# Beginners guide to cheapest ferry crossings?



## baldlygo (Sep 19, 2006)

I'm taking a rather circuitous route to owning my first MH by buying a house in France first :!: From next month on I will be looking for the cheapest cross channel crossings available for an estate car. 

I should be very flexible so would be hoping to take advantage of special offers. In the past I have booked for holiday trips which had very rigid dates and recently have been travelling by air and hiring a car from the airport. 

Web sites I have seen so far all expect me to be specific about dates and times. So question no.1 would be does anyone know a Web site which caters for the flexible traveller :?: 

Maybe you have some other tips - e.g. Best days to travel?, best times to travel?, tunnel or ferry?, 2Xsingle or return? 

I'm assuming that Dover-Calais will always be the cheapest and before someone says "Tesco vouchers" I am 8 miles from the nearest Tesco petrol and have even failed to use a 5p off a litre token :roll: 

Paul


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## DAVESMIFF (Jun 25, 2007)

Hi Baldlygo ???

I have just booked to cross dover to Dunkirk for 2 weeks in March (£80 return) and 6 weeks from 1st april (£83 return )both with Norfolk line. Does this type of price fit into your budget.

Good luck.


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

baldlygo said:


> I'm taking a rather circuitous route to owning my first MH by buying a house in France first :!: From next month on I will be looking for the cheapest cross channel crossings available for an estate car.
> 
> I should be very flexible so would be hoping to take advantage of special offers. In the past I have booked for holiday trips which had very rigid dates and recently have been travelling by air and hiring a car from the airport.
> 
> ...


Hi Paul

Go through the SeaFrance. P&O and Norfolkline websites and check if they show any season ticket prices. Also Speedferries.
These allow you to buy a number of crossings in advance without initially stating the travel dates.
With at least one of the companies you can nominate someon else to use one of the crossings.

You might find it useful to join www.totalfrance.com for information on a range of France related subjects.
Travel and transport to and in France is here:
http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/viewforum.php?f=35&sid=ebc223e80ec7a9d83d7f3d268501e525


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## phil4francoise (Jun 21, 2008)

where in France are you buying and where do you live ? We own a house in Basse Normandy and live in Sussex so our best route from a km point is Newhaven-La Harve which just leaves us with a 150km trip.However to take our motorhome is not cheap about £250.00 return and it takes 5- 6 hours to cross,not good for the dog either.but we do save 500km worth of fuel and 2 peage tolls on a return journey. 
If you would rather be driving than sitting on a ferry then Dover- Calais is the only way ,ok we are going the wrong way getting to Dover but return crossings are much much cheaper,last night I booked with Seafrance for the 28th Oct and I paid massive £40.00 return and that is for 7.5mtr motorhome.But then we have a 401km trip to the house.The basic rule is the cheaper crossings are late evening/early morning Mid day crossings are costly.We leave the UK about 23.00hrs and travel as far as Abbville ( 100 km ) stop over in a very secure Aire and then do the est of the trip early the next morning,so we are at our house by 09.00hrs stress free.Hope this helps


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Ferries*

Hi

I think with a car, you might find that www.speedferries.com offer good value - more so if you book a 10 trip thing.

Russell


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## PIEDODGER (Aug 22, 2008)

Just booked online P&O end Dec late crossing(ideal for us) mh plus 2 adults £25 single Dover to Calais, will book online week before return see what date works against price


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## MikeCo (Jan 26, 2008)

We bought the Seafrance Carnet which covers 3 return trips in a year for £64 per return crossing. This is for a car or motorhome up to 8 metres long.
It is also fully transferable which means that you can turn up at any time.
You can also transfer one return crossing to someone else.


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## baldlygo (Sep 19, 2006)

Thank you for all the replies - I will be investigating the links. So it seems late night or early mornings are cheaper and I did not know about season or multi-trip tickets so something else to look into. 

I now live in Neston, Cheshire and will be moving 'stuff' down to Le Dorat - 45 minutes drive up from Limoges. Quite a long drive I'm afraid  Having signed the house contract three weeks ago our biggest worry is getting the money out of an Icelandic bank, transferred to euros and sent to France. 

Paul


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