Great "Cheap Ferry Tickets": Comparison and booking tips.

Hi everyone! This original post was last updated by us in 2009. The links are still up to date but the posts are in chronological order so some info from people who've replied may be out of date now. Go to the last page of the discussion for the most recent replies.


What's it about?

When you want to book a ferry, it should be easy to find the cheapest. Yet there are a variety of deals and none quite live up to it. Of course there's always comparison sites, yet these don't quite have the same accuracy and finesse of the cheap flights searches.

So we'd like to tap MoneySaver's knowledge of the top ferry booking tips and sites. .

The Comparison sites

These comparison provide a useful starting point if you're travelling via a route covered by more than one operator. Yet sometimes cheaper deals are available by going direct to operators so always check.

• Ferrysavers/Aferry.
  
  Aferry is the underlying comparison search for Ferrysavers and many other price comparisons.
  
  These give you the prices for all ferries between selected ports for the nearest times to the ones you specified in price order, lowest first. If you want to search for other sailings by a particular operator you can do so by clicking “more” in the price results column on the results page. Links: Ferrysavers / AFerry
  
  However, if once you've booked you need to change your details Ferrysavers charges a "minimum fee" of £25 per booking as well as any other charges made by the ferry operator.

Some other sites also use Aferry's same underlying system to provide comparisons meaning results can be similar but could be worth trying if you have spare time:

• Ferrybooker. Here the amendment fee is £30 per booking. Link: Ferrybooker
  
  
• Eurodrive. It also charges a £30 amendment fee per booking. Link: Eurodrive

Book by Route Sites

Some sites look on first glance like comparison sites but instead simply provide a one-stop shop listing of individual routes and operators on those routes. This means you need to check each operator separately rather than search eg for Dover to Calais you may need to check prices once for P&O and once again for Seafrance.


Some claim to give the cheapest price through special deals so they could be worth checking once you've done a comparison but always check the ferry operator's site to ensure the price does beat booking directly.

• Online Ferries. Includes Isle of Man and Isle of Wight services but strictly speaking it's not a comparison site as you must check prices for each individual operator's route individually. Link: Online Ferries
  
  
• Direct Ferries. Lets you know the operators for your planned journey but you need to check each individual operator separately. Link: Direct Ferries
  
  
• Cheap4Ferries. Links to individual operators for each route. Has a "Best Price Promise". Link: Cheap4Ferries
  
  
• Ferrysmart. Ferrysmart uses Aferry's system to search routes, again individually by operator. Link: Ferrysmart
  
  
• Ferrycheap. Again, Ferrycheap allows you to check operators separately but not together for one route. Link: Ferrycheap

Please give your feedback

We'd like to gather feedback on these sites and others. If you use them, or have used others you think MoneySavers should be aware of then please let us know how well or not they worked by clicking reply below.

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