proportional to distance


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## raynipper

Isn't marine fuel exempt from duty? Like aviation fuel.

Ray.


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## TDG

raynipper said:


> Isn't marine fuel exempt from duty? Like aviation fuel...Ray.


Yes indeed but even so they're probably paying $700/tonne for low grade high sulphur fuel and $1,000/tonne for marine diesel
A typical 30,000 hp installation will burn > 3.5 tonnes/hour


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## Ian_n_Suzy

*Re: expensive*



teemyob said:


> Ian_n_Suzy said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've just had a look as I do every year at the option of Brittany Ferries to Spain, and I've instantly dismiss it as a non-starter as I have done on every previous occasion. It just seems way to expensive to me - £1,722 buys an awful lot of Gazole.
> 
> 
> 
> Geesus, that is expensive. I would not pay that. Maybe they dont want larger vehicles at that time of year.
> 
> I could get 10% discount for you. But not sure if you were taking pets\/?
Click to expand...

Hi Trev, hope you are well.

Our quote does include 1 pet (and a pet cabin going out but there wasn't one available coming back).

I selected a Van up to 8m and 4m in height (she is about 3.1m in Height with the Oyster).

I have subsequently been given an "Owners Abroad" code that I entered and that did give a 10% reduction, but it is still too much for me to stomach.

MANY THANKS for the offer though, very much appreciated.


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## teemyob

*Re: expensive*



Ian_n_Suzy said:


> teemyob said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ian_n_Suzy said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've just had a look as I do every year at the option of Brittany Ferries to Spain, and I've instantly dismiss it as a non-starter as I have done on every previous occasion. It just seems way to expensive to me - £1,722 buys an awful lot of Gazole.
> 
> 
> 
> Geesus, that is expensive. I would not pay that. Maybe they dont want larger vehicles at that time of year.
> 
> I could get 10% discount for you. But not sure if you were taking pets\/?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Hi Trev, hope you are well.
> 
> Our quote does include 1 pet (and a pet cabin going out but there wasn't one available coming back).
> 
> I selected a Van up to 8m and 4m in height (she is about 3.1m in Height with the Oyster).
> 
> I have subsequently been given an "Owners Abroad" code that I entered and that did give a 10% reduction, but it is still too much for me to stomach.
> 
> MANY THANKS for the offer though, very much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hello Ian, Yes, we are good thank you. Soaking up this hot weather.

I will send you a PM re the code and the pricing.

Trev.


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