A ferry from Larne to Cairnryan, then a 500 mile drive to Dover for another ferry to Calais in the middle of the night may perhaps be the cheapest, but an overnight sailing from Dublin or Rosslare direct to Cherbourg or Roscoff will save you a lot of time and an awful lot of driving. Worth the extra?
You need to add extra fuel to the 'land bridge' model .... both for the Scotland/England drive and the much longer hike from Calais .... plus overnight costs, unless you are setting up en route.
We have done that, but then preferred the Rosslare route via the Oscar Wilde ... a mini cruise to start and end the hot ... you arrived much more refreshed. You can use Tesco vouchers on Irish Ferries, which could cover the lot, or as much of the total as you want.
We now store the FC in France, near Angers ... so use the Cherbourg crossing and pick up the camper further south. Saves a lot of ferry cost and towing costs through Ireland and northern France. We are switching to a caravan .... but will still store it in France so's we don't have to tow it to and fro.
Direct ferries website will help you work out all the possibilities but we have always found the Rosslare Cherbourg route the best for us - both for convenience and price - travelling from Donegal.
------------- Shirley
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Irish Ferries, Stena, or Brittany Ferries. All three have direct routes from South of Ireland to France.
Wouldn't consider going Land bridge, have done that in the past. Much more relaxing to go direct and when all the costs are factored in there may be very little difference.
Heading to La Rochelle, I'd get the Roslaire to Roscoff. Saves a bit of time.
Landbridge is cheaper but adds on a lot of time, mileage and fuel. Cheapest from Ireland is Irish ferries from Dublin but it isn't as comfortable as the Oscar Wilde or the Brittany ferries boat.
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