Ferry - north sea or channel?

merlin68

We drove to italy 2 years ago dover calais 60 quid return in august. Bear in mind it cost £300 euros in fuel and tolls. Also took 22 hrs to get to perugia .so we stopped in Zurich overnight 200 euros for hotel for 4 and breakfast. So there and back and 2 hotels is going to be 1000 euros alone.
The cottage ferry and insurance was 500 for a week in august with cottages for you.
What takes time is driving over the alps as they only let so many cars through the tunnels at a time we waited over an hour at one to go through.
you need a strong car to get over.

Moto2

forestwn6 wrote: »

Tesco Clubcard Deals are no longer used on P&O North Sea Ferries.

That's why I wrote 'Tesco Vouchers/Avios'

However DFDS still use clubcard vouchers @ 3:1
The Newcastle Amsterdam sailing is OK and only another 50 miles or so over Hull and Amsterdam may even be a tad closer than Rotterdam or Zeebrugge to your destination.

mgdavid

zagfles wrote: »

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.

Obv not past Calais on the coastal autoroute, past Calais in the sense of 'South of'.
According to Autoroute Calais is 80 km nearer Turin than Rotterdam.

Moto2

He the OP was taking the Hull ferry he'd obviously choose Zeebrugge rather than Rotterdam.
In which case there isn't much in it down to Northern Italy Vs Calais

zagfles

mgdavid wrote: »

Obv not past Calais on the coastal autoroute, past Calais in the sense of 'South of'.
According to Autoroute Calais is 80 km nearer Turin than Rotterdam.

Yeah, if he happens to be going to the far north west corner of Italy, Calais will be slightly closer. But he's saved 300km in the UK so it's still much less driving.

Anywhere else in Italy, Rotterdam or Zeebrugge will be closer than Calais. Even the quickest route to Milan is 80-100km less from Rotterdam/Zeebrugge than from Calais.

zagfles

Moto2 wrote: »

He the OP was taking the Hull ferry he'd obviously choose Zeebrugge rather than Rotterdam.

There's not a lot in it. 18km difference to Milan.

Moto2

There's certainly a bit more in time, getting out of Europort in the rush hour is far more time consuming than Zebrugge is.

zagfles

Moto2 wrote: »

There's certainly a bit more in time, getting out of Europort in the rush hour is far more time consuming than Zebrugge is.

I was about to say I don't ever remember having a problem, but thinking about it, I think we've only ever done the outward trip at a weekend. Don't know what it'd be like in the week.

Moto2

zagfles wrote: »

I was about to say I don't ever remember having a problem, but thinking about it, I think we've only ever done the outward trip at a weekend. Don't know what it'd be like in the week.

Yeah, heading away from Rotterdam can be a pain in the morning
Heading South you have to skirt Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent
It's not too bad once you get going but certainly costs a bit of time.
I used to have to travel to Antwerp quite a bit from Hull and Zeebrugge was by far the easiest journey.
Things could have changed though as I've not done it for a few years.

peachyprice

merlin68 wrote: »

What takes time is driving over the alps as they only let so many cars through the tunnels at a time we waited over an hour at one to go through.
you need a strong car to get over.

I don't know what route you took, but there are other routes that use motorways/dual carriageways through the Alps with no restrictions getting through the tunnels in summer.