Portsmouth to Caen ferry

[Iseveryoneok]

Hello, does anyone have any advice about getting an 8am Brittany Ferries ferry from Portsmouth, please?

We’re on an 8am Sunday morning crossing to Caen in August. We’ll be driving from the north west and I’m anxious about delays en route. I think if we leave home around 10pm and drive through the night, we’ll almost certainly have time to kill early morning in Portsmouth.

Has anyone done this? Any advice on places to park up and wait, maybe stretch our legs. We’ll have a 3 and 5 year old with us who’ll hopefully be sleeping but you never know.

We could drive down the day before and book a premier inn or similar in Portsmouth, but I’d rather save the £120 for a nice holiday experience if poss :)

Any advice or experiences welcome! Thanks!

Drive down the day before and go to peppa pig world!!
its under an hour from Portsmouth and your kids will love

Portsmouth outside the historic dock is a shit hole

The cabins on Brittany Ferries are great. I always get gently rocked to sleep then you can shower in the morning and grab a nice breakfast. If you arrive fresh your holiday starts immediately. If you arrive ready tired you get on holiday and waste the first day as too tired to do anything.

Another vote for overnight stay. It’s a no brainer. It’s not as if there is another ferry an hour behind if you miss it.

Search on Trivago or similar for your best deal. Remember to factor in any extra car parking costs where they are not included.

I live in Yorkshire and have travelled down to the south coast for ferries/tunnel many times over the years.

When the DC were young we'd set off at about 2am to catch an early crossing - DH would drive the UK part and I would drive in France.

It was exhausting and actually dangerous. Despite napping it's still very tiring.

This spring, now just me and DH, we drove down south on a Sunday morning, spent the afternoon and evening wandering around Canterbury then early to bed in the Premier Inn for our 6.20am Tunnel crossing. It was so nice to have had some kind of decent sleep before attempting the 6 hours we had to drive in France.

P.s. Don't forget you will need to check in for your ferry early -I forget how much - 90 minutes?

Have a good holiday

There is a Travelodge almost opposite the entrance to the ferry port in Portsmouth. Not brilliant but perfectly adequte for an overnight stay.

We have used this ferry crossing many times and we usually stay at one of the Premier Inns at Port Solent. This year I priced it up and the PI at Fareham was half the price and only 12 miles from the port.
I drive from Scotland and one time it took us almost 14 hours to get from Glasgow to Portsmouth because of roadworks, breakdowns and accidents. Don't wreck the start of your holiday with the stress of possibly missing your ferry and being unnecessarily exhausted when you reach your destination.

I would get a cabin for either the day or night crossing, day cabins are cheap but well worth it, you can't let a three and five year old run around the boat unless you're very close behind.
A day cabin gives you somewhere to dump your stuff, have a wander round then come back and nap or relax and look out of the window, spot the seabirds etc. we have seen kittiwakes, fulmars and gannets.
On the Spanish route once there was a dolphin/whale watch group there and they pointed out a fin whale (spouting, in the distance.)
The lounges and seating can get very busy, people lug on huge bags and suitcases, and dump them on the seats, all taking up more space.
Amd it's so nice to have a quiet and peaceful place of your own to retreat to.
A night cabin is absolutely invaluable even though they are more expensive, IME.
Much quieter, away from the noisy bars which can get rowdy. (Depends on the other travellers, of course.)
This is doubly the case if the weather is rough, the public areas can be awful. Enough said.

We did St Malo to Portsmouth a few weeks ago and having the cabin as a base was really useful. DH and 6yo were mostly out on the boat but 3yo ended up having a decent nap in the cabin and then she and 6yo watched a film on the TV we had in there. It was only an extra £50 or something and def worth it. I love the ferry, feels like the holiday starts there! Kids thought it was a great adventure and so stress-free compared to flying.