France Ferry & Campsite info (use Search function) mod warning post 1

Chalk and cheese.

The ferries/ports have been busier than ever since Brexit became a reality on Jan 1st, 2021, and staffed accordingly.

Dublin Airport was a ghost town for 2 years, with travellers risking arrest by the Gardai, and about 33% of staff took an early retirement package designed to save the DAA wage bills.

So you have a perfect storm, greatly understaffed, replacements not yet trained/ security cleared yet, and a significant number of those who were rostered for Sunday morning rang in sick.

Overdid it drowning their sorrows after the cup final Saturday night, and not fit to get out of bed for work.. .

As there were, unusually in our experience, three other cats on the crossing last Tuesday I thought I’d give an update in case anyone else wants to know!

The cattery now seems permanently located in the staff only corridor I mentioned in the previous post though it feels a lot less temporary than it did. There are four bigger metal cages on the bottom easily capable of accommodating the provided litter tray, your own cat bed & still have space for dishes & cat. I think there were also four smaller cages on top, similar to those on the OW.

Water, litter, litter tray, litter scoops, clean food dishes & bins are provided which is a huge improvement on 2019, when we last used the WB.

The area is cooler & a lot less noisy. A better experience all round for the cats & their humans.

OT, but are people bringing their cats on their summer holidays?

I always though that cats were primarily territorial and would try strongly to return to their home are if moved to another location.

Whereas dogs are pack oriented and are ok to bring to new places as long as their pack (family) is there.

that means go to wales, cross over the channel?

How does the 290 break down? thanks

Yes, Dublin - Holyhead or Rosslare Fishguard, nearly always with Stena. Then there are a choice of routes across the Channel if heading to west coast of France. But the shorter western routes have longer less frequent sailing times = more pressure to make the sailing time. So the tunnnel is the preferred route for us. Especially since 2 of our passengers would get sick on the Ballyhack ferry. Only downside is you never know what the M25 around London will be like. Sometimes we same-day it from Dublin, 08:30 ferry and stay at a hotel an hour or two into France, but this year we've got to do the Anfield stadium tour on the way so will overnight in Liverpool :( Usually pick up the sister-in-law and nephew somewhere in France on our way to the coast. Another advantage of landbridge is that we booked it last week, so if there's any uncertainty about your plans, it gives you flexibility. But the long driving isn't for everyone, especially small kids and we only started doing it again when our youngest turned 5.

I'll check with my wife how the 290 breaks down, it's for a car and 4 pax. The dog is €27 extra on top of the €290.

are people mostly camping? or staying in a mobile/chalet in France?

If camping its quite a big expense vs camping in Ireland, is it worth it? I know some french campsites have swimming pools etc and the weather is generally better, but maybe too hot for camping

We've done both. There's no comparison to Irish sites in terms of facilities, entertainment, pools, kids/ teen clubs.

We did mobile, then tent. Back to the mobile this year, but that's mainly as we carried credit from 2020 so plumped for the easier life arriving/ departing. The tent did get warm, but we spent most time outside anyway, and invested in a tarp for shade. Only real issue was the cool boxes - we'd planned to hire a fridge next time in a tent.

Going slightly later this time as both in secondary school (we went mid term before), but didn't go for air conditioning but will be bringing fans!

Stena/DFDS land-bridge to France from Dublin/Belfast to DOVER - CALAIS & DUNKIRK for example:

It is (in fairness) much cheaper, but you'd have to plan to have two drivers or stay-over. Even so, it's all on the driver rather than letting the ferry do the hard work while the drivers rest.

Actually I recalled that BF do an overnight ferry from from Portsmouth into St Malo - I took it once (because of Ryanair 🙄). 12 hours to go the 250km! That would take some of the load off the driver.

It's a world apart from an Irish "campsite" to a French one as pointed out above. Typically the region is also a significant factor - you can often get out and enjoy many of the local attractions, many of which we just don't have at the same level here. Cycling even is a major draw for us as a family, and while that has come on in Ireland in the last 10 years, it's still not as easy as in France.

