A ferry good time to book a Channel crossing
LAST summer, large numbers of holidaymakers passing through Dover or Folkestone and Calais had their travel arrangements disrupted. There were severe hold-ups in Kent due to lorry jams on the M20, and delays and cancellations on many cross-Channel services.
One cause for the disruptions was industrial action in Calais taken by disgruntled workers from MyFerryLink, which withdrew from its Dover-Calais operation in July. The other was what the authorities called ‘migrant activity’ around the Eurotunnel railhead in Calais.
I can’t predict what the situation will be next year, but things are looking better. The industrial action appears to be over, and while the situation with migrants is very much an ongoing issue, Eurotunnel claims extra security has meant far less disruption to its services.
So taking the car over to the Continent should be on your agenda in 2016, not least because it can be so cheap.
If you’re thinking of travelling in peak holiday periods, book soon: as with flights, fares on ferries and Eurotunnel tend to rise closer to departure time. On most routes, you can book crossings through to autumn or late 2016.
Here are the main options, on short and longer crossings:
Short Channel crossings
DFDS Seaways (dfds.co.uk) offers Dover-Calais (90 minutes) and Dover-Dunkirk (two hours) crossings. From January 2016, on the Dover-Calais route it will be operating an extra ten crossings a day (30 in total) using three ferries – two of them the former MyFerryLink ships. On both routes, fares are advertised from £78 standard return, but you can find fares as cheap as £70 return for Dover-Dunkirk crossings at antisocial times.
With P&O Ferries (poferries.com), Dover-Calais crossings cost from £78 standard return. Eurotunnel’s (eurotunnel.com) Folkestone-Calais shuttle train service is more expensive – standard returns are £106 at some off-peak times – but the crossing time is much shorter, at 35 minutes. All these fares are for a car and up to nine passengers.
Western France and Spain
OTHER than Newhaven-Dieppe with DFDS, all frequent, direct services from the UK to Normandy and Brittany in 2016 are with Brittany Ferries (brittany-ferries.co.uk). Its options are: Portsmouth to Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg and St Malo; Poole to Cherbourg; and Plymouth to Roscoff.
Brittany Ferries is the only operator to offer long crossings from the UK to northern Spain – Portsmouth and Plymouth to Santander, and Portsmouth to Bilbao.
By booking high-season crossings well in advance you’ll secure better cabins and save hundreds of pounds in lower fares.
If your plans change, note that Brittany Ferries is one of the few ferry operators to let you amend standard bookings without a fee – provided you do so online at least five days before travel.
Also note that on cottage-inclusive bookings made by December 15, Brittany Ferries offers up to 25 per cent off breaks made in 2016, including in school holiday periods.
Brittany Ferries will run its fastcraft catamaran on the Portsmouth-- Cherbourg route in 2016. I used it in the summer and though the journey was pleasant and smooth enough, it was nowhere near as enjoyable as those I’ve made on the company’s ‘cruise ferries’, which have much more space and offer good meals.
Belgium and Holland
PERHAPS due to healthy competition on the North Sea, fares can be very good value compared with those for western France and Spain crossings. For example, travelling with Stena Line (stenaline.co.uk) on its Harwich-Hook of Holland route, you’ll currently pay as little as £126 return for a car and two people on many crossings in 2016.
Options from the north of England are: P&O Ferries: Hull-Rotterdam and Hull-Zeebrugge; and DFDS: Newcastle-Amsterdam. All services are overnight, with cabins included in the fares.