Message Forums

Hi All,

This year we went to France and stayed in a Eurocamp tent, we want to go to France again next year but wondered - if we take our own folding camper (using a bongo to tow it) can we find a ferry price that means it's cheaper to do so? 

Does anyone know how much more it costs on the ferry inc. trailer rather than just taking a car?

The prob is that on the site we are looking at,  a eurocamp tent costs £525, camping in the FC would be £400 ---- so the ferry might mean its actually more expensive to take our own unit.

Anyone got any advice ? Would be really grateful for any advice ! thank you !

Jen

Thank you, will have a look at that crossing.  We are going next June so getting an idea of price from prices on the website now is v. difficult but it does give you an educated guess, as you say! 

If you're going in June, then keep a look out for the Norfolk Lines/DFDS crossings offers which come up at the time of the NEC Caravan Show in October.  These are generally mentioned as soon as they become available on website forums such as this one. This year our crossings cost just £58.00 return for car and caravan. Outward May, return June, and outward August, return September.  Also have a look at the Camping Cheques website (www.campingcheque.co.uk) - depending on which campsite you want, you may be able to save up to 60% on the cost, if it takes Camping Cheques during the dates you want in June.  The price would be £13.95 per night, which includes pitch, two adults, car and caravan (or tent or motorhome), awning, and electricity.

We've used Camping Cheques for fourteen years, and found some fantastic bargains during those years!

Edited later:  Which site(s) are you looking at?  There are other 'discount' schemes such as Touring Cheques (part of Eurocamp) at £12.95 per night, Vacansoleil Cheques,(£9 per night) and the ACSI card (between €11 and €15).  Between them all they cover quite a lot of the most popular sites.  Many also offer 14 nights for 11, or 7 nights for 6, too.

Hi Jen.

          We did statics in the South of France, booking direct with the owner, but when the prices started to go past £600 per week, we decided to take our own kit, Keycamp etc at the time were charging £900 per week on the same campsite for a static, although the Keycamp price included a Dover return ferry crossing.

These days we tow a half ton trailer down to the Southern Ardeche, for our fortnight campings in July, we stay on a lovely 4 star campsite and it works out at £227 per week, staics on the same campsite start at £500 per week in July.

And of course you can choose a none Eurocamp campsite, which has to be a bonus.

So for us it's a no brainer, you only pay the car rate on the Autoroutes, which in our case is around £50 to get to the campsite, and you can tow at 81mph providing your tow car is not rated at 3500kg MTLP or over.

Like Val mentions we take advantage of the show offer NL Dover-Dunkerque £58 return crossing.

Thank you for your replies, some really interesting stuff to research! I'll have a look at the cheques and those crossings .

We are with the Caravan and camping club so they can get some discounts for ferries too. 

We have 2 young kids though so the ferry crossing time is a factor.  Also we live in Bristol so ideally want to cross from near us but it's weighinng it all up ! 

It's great to hear other people's experiences.

Thanks

The Camping and Caravanning Club ferry prices wil not be close to DFDS. Been there, tried it, waste of time.

No ones mentioned Mr Tesco yet for the trip to France.

Francais,

Can I ask, do you stop for a night on the way down to the ardeche? When you say £50 do you mean £50 in tolls?

Thank you !

Hi Jen.

          Yep, our total French Toll costs July 2010 came to £106.53, we use a Sanef Tag, as that ensures we only ever get charged the car only Toll rate, as our trailer is 1.7m in height.

As we travel from the NorthWest, it's 309 miles to Dover, so we usualy do an overnight at the "Premiere Classe" hotel at Armbouts Cappel, just 13 miles South of the Dunkerque Ferry port.

Then another "Premiere Classe" hotel overnight at Chalon-Sur-Saone, which is about 400 miles drive from Dunkerque, that leaves just under 200 miles drive for the final leg to the campsite, this gets us to the campsite in plenty of time to set up the tent (gallery), and then go for a dip in the swimming pool.

Although we do honk along the autoroutes, we do like to stop at one of the many Aire's to have a leisurely lunch/picnic, and just chill for an hour or so.

Thanks Francais, that's really interesting and useful ..

Blueexpo - good to know your experience that  the C and C club wont get to be as cheap as the DFDS, might be worth going totally independantly then. (Though they say repeatedly "we wont be beaten on price"??

What do tesco club points go towards ? Ferry or the camping?

Cheers all - such great help !

Hi

We have had to sell our folding camper this year for medical reasons. We thought that might be the end of our camping days

We have booked an air conditioned mobile home with decking through Select Camp. Ten days at Lake Garda from September 1st at just over £400. Then a week in Tuscony at £159 and a week near Frejus again at £159 means these two weeks are only slightly more expensive than the site fees would have been using our ACSI card.

We will also save by getting better mileage  through not towing

Mancityred, that's what we are finding,, a tent with eurocamp is £500, if we go on our own with the fc, the site fees are £400 for the 12 days, but we have a mazda bongo which is quite heavy on fuel so towing may be even be more than camping !

Also, whilst there are cheap ferry options out there they may not be so great for travelling with young children..

But I am looking into making the camping cheaper with everyone's suggestions so it may still be an option to go with the fc!

Jen

We're having the same thoughts for next year too. Our kids really like the kids clubs so for us there is an advantage in eurocamp indep but obviously costs more. This year we used vouchers for the tunnel and drove down to the Vendee and then the Loire. Having done that we decided if we are going to the west coast again we will use the more expensive western ferries. Whilst it is def cheaper to go via Dover it isn't quite as cheap by the time you've added on fuel and tolls.

This year our travelling was: Day 1 ~220miles Norfolk to Picardy via tunnel ~8hrs door to door allowing time for Dartford crossings probs etc. Day 2 ~360 miles Picardy to Vendee 7-8hrs with several toilet stops...

For us we would have been better going to Portsmouth in the evening ~4hrs then Day 2 ~3hr ferry with 4-5hrs travelling other side. (We either get caught by the Dartford Crossing which had massive delays the eve before we travelled and on our return as it was after that bad accident which had shut the m25, or have to go past Heathrow where we often have major hold-ups. For us we're best going round London in the evening with an early morning crossing so we don't wait as much time waiting for ferry / tunnel.)

We tried the tunnel route, and for that side of France we would use again. Personally if I lived near Bristol with young children I would find it very hard work to go to the west via Dover. Viamichelin will price up all our journeys incl fuel and tolls so would give you a better price comparison.

Quote: Originally posted by Mancityred on 13/8/2011

---

Hi

We have had to sell our folding camper this year for medical reasons. We thought that might be the end of our camping days

We have booked an air conditioned mobile home with decking through Select Camp. Ten days at Lake Garda from September 1st at just over £400. Then a week in Tuscony at £159 and a week near Frejus again at £159 means these two weeks are only slightly more expensive than the site fees would have been using our ACSI card.

We will also save by getting better mileage  through not towing

---

we stayed in Lake Garda with Select camp last May,they were soooo much cheaper than all the other companies ! fab accomodation and lovely ( older) reps