Holiday to France

pm.

Hi, Does anyone know where i can look up the best ferry crossings to france. My self and family are thinking of going in mid june for a week, we are also taking the car

babaduck

You've two choices when it comes to direct crossings to France - Irish Ferries from Rosslare to either Cherbourg or Roscoff, or Brittany Ferries from Cork to Roscoff.

Personally speaking, Brittany Ferries offer the best service - cabins & catering is far far better than Irish Ferries (trust me on this... IF is waaay overpriced when onboard & looking for food - €20 for 2 soups, 2 bread rolls & 2 Cokes is a ripoff IMHO)

tywy

it is actually now cheaper to fly and rent a car than to get a ferry supposedly. Although you probably want to pack the car with stuff. I used to camp lots as a kid in France. My parents would pack up the car and attach the trailer tent to the back of the car and off we would go on an adventure. I can't say how much I enjoyed it!

Whereabouts are you going? Or have you planned it yet?

skibum

Last year we brought the car to france. We used Irish ferries, and stayed in southern brittany, (beautiful area, lovely people, but unpredictable weather)
Having the car was great, we loaded up with all the bits that 2 young kid's "need" favourite toys, pillows etc. we also had a roof box so we could stock up on the local cider / wine etc.
The ferry , "normandy" is old, looks old, smells old, sounds old etc....
We got talking to a couple who had taken both the normandy and brittany ferries "pont aven", they said for the extra money, there was no comparsion and the only reason they went with Irish ferries this time was that the pont aven was booked out.
This year we are flying Ryanair (hopefully they will stay awake until we get there ) to Biarrtiz and renting a car, it's working out cheaper but I will miss being able to load up what ever we need.
Don't know if this makes any sense, it's been a long day

phog

I have travelled from Cork to Roscoff (lovely town) with Brittany Ferries and would have no problem recommending it - though it is expensive - also could be hard to get dates in June now.

Have you considered land bridge via England - gives more flexibility with dates and can be cheaper but longer driving.

Also, fly/drive - a lot cheaper now but unable to stock the boot with all the French goodies.

pm.

Thanks for the feed back, i cant fly as i have a fear of flying ( thanks to helios air ) so the only option for me is the boat. But from your comments im really looking foward to the hols now, thanks again

babaduck

Are you going to go camping, rent an apartment or stay in a hotel? My parents go to Brittany every year & stay in a campsite (my idea of hell on wheels) so we're heading over in September and renting an apartment in Brittany - about 75 mins drive from Roscoff & a very handy base.

The past 2 years, we've gone to Normandy & used Cherbourg as a base - both areas are equally stunning and we tend to load up on wine & beer when we're there (as well as household furnishings, patio lights etc....)

You'll have a great trip. Check out the Brittany Ferries main brochure for different types of accom & if you need more info, feel free to PM me

dingding

If you are going camping, might be worth looking at keycamp, had some great holidays with them over the years:)

skibum

dingding wrote:

If you are going camping, might be worth looking at keycamp, had some great holidays with them over the years:)

Keycamp are pretty expensive, we were going to book with keycamp last year but before the missus got loose with my credit card I checked out the prices for booking the ferry and got in touch with the campsite directly. We made a saving of over €1000. Our mobile was 2 rows over from the key camp ones. Ok they have large mobiles and have dedicated keycamp staff on site, but we found the sites own staff and activities to be excellent.

If you have a particular area / site in mind book directly it will save you a packet.

GavinH

I will be travelling with my wife and toddler to France via Cork Roscoff in the middle of May. We will be bringing the caravan. Haven't decided how far to go. Were going for 3 weeks and would like to have some good weather as well as finding a toddler friendly site. Anybody have experience of camping in france that time of year? And recommendations?

Much Appreciated.

parsi

I'd definitely recommend BF as well - a much much nicer ferry built in 2004. In fact at the weekend I was on the ferry(Val de Loire) that they used before the new Pont Aven and it is still in a great state and miles better than the Irish Ferries rustbucket.

June should be easy enough to get availability for - check www.brittanyferries.ie

Regarding camping - we've never done it but colleagues have done it and recommend it. You could load up with the camping brochures and see whats on offer. The Dutch Caravan club supposedly thoroughly review sites as well (saw it n "No Going Back").

We went to Brittany once during May and the weather was fine.

GavinH

Ye, I think we'll just have to see what the weather is like closer to the time, and then plan our destination based on that. Havn't travelled on the Pont Aven before. But have travelled on the Irish Ferries one from Rosslare, memories of it don;t paint great pictures, so looking forward to travelling on the Pont Aven, which looks great on the website.

Gav