To think ferry prices are extortionate?!

[redshinyshoes]

Am in the prcoess of booking Summer holiday, found a really good value cottage in France, just gone to book the ferry and it's around £600 return!!!! Admittedly have never actually travelled by ferry before and was expecting it to be around £200 max

I suppose it depends how far you are going. We use Dunkerque to Dover a lot and I am always pleasantly surprised at how cheap it is?
Could you look at different routes to see whether you can do a longer drive?
OTOH, maybe the cost of petrol in France would outweigh the benefits of a shorter sea trip?

There are holidays which include the cost of the ferry in them, which might help. Unfortunately I can't think of any at the moment.

Which crossing are you looking at? The longer ones are expensive, especially with a cabin, but slightly cheaper mid-week. The advantage of a shorter drive may outweigh the cost.

Sorry, it's Weymouth/Portsmouth to St Malo for me, DH and 3 DC's (two aged under 3)

Sorry, I think you were being optimistic expecting that particular ferry route to be 200 quid for a family of five in the summer

If it's overnight then you have to offset it against the cost of holiday accommodation as well as cost of petrol etc.

I would say 600 for a return, for four people and a car, then that's about right.

Sorry family of five.

Go Dover Calais. We pay £65-£80 in school holidays. We drive 3hrs to get there but worth it for the saving IMO

I've paid £700 in August for a family of four on that crossing before. Last year decided to take a package holiday instead as it worked out cheaper than renting a gite in Brittany for two weeks together with the ferry crossing.

Should say, we get a 6.30am ferry as it is cheaper and the DD's sleep in the car - just transfer them from bed at c.2am and they are fine

Eeek [shocked] !!!

Don't forget you have to pay motorway charges in France if you increase the distance you drive in France.

I really recommend taking the ferry, it's lovely for children. Take you own food to save on buying food on the ferry.

i mean

Yes I guess we could make a day of it, do they have much to do on board ferries?!

CrispyTheCrisp - sounds like a good plan

CrispyTheCrisp - is that per person?

It depends on the ferry. We took a ship from Spain to Portsmouth, 24 hours, there was a clown, face painting, children's TV screens, and a lecture on sea life.

Dover to Calais is probably about 60 quid total not per person

That's cheap! Which company is that with?

We go Brittany Ferries most years and that does seem to be the going rate (family of five here) Even if you are going on a day trip can you get a cabin? They are relatively cheap but provide a haven if you are travelling with small ones. We always seem to have at least one toddler with us and somewhere to contain them is wonderful. There are also cinemas on Brittany ferries, soft play and usually a magic show or something similar, and the food is amazing!

Just booked our ferry crossing yesterday with Brittany (poole to Cherbourg, Cherbourg to Portsmouth - fast ferries) - for an MPV type car with 5 people, plus bikes, roof box etc etc on the fast ferry was just over £600 - got a small discount by using the discount of the place we are staying at.

Summer is always expensive and its usuall full up quite quickly.

Lokked at other crossings with cabins but works out more expensive than that.

via michelin is a good site for comparing driving costs - add in type of car, cost of fuel and it calculates the tolls and fuel costs for you.

Add extra time though, as it doesn't allow for stops.

YANBU. Shorter trips but we travel to the IOW a lot and is extortionate.

We went just round the coast from St Malo last November (with 6 month-old DD). However the ferry costs were also horrific - when most gites rent weekend to weekend, and holiday time is limited, then midweek crossings are out.

In the end we got the chunnel using Tesco vouchers (so I think it cost us about £35 in the end), and was completed in 40mins, but then there was an extra 3 1/2-hour drive. Extra road tolls were about £20 in each direction. This compared to the £350ish for ferries into Cherbourg/St. Malo and a 40 minute drive. That said, travelling for that long with a family will be harder than with a baby (who slept most of the way). At least kids can get out and do stuff on a ferry

Good luck

Norfolkline Dover to Dunkerque are very cheap and very good, bt it would be a lot of extra driving depending where you are coming from/going to. We live in Southampton and drive to Dover rather than pay the Portsmouth ferry costs