Driving Manchester to Paris.

GolfBravo

Burnleyfc wrote: »

Hi,
I will be driving from Manchester to Paris in a standard 1.6 05 Astra using the ferry from Dover.
How much will it cost in fuel do you think?
Have you any tips for driving in France as well?
Cheers

Got the ferry tickets yet?

We usually use DFDS (and not P&O) as they are much cheaper. Last time we used their Flexi rate, which is great as it offers you the flexibility to travel up to 72 hours either side of your crossing time - so what you do is find the cheapest flexi fare 72 hours either side of your preferred sailing time.

In August there were £89 fares on weekends, but we bought a £38 flexi ticket for 2:30am Monday departure instead. No problems at the checkin - although their website indicates many sold-out fares, the ferry was half empty.

Trebor16

Alias_Omega wrote: »

The speed limit on the way down from Calais is 85mph. This will eat your fuel, as it did in our Mondeo ST.

Just be prepared for an extra cost.

130kmh = 81mph which is the speed limit on autoroutes. It goes down to 110kmh/68mph if it is wet.

You will only incur the extra cost if you drive at the speed limit of course:)

OddballJamie

WTFH wrote: »

€1.489 is roughly £1.269 at trade rates
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=148.9&From=EUR&To=GBP

But yes, the price in France for petrol is very similar to the UK (contrary to what some people will tell you about the UK being the most expensive in Europe).
Belgium is more expensive by about 15 cents a litre.

Diesel, on the other hand, is not taxed as highly in the rest of Europe as it is in the UK, which helps lorry drivers, etc. So my fill up in Dunkirk would be £1.116 if I got bank rates on the exchange.

I tend to go by Travelex rather than xe.com as that's aimed at currency traders and doesn't deal in cash. Whereas Travelex does.

zagfles

OddballJamie wrote: »

I tend to go by Travelex rather than xe.com as that's aimed at currency traders and doesn't deal in cash. Whereas Travelex does.

The VISA/Mastercard rates are pretty close to the interbank rates, and that's the rate you get when withdrawing cash using a fee-free card.

WTFH

OddballJamie wrote: »

I tend to go by Travelex rather than xe.com as that's aimed at currency traders and doesn't deal in cash. Whereas Travelex does.

Can you post a link to the right page on Travelex (I'm not doubting you, I just found their website provided strange rates - 0.95 in one direct, 0.69 in the other, and it didn't have a UK setting)

OddballJamie

WTFH wrote: »

Can you post a link to the right page on Travelex (I'm not doubting you, I just found their website provided strange rates - 0.95 in one direct, 0.69 in the other, and it didn't have a UK setting)

http://www.travelex.co.uk/uk/

WTFH

OddballJamie wrote: »

http://www.travelex.co.uk/uk/

Ah - that's a lot easier than travelex.com!

D'oh!

OddballJamie

WTFH wrote: »

Ah - that's a lot easier than travelex.com!

D'oh!

My fault, I referred to the .com yesterday rather than the .co.uk.