Which ferry crossing to France??

[PiedWagtail]

Have just been on ferry website to book Portsmouth to St Malo crossing for August - £813!!!!!! Ulp. DH is worried about seasickness. Has anyone done this crossing in August and is it usually ok??

Also, how long would it take to drive from Calais to St Malo? It's going to be hours, isn't it??

Have to weigh up length of time driving/cost/chance of being seasick. Hmmm.

Help, what should we do?

I do Portsmouth St Malo about 4 times a year. By far and away August is the best crossing. I am assuming at that price you have a cabin in both directions. You need one on the overnight route but not one on the day crossing in my opinion assuming you have some reserved seats. They lay a lot of entertainment on on the day crossing for the kids including a panto and a magician. Last year there was some Britain's Got Talent semi finalists on the boat so it was a good way to pass the time. I never do the daytime crossing back though, using the Caen Portsmouth route instead. I have been doing this for about 6 years with three kids and no DH. My DH doesn't like ferries but he will do the St Malo route.

It's about 4-5 hours to drive from Calais to St Malo so it really is a trade off. I like St Malo as you get in early and the town is well connected to Brittany and the Vendee.

Thank you!! Nope, just one way cabin That info is all good to know, though this time we've decided to take the ferry to Calais and drive to St Malo over 2 days and stay somewhere on the way.

Where is about 2 hours drive from Calais? Somewhere like Honfleur? Or is that too far? We have a gite booked near St Malo for the first week and another on in the Vendee the second week :)

The Dover dunkerque crossing is better than Calais, faster access to the autoroute and the onboard facilities ate better than p&o too.

Fuck me that's expensive.

Honfleur is about right or Rouen

We have always done fastcat Poole St Malo, which takes about 5 hours. Condor have stopped the service this year though so we are going Weymouth St Malo instead. Overall travel time is slightly longer due to a 2 hour stop in Guernsey. But, Guernsey is small enough to make that a lunchable time and on both journeys, arrival times are early enough to avoid an overnight stop.

Don't know cost as booked via Keycamp, but can't imagine it's anywhere near £800 as choosing this rather that Dover Calais only added about £300 to the total price.

Go on the tunnel. Bloody lovely option with small kids. I have nightmare memories of the St Malo crossing with a 2-3yr old seasick eldest......

Ist vomit onto "spotty dog" that grandad bought her 30 mins before in the ferry shop (when 101 dalmations was big) . Said dog "sponge clean only" spend the rest of the 2 weeks in France trying to dry out.....(why we didn't just buy another I don't know but we were sleep deprived!).

Second huge, long vomit into potty held aloft by me (she was on the top bunk at the time) . Well caught- yes BUT the vom bounced out to the round bottomed potty in an arc to land in the only pair of shoes DH had for the holiday.

8-10hrs is for ever under those tortured circumstances.

Bet that prices isn't even with a cabin both ways is it?

30 mins in the tunnel and drive for a few hours the other side stopping as you want or driving at night. So easy.

Urgh we did Portsmouth to Roscoff - 6 hours each way and me and DS vomited all the way back

never never never doing a ferry ever again - do the chunnel - seriously we would add a day to our hols to avoid vomiting

sorry for the excessive use of the word vomit - i took the piss out of DH on the way over - ate humble pie on the way back (when i could face it!)

thanks for backing me up on the vomit thea

I agree with the tunnel option especially if you are going to break the journey over two days. 6 hours driving max with stop to St Malo so it can be done in a day.

We stayed at Honfleur in May for three nights and did the war tours etc. was great place and very beautiful. Got a good deal at the Campanile just off the motorway. Close enough to the town centre but far enough out to be able to park.

Don't do the fastcraft or the vomit comet as its know out of Portsmouth unless is going to be calm. They employ staff to clean up the sick and will collect the full bags off you if it's bad. Bet that was good careers advice to get that job.

Where in the vendee are you going to OP?

Have a look at Norfolk line, it's a lot cheaper!

Another vote for tunnel option.... i go FREE every year thanks to Tesco vouchers

the tunnel is a heavenly option - just drive on, get out of car, peer out of train windows saying 'isnt it dark!' and 'arent we going fast!' whilst swaying slightly and then you are in France.

tunnel is fab, & if you do it with Clubcard vouchers it's 3x face value so only about £50 max

S & W from Calais is motorway to most destinations

What about Newhaven to Dieppe? Does that route still exist?

New haven Dieppe still exist with LD lines but it's a slow day ferry now.

I've been looking at going to Brittany this year but the cost of the ferry is putting me off. We've been Portsmouth-Caen and Poole-Cherbourg before and I'm sure it was miles cheaper than we've been quoted this year. Have the prices gone up????

We do like Eurotunnel, but it's a long drive from Calais to Western Brittany.....

Thanks all :) Have been a bit at all the vomit stories as I honestly thought the ferry would be nice and calm.

DH would never let me live it down if it wasn't, so we will take the ferry from Dover to Calais (I don't like the tunnel!!!! and the kids like being on ferries) and drive from there, stopping at Honfleur or somewhere similar to break up the journey.

I did look at other journeys and routes - Hermione - thanks for that! Had discounted Dunkirk as it's north of Calais, but will have aother look at it. Is Calais a nightmare to get out of, then?

Rosy71 - I only discussed the Portsmouth-St Malo crossing and the woman I spoke to said there is only Brittany Ferries operating that route and only one ferry a day each way and it gets booked up reeeealllly early.

Slalomsuki - urgh! vomit comet? Bleurgh. Can't imagien a worse job

We're staying at a beachside apartment on a peninsula just outside St Malo then a gite just outside Vouille les Marais, 15km from Fontenay le Comte and our gite overlooks the Hollandais canal and is ona nature reserve, so sounds fab. This one: www.cheznous.com/170416/chez-le-marais-vendee.aspx

Our Brittany gite is at www.cheznous.com/224192/apartment-de-la-baie-cotes-darmor.aspx if anyone is interested :)

Thank you

Where in the uk are you? If you are northish it might be worth considering hull to zeebruge. Is about 400 including food and cabin, is night crossing both ways so don't gave to try to entertain kids too much. Is about 7 hour drive but if you were going to stop anyway it may work out better.

\link{http://www.condorferries.co.uk/destinations/stmalo.aspx?gclid=CMzPzsDevq0CFcNo4Aod6WR5_w\Condor Ferries} also cross to St Malo, from Poole

I know nothing about them though

Have just put in a random August date (Sat 4th-Sat 11th) & prices quoted are around £450 - £550

They also run Portsmouth-Cherbourg (shorter crossing but you have to drive down the Cherbourg peninsula to St Malo) & Weymouth-St Malo

Give them a ring

& finally you could consider \link{http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/ferry-routes/ferries-france/portsmouth-caen?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=caen%20ferries&utm_content=f_caen&utm_campaign=g_bf_ferry_france_caen&KEYWORD_K=caen%20ferries&TRACKING_ID_K=619d346b-3a89-bf88-8bf8-000072275d39&CHANNEL_K=google&CAMPAIGN_K=g_bf_ferry_france_caen&AdGROUP_K=f_caen\Portsmouth-Caen} - it's around 6 hours on the ferry, there is also one fastcraft a day, & I believe it's quite a bit cheaper than Portsmouth-St Malo. They are lovely big boats with lots to do, & the journey from Caen to St Malo is a doddle

(if you get a day crossing with BF cabins are dead cheap - you can nap if you want & dump all your hand luggage there)