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Subject Topic: HELP - Ferry Costs how to reduce! Post Reply Post New Topic
15/1/2010 at 1:46pm
 Location: Isle of Wight
 Outfit: None Entered
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Just about to buy a caravan (7.2m long) for myself, husband and 2 children. However I checked some ferry prices for August Portsmouth to Sandtander or St Malo £1300!! WE'd love to travel Europe but now I am worried about cost. We live on Isle of Wight and have to pay enough to just get off the island!! How to get better fares, different ports etc?? Restricted to term-time only (give or take a few days) I'm afraid.
Thanks.


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15/1/2010 at 1:56pm
 Location: West - North Yorkshire
 Outfit: Swift Speedbird 490 Mondeo Estate
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Possibly £58.00 return car and caravan, Dover to Dunkerque with Norfolk Lines - that's what we paid for a crossing in May, and £71.00 for car and caravan, crossing in August.

Norfolk Lines had an offer using the code EBF - but this may now have expired.  Otherwise, if you want to use Norfolk Lines, then wait until the Caravan Show at the NEC in February, when they had a similar offer last year, and someone will post the code on here.



15/1/2010 at 2:01pm
 Location: wales
 Outfit: Swift Sprite Alpine
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portsmouth to cherbourge sunday only sailings using condor ferries 78 pounds for car and any size caravan or trailer total cost £158 in total in august, ferry takes 5hours and is a bit crowded but its cheap and gets you futher down france not so much driving if you want to go to the south of france


15/1/2010 at 2:09pm
 Location: nr Derby
 Outfit: Phoenix 440+
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Quote: Originally posted by kasglass on 15/1/2010
portsmouth to cherbourge sunday only sailings using condor ferries 78 pounds for car and any size caravan or trailer total cost £158 in total in august, ferry takes 5hours and is a bit crowded but its cheap and gets you futher down france not so much driving if you want to go to the south of france
Yep, I've got one of those booked for July/August and a Norfolkline for Easter. Bargain for Western Channel route!


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15/1/2010 at 2:17pm
 Location: West - North Yorkshire
 Outfit: Swift Speedbird 490 Mondeo Estate
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An alternative thought is that if you use Tesco for shopping, and get vouchers, you can exchange them for 'Deals' (when they are worth 4 times the voucher value) and use the 'Deals' against the cost of a crossing with Eurotunnel.


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15/1/2010 at 2:50pm
 Location: Isle of Wight
 Outfit: None Entered
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Not looking so bad after all!! and yes I do collect Tesco vouchers!


15/1/2010 at 3:01pm
 Location: nr Derby
 Outfit: Phoenix 440+
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PS forgot to add that with Condor Ferries you need to ring rather than use the website to book - this is because of the length of van involved.  I booked via the camping-cheques people.   Perhaps Val A will explain camping-cheques to you as I am using them this year for the first time ( first time I've been able to).


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15/1/2010 at 4:01pm
 Location: 
 Outfit: 
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Did the fare to Santander include a cabin? The cheaper/shorter routes won't need to include this cost in the fares and there is quite a difference in the mileage you will have to drive if you are planning on Spain.

Andy



15/1/2010 at 4:21pm
 Location: West - North Yorkshire
 Outfit: Swift Speedbird 490 Mondeo Estate
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'Jukes' - have you actually decided on a site yet?  That will obviously dictate how far you'll have to travel.  However, I would have thought that even if you were right down by the Spanish border on the west coast, then a couple of overnight stops *(which can be had very cheaply at many municipal sites) will see you on your final site.  Obviously there's the cost of extra fuel - but some of this will be offset by not having to buy food on board for 36 hours! 

Camping Cheques - if you are interested (and they can save up to 40 euros) on some sites, then email me (valathomenow at tiscali.co.uk) and I'll send you the long blurb I have about them, together with a list of sites which accept them on some dates through the British school holidays.  Obviously you don't make huge savings on all sites, but a lot on some, a more moderate amount on others, and perhaps only a couple of euros on one or two. 



15/1/2010 at 4:21pm
 Location: NW of Glasgow
 Outfit: Sterling Searcher 2008 Volvo XC90
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Also, If going to Spain and your outfit (car plus caravan) total length is over 12 metres, you need special marker boards displayed on the rear of the van.

Full details can be found on the Caravan Club website.

-------------
Jennifer


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15/1/2010 at 4:59pm
 Location: Isle of Wight
 Outfit: None Entered
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yes the fare included inside cabin. I just did a brief search but not thanks to all your info have better ferries to look at too. As for sites we've not narrowed it down yet, I just wanted to gain a rough idea of ferries to Europe costs! I'd like to travel to so many places! Will do an England trip first to get used to things though!Seems alot cheaper to not go from my local port of Portsmouth, that's fine.


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15/1/2010 at 5:19pm
 Location: Derbyshire
 Outfit: Camplet Concorde Bailey Phoenix+ 420
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The Santander ferry is a long trip, good if you're going to Spain etc.  A short channel crossing is much cheaper but if you want to go a long way you'll pay much more in petrol.  Depends where abouts you want to go to and how long you're going for.

-------------
Kate

Trailer tent, caravan and too many tents!


15/1/2010 at 8:00pm
 Location: Hants
 Outfit: VW Trooper
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LD lines are very competititive. In June with our camper van return is £325.50. (Portsmouth to Le Havre returen.)

-------------
bridie


15/1/2010 at 10:50pm
 Location: dumfries
 Outfit: Elddis autoquest 130 motorhome
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Hi

You say you stay on the isle of wight never been so not sure about size of it and stuff but have you thought if your not going to use the caravan on the island why not put it in storage on mainland may save you on ferry fares as i say dont know much about area so just a thought



16/1/2010 at 9:37am
 Location: Isle of Wight
 Outfit: None Entered
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Have thought to keep the caravan off isle of wight however there are lots of nice campsites here too, so think we'll keep it here and hope to use at weekends locally!


16/1/2010 at 10:52am
 Location: N. Ireland
 Outfit: Elddis Avante 626 + Hyundai Sante Fe
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Hi jukes,
We have the same problem here in N. Ireland. We are charged "mega bucks" when we want to cross to GB.compared to some of the crossings to France. It really adds to the cost of your holiday, we used to go to South England one year and then to South Ireland the next to try to cut down on the cost, but the sites there have become very expensive and most dont have a lot of facilities. So it actually worked out much the same price, even with the added cost of the ferry.
Now we find that going to France actually works out more cost effective than staying in England, as we think that sites in Fance are better value for money. Also helped by whatever the exchange rate with the Euro is at, which hasn't been so good over the past year.
We look at how much the ferry costs per month and usually that makes it look a bit better, "mind over matter"!!!!!



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