The cost of ferry crossings. How do we save.... (2 Viewers)

Charlie

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Hope this will benefit us all.

OK as a newbie to the MH caper I'm a little surprised at the expense of some crossings over the water to Europe.
We just did Plymouth to Roscoff and it cost us £410 return

I know there is a membership where we can pay and get a discount of 20 percent but that restricts us I believe to France only. We are heading to Spain after Christmas and would prefer not to have to drive all the way down through France to get there and take the ferry to Bilbao or Santander.

I understand some buy very early IE book now for next years tickets. Tips on how and where to do this would be massively appreciated !

I also keep hearing about Tesco vouchers ? Again any info appreciated as we don't shop at Tesco ..

Basically I'm looking for any information on how to get the crossings at best prices.

I bet there are a few newbies like me who will also gain from this thread.

As always a Thanks !!!
 
Jun 22, 2012
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Hi Charlie

The only way is to book using a discount code if you can fine one, but they not easy to fined, the other way is to plan and book well in advance or use a more popular route like Calais or Dunkirk, Brittany ferries are always expensive.
If however you do not like driving then it my be worth it to you, but if you want a cheap ferry I’m afraid it’s Dover to Calais or Dunkirk.

Regards
Ray
 
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Jun 22, 2012
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Matamoros kindly let us use his code for spain but from november to march the discount was5%, he did check with them and that is what he was told. I dont know if this is new.
Tesco clubcard points can be converted to avios and then used towards brittany ferries. £2.50 of clubcard vouchers gets 600 avios but you need 10,000 avios for every £50 discount. I havent done it but someone on here has, not sure how smooth the booking process is.
 
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motorhomer

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Camping Club and Caravan Club both do discounts for booking through them. (I've just booked dover calais through caravan club for about eight pounds less than direct.)

But after a couple of extremely rough crossings to and from N spain in winter we decided never to do this crossing again. It doesn't take much longer by road from N france, saves a lot of money and you don't feel ill!
 

scousebird

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You can use Tesco vouchers on Eurotunnel. £10.00 worth of Tesco vouchers = £30.00 to spend on Eurtounnel. You have to apply to Tesco for the voucher code then book your crossing by phone mentioning Tesco. You have to book the crossing at least 14 days in advance of travelling and you can only use them to book a crossing from Folkestone either one way or return.

we've been using them for years and I currently have about £110.00 of Tesco vouchers, so £330 to use on the tunnel. You can pay for the whole cost or part of the cost of you ticket.

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Oct 15, 2012
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You can use Tesco vouchers on Eurotunnel. £10.00 worth of Tesco vouchers = £30.00 to spend on Eurtounnel. You have to apply to Tesco for the voucher code then book your crossing by phone mentioning Tesco. You have to book the crossing at least 14 days in advance of travelling and you can only use them to book a crossing from Folkestone either one way or return.

we've been using them for years and I currently have about £110.00 of Tesco vouchers, so £330 to use on the tunnel. You can pay for the whole cost or part of the cost of you ticket.
That what we do as well it works very well and we too have enough for at least two crossings.
 

FJmike

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We very rarely shop in Tesco but I buy all my fuel for motorhome, work van and Smarty using my tesco credit card and it usually works out to at least two free tunnel crossings a year
 
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Up until last year, the ferry company's gave out discount codes and DFDS even gave 50% off to Caravan Club members. Return crossings for under £100 and at peak periods.Sadly, this is all now in the past and they have effectively stopped giving discounts particularly at peak periods. There are some web sites that offer discount codes and these are easy to find (Google em) but there are the usual caveats with them, car and 4 people for a weekend etc., Although you can pick up the odd 10% discounts here and there. Many members have looked at this in depth and done the research. Cheapest way down is from Calais/Dunkerque using a combination of toll and non toll routes, this can be very cost effective, saving hundreds of pounds each way and if you are interested in doing this have a look at this website.
http://about-france.com/travel.htm
Brittany Ferries do a cheap run (?) to Santander/Bilbao and some have said it's OK and others have said never again. Down to personal choice.
If you're in the Caravan Club they claim to beat everybody's prices when booked through them.
Best of luck and Safe Travels.

