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Subject Topic: Ways to cut ferry costs please! Post Reply Post New Topic
Personlveetee
21/5/2016 at 12:39pm
 Location: Derby
 Outfit: Swift Corniche View lveetee's Profile View Profile   Reply to lveetee Reply   Quote lveetee Quote  
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For the first time, we are going to take our caravan to France, but the prices for the ferries in the last week of July are astronomical. Is there a way to cut the cost? Do the ferries get more expensive if we leave it closer to the date, or do they have offers on generally?
Would it be worth joining the caravan Club for a discount? I'd really like to go Portsmouth to Caen area. Any ideas would be gratefully received, especially links to codes, etc.


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Personexessexmum
21/5/2016 at 1:14pm
 Location: Cambs
 Outfit: Nowt. View exessexmum's Profile View Profile   Reply to exessexmum Reply   Quote exessexmum Quote  
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Prices have gone up in recent years and the days of amazing deals seem to be over.
Some people find Dunkirk crossings cheaper, or look for offpeak sailings (late night, midweek)
We use the tunnel and pay for it with Tesco Clubcard points. Regular food shops throughout the year gives enough points to cover two crossings a year for us (family of two adults, three teens, two cats and two dogs) We also have a Tesco fuel station in our town. Not a huge Tesco fan, but it's cheaper than Sainsburys. When our local Lidl opens, I shall use a Tesco credit card to pay for our shop, and still get some points!
Last week of July is peak, peak time as first week of school holidays. If you can go later in August it might be cheaper.

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Amanda


Personchrisandsandra
21/5/2016 at 1:39pm
 Location: Somerset
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The western crossings, including Portsmouth to Caen, are more expensive than Dover Calais or Dover Dunkirk routes. As essexmum says, the cheapest crossings will be from Dover at 'unsocial times'.

However, Condor Ferries do a 'Caravans Go Free' offer on their Portsmouth to Cherbourg Sunday crossings that brings down the cost considerably if they still have availability. I've just done a test booking for late July and the price was about £ 250 return but obviously I don't know all of your details so this is a guess at best. It might be worth you looking though.

You may get 5% - 20% off crossings with either the Caravan Club or the Caravan and Camping Club, and sometimes they do 'Caravans Go Free' deals on selected crossings but you have to balance the savings against the cost of joining.

If you really want to do Portsmouth - Caen I could let you have a code to use that would get you 10% off the basic cost. If this helps please e-mail me at sandrae701 at googlemail.com (replacing the at with a at sign and I'll let you have it.

Good luck.


Personlveetee
21/5/2016 at 1:58pm
 Location: Derby
 Outfit: Swift Corniche View lveetee's Profile View Profile   Reply to lveetee Reply   Quote lveetee Quote  
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Thank you for your advice. It is all very useful and I'll certainly try the Sunday sailings to Cherbourg. We are tied to the first few weeks of the summer holidays as I'm a teacher and also have summer schools to run for the last three weeks of hols.

Thank very much you Sandra for the kind offer of a code - I'll message you.

Lindsey


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PersonRapidoGuys
21/5/2016 at 5:09pm
 Location: None Entered
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The Newhaven - Dieppe (DFDS Seaways) crossings can be 75% cheaper than the Portsmouth routes. There is probably not much difference in your drive time between Derby and Newhaven instead of Portsmouth, and its under 2 hours drive from Dieppe - Caen.

Dover - Dunkerque (especially in the middle of the night) can be even cheaper, but drive times will be longer.

The last time we went with Brittany Ferries, our Camping and Caravanning Club discount covered the annual membership cost (and more)


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Personaskill
22/5/2016 at 10:06am
 Location: very near Portsmouth
 Outfit: None Entered View askill's Profile View Profile   Reply to askill Reply   Quote askill Quote  
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Have you considered the Brittany Ferries 'economie' service to Le Havre? Might be an option for you. Years ago, we used to pay for our Western crossings with Airmiles, but when the system changed to Avios points I found the conversion rate was not so favourable. We have sailed overnight on the 'economie' service from Le Havre to Portsmouth and it was fine; we ate before we boarded and then slept our way home.


Personjenh
28/5/2016 at 9:27pm
 Location: Bristol
 Outfit: Penine Fiesta and a bell tent View jenh's Profile View Profile   Reply to jenh Reply   Quote jenh Quote  
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We booked a night in a eurocamp tent on the way to and from the Dordogne (in the Loire), then the rest of the holiday used our bell tent .. even with only 2 days with eurocamp. the ferry discount they got us was brilliant. Worth looking in to if you are going far enough to warrant an overnight stop.

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2011 Les Ecuruils Vendee
2012 Port De Limuel, Dordogne
2013 Les Peneyrals, Dordogne
2015 Le Capeyrou


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Personold chap
29/5/2016 at 1:18am
 Location: Sitingbourne
 Outfit: baily champaign View old chap's Profile View Profile   Reply to old chap Reply   Quote old chap Quote  
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you could try Camping cheques site
you get a very good deal on ferry costs if you buy it with 3 camping cheques. even if you don't use them they are easy to sell on any camping/caravanning web sitehttp://campingcheque.co.uk


PersonSGThomas
29/5/2016 at 8:29am
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Quote: Originally posted by old chap on 29/5/2016
you could try Camping cheques site
you get a very good deal on ferry costs if you buy it with 3 camping cheques. even if you don't use them they are easy to sell on any camping/caravanning web sitehttp://campingcheque.co.uk


I can always give unwanted cheques a good,and loving home


PersonSmiledmb
01/6/2016 at 5:16pm
 Location: South Liverpool
 Outfit:  Burstner Ventana 530tk View Smiledmb's Profile View Profile   Reply to Smiledmb Reply   Quote Smiledmb Quote  
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If you still need a ferry code then please drop me a line smiledmb at gmail dot com
we always go on the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo, it is costly, but t gets us off to a good start having driven for about 6 hour prior to this. :)


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Fab time in France again.... Roll on next year!


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Personcamp chaos
06/6/2016 at 9:12pm
 Location: up north
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To the 2 offers of ferry codes for Brittany Ferries: are those offers still on the table? If so, I'd like to take you up on it please! I didn't want to just go ahead and email and jump on someone else's bandwagon so to speak!


Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!


PersonSmiledmb
06/6/2016 at 10:54pm
 Location: South Liverpool
 Outfit:  Burstner Ventana 530tk View Smiledmb's Profile View Profile   Reply to Smiledmb Reply   Quote Smiledmb Quote  
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Yes your more than welcome to it... just drop me an email to smiledmb at Gmail dot com as we're not allowed to put them on here :)

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Fab time in France again.... Roll on next year!


PersonSmiledmb
07/6/2016 at 8:01am
 Location: South Liverpool
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Quote: Originally posted by camp chaos on 06/6/2016
To the 2 offers of ferry codes for Brittany Ferries: are those offers still on the table? If so, I'd like to take you up on it please! I didn't want to just go ahead and email and jump on someone else's bandwagon so to speak!


All sent :) have a fabulous holiday x

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Fab time in France again.... Roll on next year!



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