Too hot for camping? You're usually not in the mobile-home during the day anyway, but we have found that you can get away without AC down to just around La Rochelle, but beyond that - you kinda need it for July and August anyway.

mobile home might just work, but tent, not so much

stayed in one up by Nantes before, but just seeing what peoples views on cost and getting there were like

Find camping in ireland is good too, kids love it, its basic but its cheap, 3 holidays this year for less that one way on the ferry

and you can get some amazing locations

obviously rain rain stay away, but also well not too much sun is better in its own way

Because we tend to spend prolonged periods of time in France, yes we do bring our cat with us. (We have a little place of our own.) It was part of our discussion before we got him from the rescue centre as we didn’t see the point in getting him at all if we were going to continue to be absent for weeks at a time. Fortunately, aside from a ten week walkabout at home earlier this year, documented in another thread on here, he has never gone too far in his twelve years either here or at home. And he loves the summer heat! Perhaps because he’s been used to travelling like this since he was a small kitten, he knows no different. Moving house at home didn’t really phase him either. Maybe he just loves us!!!

Other cat owners that I’ve spoken to on board are usually either leaving Ireland permanently or visiting family on the continent. So no, Josip I don’t think bringing the family feline for a two week jaunt on the Med is a thing!

I presume that if you take land-bridge home, that you cannot bring much wine with you??

That may be an unforeseen issue alright with land-bridge. It's very well documented for commercial operators on the gov.ie and revenue.ie sites, as well as gov.uk, but no mention of non-commercial passengers long-haulin' le vin.

Good thinking, but you're not a bonded-warehouse or operating a freight license!

It's probably at the digression of the customs agents (at the UK port and at the Irish port) at that point. Receipts showing the value and tax paid might get you out of trouble. It's definitely a question for revenue!

yeah, you'd imagine if you rock up to Dover in an Irish reg car and a ticket for the Holyhead ferry on the same day they might turn a blind eye but it only takes one awkward customs officer in either port to make your life difficult.

Was down there recently and it's not too bad once you aren't in the HGVs.

They've a contraflow on the motorway, with the eastbound carriageway being used for the truck queues, and the westbound carriageway split in two to allow two lanes in each direction for all non-hgv traffic. It's only in and around the port itself that cars seem to be getting into traffic queues

Take a look at St Avit Loisirs. We think it's the best site we've ever stayed on (we stayed there in 2019), but our kids are a little younger than yours.

We booked through Eurocamp, but the accommodation when booking direct with the site looked better.

+1 for a St Avit Loisters, we absolutely loved it there. Not too far from Bordeaux either.

how do people find camping in the heat?

Very, very tough in the mornings. You chose the pitch that will give you the most shade in the mornings and position the tent to get the most shade when the sun comes up. You will never have a lie-in. Even if you had aircon in the tent you wouldn't anyway because in a tent, there is zero sound proofing and once people start moving about outside, you're awake and up. It's particularly tough if you're in an active campsite with late night entertainment and a culture of staying up late. But after the first 2 days, your body will collapse and you'll end up going to sleep in time regardless to get a sufficient night's sleep before the morning sun turns the tent into an oven. Camping is even tougher if you're in a mozzie area and getting the kids to keep the zip closed in the tent during the ins and outs. Some people put up a shade tarp, think James Webb telescope, but it's hard to get right and is only staving off the inevitable. And if the temps hit the high thirties, there's no refuge during the day, no place to retreat to, just the green cooker. I look forward to it every year.

I know families who stayed in tents within the same campsite as other families had mobiles, and it becomes divisive. Tents become a very hard sell when up against a mobile and that's probably why both providers have moved away from mixing tents and mobiles on the same site, as the taste of grass lingers long after the holiday and affects the customer-satisfaction metric.