Ferry to France??

chuckin007

Hi, Anyone taken a ferry to France lately? We live in dublin. Wheres best time wise and any ideas of cost? Car and 2 adults and a baby.
Cheers.

P. Breathnach

I do it every year.

You'll get your best information on prices by going to the websites of the ferry companies. They vary by season and even by day of week, and are particularly high around the weekends in July and August.

With a baby, I presume you are not tied to school holidays (unless one or both adults teach). Look at May, June, and September for better deals.

skibum

May, early june, and september are great for low ferry fares and deals in campsites.
Last year we went with Irish ferries on the Normandy (now replaced with the oscar wilde), we left on 21 june and returned 12 july, ferry cost €1,308 (2 adults / 2 children / 2 cabins), accomodation was about €1,700 for the 3 weeks.
This year we are going for a week (just the two of us, no kid's ), ferry is costing us €405 (including 3 star cabin), and accomodation is costing about €200

There is a huge difference butween high season and low season. Have a look at the brochures to select your accomodation and then contact them directly, you generally get a much better rate than the brochure.

chuckin007

Thanks. Will look into it. Any Idea how long it actually takes for the ferry journey.

P. Breathnach

About 17 hours Rosslare-Cherbourg. Budget for cabin accommodation and for moderately expensive meals on board unless you bring your own food.

It's best to think of the ferry crossing as part of your holiday. Sure, it's not the same as beach-time or visiting charming villages, but you can regard it as slowing-down and resting time. That's much better than being bored!

Red Camel

Hi
I've travelled to France by ferry for the last 4 years with the family (2 kids, now 6 and 11) and I've tried a few different routes. Obviously the direct ferries from Rosslare and Cork have been mentioned but they are relatively expensive (about €1500 with car). I've done the landbridge thru the UK (Stena & Irish Ferries). We went from Rosslare to Fishguard and then drove down to Portsmouth and got an overnight ferry to Caen. Overall it took exactly the same time as the direct ferry but obviously there's about 6 hours driving rather than sitting on the ferry. It cost about €1000 thru Stena but I reckon i could have got it a bit cheaper booking each leg directly rather than all thru Stena.

Last year we went via the UK again but crossed the channel from Dover using SpeedFerries which is really cheap (and only about 75 minutes). The whole lot only cost about €400. There's more driving but if you make a break in the UK as part of your holiday we found the travelling no problem. We'll probably do the same again this year.

By the way, we stayed at http://www.levieuxmonastere.com/ if you're looking for good self-catering holiday cottages.
Bon voyage.:)

chuckin007

Thanks camel. That levieuxmonastere looks great. Can you tell me this- whats the best time of the year weather wise. school times dont matter as our baby is only 12 weeks old at the moment.

Red Camel

We always go in June as soon as the kids finish school for the summer - that way we miss the UK school holidays (start towards the end of July) and the peak month of August. This makes the accommodation and ferries a bit cheaper. Weather should be OK earlier in June if you want to go out of high season and I expect September should be OK too. Like anywhere though, weather can be a bit more unreliable in mid or low season. In the last 4 years in June we've had great weather for 3 of the holidays (high twenties and sunshine with the odd cloudy day or shower). Last year we went for a family wedding at the end of June and weather was warm but pretty cloudy a lot of the time (sun came out for the wedding), but I think it was unseasonal weather and was the same over much of Europe. Didn't stop us enjoying ourselves though!

Good luck.

twanda

Hi,
I have been given the head-wrecking task of booking an irish ferries holiday for 8 people (foot passengers) at end July. I am finding the irish ferries site very confusing as the ' flexible package holidays' do not seem to include both ferry crossing and accomodation prices, and there is also no information on how foot passengers can get from the French port to whatever holiday resort they are staying in. Does anyone have any tips on how to go about getting a quote for all of this, or is it not possible on the irish ferries site?
Also, do any of you have any recommendations on where to stay? Somewhere with a good chance of sun and if possible close to a resort town that offers good food and entertainment would be great!
Thanks a lot!!

Pete4779

TRy directferries.co.uk, they have loads of routes and ferry companies on it in a big search engine/booking system.

P. Breathnach

twanda, Irish ferries works a bit like Ryanair in that every element of the package is charged separately. A galnce at the site tells me that the one-way fare for a foot passenger in July is €69, and a cabin for two is €95. So your transfers to and from Cherbourg or Roscoff should cost €233 per head, meals extra.

Any package with accommodation presumes that you have a car, so you will get no joy there. At those prices, perhaps it would be a good idea to consider other ways of doing things -- pick a destination, find an accommodation deal that suits, and research low-cost airlines and local transport from the nearest airport. Or find cheap air transfers to a place that seems interesting to you, and then work on finding accommodation.

Red Camel

twanda, if you're not taking a car on the ferry then you may be better to fly and hire a car or travel by bus/taxi/train to your chosen resort. If you're using public transport all the way you need to make sure you pick a resort where you won't need to travel too much. We always take the car so we can choose places to stay that are a bit away from the main tourist spots.
If you don't drive or don't want to fly you may be better off going into a travel agent to see what's on offer in the line of all in coach holidays or the like.