Question: Crossing the channel

I have lived near Dover all my life and have worked on the Ferries. I travel to Europe for my holidays and often go to Calais on day trip shopping outings. I love the Tunnel for its 35 min crossing time but understand if you have traveled a long distance to the port then the Ferry is a better option to give you a rest before starting the French part of you journey. Unfortunately any time advantage, coming home, has now been negated by British Boarder Control checking and swiping every passport. This can be worse if the French join in. The standing in line for passport control are horrendous in peak season. You need to allow an hour and a half before departure time at the ferry port and tunnel.

In recent years I have let price dictate who I travel with. P&O for many years have always been the cheapest book through the Caravan Club and the caravan goes free. ( know this does not apply to motor caravans) normally about £170. This year I booked two crossings May and July. P&O £290 Tunnel £269, DFDL £103. These prices include £35 for the dog. It was a no brainier really. I would pay a small premium for P&O but not £87! DFDL are French crewed vessels and are very tried and smaller than P&O. Good news is best English breakfast on the Chanel far better than P&O. I guess you pays your money and takes your choice. At the moment it's DFDL. Could soon be My Ferry. Hopefully P&O will wake up a smell the coffee .

Debbie,

Just remember to check the chunnel rules for on board LPG tanks if you have any, as they won't take vehicles powered or part powered by LPG, and only allow a certain amount of bottled gas.

Full rules, including caravan/motorhome bottled gas allowances, are here:-

http://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/site-information/lpg/

Regards,

Stuart

Hi Two D's

We've been taking our motorhome to France for many years now and, although we haven't tried the tunnel, we see no reason to, as we really enjoy using the ferries - it gives us a great feeling that the holiday has already started. Of course, it does depend on where you live, but for us, the choice lies between the Portsmouth - Caen crossing (Brittany Ferries) and the Dover - Calais (P & O). The former is much more expensive, as it's about a 6 hour crossing, but does have the advantage that you are reasonably far south once disembarking, so saving you some fuel costs. Plymouth - Roscoff is also an option and is fine if you want to explore Brittany but, if you want to go further south, then you have a greater distance to drive. We prefer the Dover to Calais, largely because it's cheaper (and cheaper than the tunnel), but also because it's more fun! By the way, if you book through the Caravan Club, you can get a small discount on the fare.

We find that by arriving at the ferry terminal early, P & O always offer to put us on the earlier crossing, and the embarkation procedure with the motorhome couldn't be easier. You are told what to do, simply drive on, and the crew show you where to park, usually in between a mixture of lorries, cars and caravans. You then secure the vehicle and go up few decks to the lounges for a coffee etc. Don't worry about security, as no passengers are allowed on the car decks during the crossing. Disembarkation means carefully following the vehicles in front, and remembering to drive on the right. Once in France, you will find that it's a very motorhome-friendly country, with excellent camp sites and aires for short night stops. We are also members of 'France Passion', which we cannot recommend highly enough. For a small membership fee, you can stop for free at any of hundreds of vineyards, farms, cider orchards etc., and where we have always found the most welcoming and friendliest of owners, despite our appalling French. I could go on and on, but I would say don't hesitate to take your motorhome, you will love it. We are already planning our next tour which will be for a couple of months next Spring.

Cheers

Roger

We have done both ferry and tunnel and now would use the Tunnel whenever possible. Its more expensive (although we use Tesco Clubcard scheme so "pay" very little) but for us its great as its so easy and we dont even have to leave the motorhome, and all the Customs (such as it is) is done on the departure so when we get to France we drive straight off the train and onto the Motorway.
We used to use P+O or Seafrance ferries but found to get the cheaper deals we were sailing at silly o clock and the facilities on the ferry were restricted and leaving the Motorhome, finding the lifts and then once in France waiting for the lift and finding the Motorhome and then putting up with those that think it fun to start sounding their horn if they have to wait too long for the doors to open, and then queuing for Customs again. We too used to say its part of the Holiday, but now so is the Tunnel.