Dover to Callais - Euro / Channel Tunnell or Ferry with Van?

cormie

Hi folks,
I'll be making my first trip from UK to France this week (have always taken the Rosslare ferry to France before) and am getting pretty confused with booking the journey across the sea.

a) It seems it's much cheaper to book a short stay return journey than it is to book a single. I'm not sure of my return date so would like the option for the cheapest one way journey for now. If that means buying 2 "short stay returns" then so be it.
b) It appears while booking there are only journeys every two hours, but then right across from this it says "4 departures per hour"?
c) I may possibly have a load and it appears the commercial/freight rates are very high €188eur?
d) Can I just turn up on the day and hop on the next journey?
e) It appears all the times on Aug 1st from Dover to Callais are greyed out. Does this mean there's no way to get over on the tunnel?

Any help appreciated, it's a little confusing with all the different options!

snaps

im not sure about commercial, but i find it much easier to go the dover calais route or folkstone-dunkirk (Norfolk line i think). I find the rosslare to cherbourg is too expensive for the france leg (tolls). Last time I drove to Poland (As you know), I went via rosslare and came back via the UK. The UK route was easier and perhaps cheaper, but that was with a car. But then this time of the year the Dublin holyhead crossing will be expensive. swings and roundabouts

cormie

Thanks snaps

Yeah see this time I'm going to be in the UK anyway and might have to make another stop in the UK on the way back so would be going UK-France-UK

I'd rather a 35 minute journey instead of 2 hours on the ferry but if there's an astronomical difference, then the ferry will win over I guess. I'll be down around the S/W of London and don't want to add too much time to my journey so I'm guessing Dover to Callais is the best choice?

snaps

check folkstone to dunkirk. i came back with a car once and it was 12£ one way. I used myferry last time (Think they used to be seafrance), that was only 18£ one way.

http://myferrylink.com

cormie

Thanks again, cheapest they offer on a van is £80 each way but it's 2.5 hours which is a lot onto the overall journey which I kind of want to complete asap

munchkin_utd

possibly too late, but for combined Irish sea and channel journeys its MUCH cheaper to buy them combined with the landbrige options that Stena and Irish Ferries have.
Those tickets are bought on the phone and can be got up to a couple of days before departure just as cheap as buying it far in advance.

Anyhow, if time is critical then the tunnel is really far quicker. Not only journey time but less waiting and much much quicker unloading. And at peak it runs unbelievably regular and should you arrive early they will put you on the first available train so saving more time potentially.

the prices though sometimes are insane in comparison to the ferry. I was looking at the tunnel for my recent trip and the first leg was tipping 90euro one way on the tunnel compared to the 40 I paid with DFDS. Thats a saving of 50euro, and coming from germany its about 50km less journey than to Calais so 7 or 8euro saved in petrol on top of that.
Sure that saving paid for the hotel for the family that evening in Kent!!

Fred Swanson

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snaps

Fred Swanson wrote: »

It is very hard to book landbridge via the tunnel if you have a van. Their systems can't handle that and they tell you to book the legs separately.

I always finds the tunnel very expensive for vans. Also they only accept vans for private use. They do not accept commercial vans carrying goods. You have to go through their freight arm for that.

I never knew about land bridge!

cormie

Still haven't got the UK to Continent journey booked, wanting to depart the UK before say 12:00 on Thursday the 1st of August. Any other suggestions as it appears the tunnel has NO spaces left for the van :eek:

Fred Swanson

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weisses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTVPPTV-bQM

thats that sorted

munchkin_utd

cormie wrote: »

Still haven't got the UK to Continent journey booked, wanting to depart the UK before say 12:00 on Thursday the 1st of August. Any other suggestions as it appears the tunnel has NO spaces left for the van :eek:

p+o also operate to Calais and they have a departure tomorrow at 10.15 or 11.10 for 100pounds for a Van .

The channel tunnel used to have far more freight capacity but thanks to Hauliers just using it as a backup option in choppy weather (as opposed to paying a premium for the time saved and having the tunnel as their primary crossing method) they have trimmed back their trains to cope with long term prebooked contracts and theres only limited extra places for others.

There are car places available but those wagons are double deckers so don't fit a large van over 185cm high.

btb

Passenger train can take vehicles over 1.85m, there are full height carriages on the train (where do you think the bus's and campers etc go?), used it many times and mine is 2.0m.

cormie

Thanks again, ended up booking an 08:30 ferry from Dover to Callais with My Ferry Link for €96! Looks like I'll probably have to do the same for the return journey, pity as I would have liked to test out the tunnel, but not at them crazy prices

Fred Swanson

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