Travel to north western France

[A580Hojas]

Am I missing something here? Is the only way to take your car to NW France you have to get on a ferry from Poole to Cherbourg which departs at 8.30am and requires check-in at 7am??

[myrtilles]

There are lots of ferry options. Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth or Plymouth, the Newhaven Dieppe ferry and Dover to Calais ferries (of which I would say DFDS are the best after the P&O fiasco). There is also the tunnel.
Brittany Ferries are very good but also expensive...you can bring the cost down by booking accommodation plus ferry with them. Without knowing where you live or where exactly you are going in France it is hard to suggest which your best crossing would be.

[trilbydoll]

Portsmouth to Cherbourg is the best compromise between price and time imo, and they arrive at a sensible time as well. The overnight ferries are much more expensive. We only live an hour from Portsmouth driving at 5am though so it's easy for me to say that!

[Branleuse]

Yes youre missing all the other ferry crossings, so if you want to get the ferry to Brittany, you can choose other ports such as Caen, St Malo, Roscoff.
Other option would be to get the eurotunnel or ferry to Calais and drive from there, or get plane to Brest or Rennes and then hire a car.

North western france I would have assumed was pas de calais, btw, brittany isnt considered northern france

[OrangeSamphire]

Plymouth to Roscoff.

you can go overnight or take the afternoon ferry which leaves at lunchtime.

Every day except Tuesdays.

[Chocoqueen]

We've just done Portsmouth to Caen on Brittany Ferries, which has an afternoon sailing (14:45-21:30) and an overnight one. Then it was about 3 1/2 hours to where we're staying on the Brittany coast (we stayed in Caen overnight). It was the only one we could find that wasn't silly early 😆. I think coming back the sailing is at 16:30.

[AlisonDonut]

We stay in hotels nearby if we have early crossings.

[A580Hojas]

@AlisonDonut

What do you mean are you missing something? Cars don't go on planes, and have to depart the train at Calais so how else do you think other that a ferry from a range of ports to another range of ports? There isn't just the one ferry.

There only appears to be one crossing a day to Cherbourg, at an inconvenient time if you don't live in the south west. That's what I was checking.

[Hippolyte]

You could also look at Newhaven to Dieppe. It is significantly cheaper than the other ferries and a fairly short crossing, depending on your final destination of course.

[AlisonDonut]

@A580Hojas

Am I missing something here? Is the only way to take your car to NW France you have to get on a ferry from Poole to Cherbourg which departs at 8.30am and requires check-in at 7am??

What do you mean are you missing something? Cars don't go on planes, and have to depart the train at Calais so how else do you think other that a ferry from a range of ports to another range of ports? There isn't just the one ferry.

[Verite1]

We have taken overnight ferry from Portsmouth to st malo before. Is that not an option? Or depending where you live / Plymouth to roscoff?

[MakingNBaking]

I used to love the overnight Portsmouth-Le Havre back in the good old days. And the reverse overnight.
Sitting in the ferry lines at 2200 with the motor homers and caravanners all brewing up around us,sleeping children in the back of most cars.

[Inklingpot]

We do the tunnel then drive. It’s a longer drive but it’s worth it imho.

[Bramshott]

The Cherbourg ferries are so expensive that we've always driven the extra distance from Calais.

[MakingNBaking]

If you are heading towards Brittany or the Vendee then that route minimises the drive in France.
But if you're ok with a longer drive then the Kentish routes are ok.
The check in does not seem unreasonable? Loading a ro-ro takes some time so being on board for half an hour before departure would be quite usual.
When going via the tunnel (which I always do) there is always the possibility when you check that you could accept an earlier shuttle if available. The record from my house to actually being on the shuttle is 25 mins.

[ClaudiaWankleman]

Take the tunnel from Folkestone and drive (6 hours-ish), or the overnight ferries to Cherbourg, Roscoff or St Malo.