Ferry - north sea or channel?

dave76

any thoughts on this quandry? Thinking of driving from Manchester to Italy next summer (car + 4 passengers) and there is a big difference in price between the two crossing locations.

Ferry at Calais seems to be about £170 and Eurotunnel about £120 which seems pretty good. But its a long drive down there to start with (plus extra fuel) and there is potential for problems such as french strikes, tunnel closure, port closure etc.

North sea crossing Hull to either Rotterdam or Zeebrugge is around £600. However, less than 2 hours drive, somewhere to sleep overnight hopefully fresh for the following morning. I'd expect maybe less chance of service disruption with the French not involved?

mgdavid

have you looked at a map and considered the extra time and distance to drive from Rotterdam / Zeebrugge down past Calais?
Haver you compared how long the crossings take too?

martindow

You're worried about the distance from Manchester to Dover when you're driving to Italy! I would have thought short crossing are better and more direct unless you like long sea crossings.

The big advantage of the short crossing is that there are lots of ferries or trains and you will often be put on an earlier crossing if you get there too soon. North Sea routes have far less frequent services and long waits if you miss one.

It is over 2000km and 24 hours of driving so you are likely to need two overnight stops. I would fly and hire a car at the other end.

dave76

ha, I know the distance to dover is relatively short in the whole journey, but its still M1, M25 which can get messy I did this journey on my own 15 years ago on my way to Spain and it was fine so it doesn't really worry me.

I did a coach trip to belgium a couple of years ago via the Hull-Zeebrugge route which I rather enjoyed too. I would prefer this actually as its a bit more interesting for the kids IMO, but can I justify an extra 400 quid for the overnight crossing??

When I measured nominal routes from the various landing points to northern italy (Garda or Milan type area) it was between 720 and 780 miles and around 12 hours worth of driving (although I think that was very optimistic as that's an average 65mph!). Obviously flying and hiring is the easy option - but we quite fancy the adventure of taking a few days to get there and stopping in various countries along the way, driving through the Alps etc.

maman

I think with children I might go for the North Sea ferry. We've often used Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth (we live 20 minutes away) and it is a much more civilised start to a holiday than masses of driving and queuing at Dover/tunnel.


Don't mean to hijack your thread but we're thinking of a short break before Christmas. Generally we go to Arras and Epernay and pick up champagne and visit Christmas market. I was thinking of maybe going towards Belgium for a change. I'm not sure how disrupted the tunnel/Dover ferry is at the moment. Anyone with a view?


If it's bad I'll either stick this end of France (St Malo/Brittany) depending on ferry prices from Portsmouth or stay in this country.

k3lvc

I have your quandry on occasions when I'm driving down to Geneva area from Yorkshire. When we lived in London it was simple - late sat pm Dover-Calais, cheapie hotel in Calais and then a days drive on Sunday to arrive by 6pm. Now from the North I do Hull-Zeebrugge on Sat pm then drive on Sunday. Usually double the cost of Dover-Calais + hotel but arrive less tired and ready to work on Mon am.

Additionally if you like the social bit then the North Sea Ferries can be fun

zagfles

mgdavid wrote: »

have you looked at a map and considered the extra time and distance to drive from Rotterdam / Zeebrugge down past Calais?
Haver you compared how long the crossings take too?

Why would he drive past Calais?? According to Google maps Rotterdam is 80km closer to Rome than Calais is! Same would apply to most places in Italy.

Calais is bit further south but Rotterdam is a lot further east and he needs to head south east.

zagfles

dave76 wrote: »

any thoughts on this quandry? Thinking of driving from Manchester to Italy next summer (car + 4 passengers) and there is a big difference in price between the two crossing locations.

Ferry at Calais seems to be about £170 and Eurotunnel about £120 which seems pretty good. But its a long drive down there to start with (plus extra fuel) and there is potential for problems such as french strikes, tunnel closure, port closure etc.

North sea crossing Hull to either Rotterdam or Zeebrugge is around £600. However, less than 2 hours drive, somewhere to sleep overnight hopefully fresh for the following morning. I'd expect maybe less chance of service disruption with the French not involved?

It could be worth it if it saves you a night's accomodation on the way as well as petrol, and probably the French tolls. The P&O ferry to Rotterdam is brilliant, we've done it a few times for trips to Germany/Austria etc, it is probably a bit more expensive even with savings in petrol and accomodation, but it's a far more relaxing way to start a holiday, and for a long drive to somewhere like Italy anything that saves a few hundred miles driving is worth paying a little extra for I think.

pendragon_arther

We did the North Sea route yonks ago at night and it was so choppy almost everyone on board was crammed in the toilets honking up.

Moto2

I've done the Hull - Zeebrugge quite a lot, the ships are a bit old and in need of a refit but you save a good bit of time travelling from the North.

If it's rough, it'll just rock you to sleep

You should be able to offset the cost a bit with Tesco Vouchers/Avios but I'm not sure of the deal with P&O

forestwn6

Tesco Clubcard Deals are no longer used on P&O North Sea Ferries. We used them a couple of times some years ago and it made a big difference in the price. Having said that it is a civilised way to start the holiday instead of the M1/M25 mayhem. If economics determine the use of Dover/Calais try to use the M25 early on Saturday or Sunday morning. We take a caravan to the tunnel and do just that.