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Chris

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We very rarely shop in Tesco but I buy all my fuel for motorhome, work van and Smarty using my tesco credit card and it usually works out to at least two free tunnel crossings a year

That's what we do(y)
 

Theonlysue

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Not long enough!
If you catch 10.30 pm Sunday evening ferry from Portsmouth, gets to bilbao 7.30 Tuesday morning, so you have 2 nights in cabin, and can drive to south Spain refreshed.
Like Poole to cherbourg route as well.
 
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If you catch 10.30 pm Sunday evening ferry from Portsmouth, gets to bilbao 7.30 Tuesday morning, so you have 2 nights in cabin, and can drive to south Spain refreshed.
Like Poole to cherbourg route as well.
TWO nights on a ferry , don't think so:sick::sick::)

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Charlie

Charlie

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Can anyone please explain the Frequent Traveller scheme . Is it only Dover to Calais ? I'm more than happy to pay up front for multiple trips if the price gets reduced..
 

scousebird

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Can anyone please explain the Frequent Traveller scheme . Is it only Dover to Calais ? I'm more than happy to pay up front for multiple trips if the price gets reduced..
The Frequent Traveller scheme is for the tunnel. I think the ferries do similar - or they used to. you'd have to check with the individual company.
 

Violet1

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Try using the relevant ferry site from the other side, ie stena ferries NL not UK as they quite often do deals and just book the outward from the UK as normal

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Charlie

Charlie

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Send me a PM and I can give you code for 10% discount on Brittany Ferries to Spain

Many thanks !! I was kindly lent a code for our outward journey and tried the Camping and Caravan club for the return trip. I asked them for no other reason than we subscribe and wanted to see how they compared. They quoted exactly the same as we paid going out and after the lent discount code was applied.

I believe joining the Brittany ferries scheme will give us a 20 percent discount ? If I had known before we did our last trip I would have joined as it would have been better that way.

But the BF scheme only covers destinations in France ?? So no use for getting to Bilbao or Santander... Shame that as they are expensive crossings so the savings would be quite worthwhile..
 

magicsurfbus

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You can drive to N Spain from Calais in around 3 days. I'd rather be on a toll road than stuck on a boat.

Typically we'll take an early morning weekday P&O ferry Dover-Calais for around £100 return.
Drive to Futuroscope and stop overnight for 5 Euros, re-filling the van cheaply at the nearby Auchan supermarket.
Next day drive to Anglet aire, around 10 Euros a night, spend the evening relaxing on the beach, re-fill van at supermarket next morning.
Day 3 cross into Spain and go along the coast to Bilbao/Santander.

Road miles are always cheaper than ferry miles, especially with Diesel around 1 Euro a litre.
 

vwalan

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Many thanks !! I was kindly lent a code for our outward journey and tried the Camping and Caravan club for the return trip. I asked them for no other reason than we subscribe and wanted to see how they compared. They quoted exactly the same as we paid going out and after the lent discount code was applied.

I believe joining the Brittany ferries scheme will give us a 20 percent discount ? If I had known before we did our last trip I would have joined as it would have been better that way.

But the BF scheme only covers destinations in France ?? So no use for getting to Bilbao or Santander... Shame that as they are expensive crossings so the savings would be quite worthwhile..
you can get a spanish bf club voyage .gives good discount for spain . not as much if used for france .

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Abacist

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BF have two discount schemes. One for 30% to Spain which entitles you to a lower discount to France and another for 30% to France with a lower discount to Spain. Both have a joining fee and annual membership fee and it doesn't apply to cabins etc only the crossing if I have read things right. Its all on their website. If you want 30% off both then you need to join both!
 
Mar 23, 2012
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Someone on here was buying blocks of 5 tunnel returns and splitting them with another person so it worked out cheaper
 
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Charlie

Charlie

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BF have two discount schemes. One for 30% to Spain which entitles you to a lower discount to France and another for 30% to France with a lower discount to Spain. Both have a joining fee and annual membership fee and it doesn't apply to cabins etc only the crossing if I have read things right. Its all on their website. If you want 30% off both then you need to join both!

Mate do you have a link to the information ?

Thinking about this we will join that scheme in fact if we had before our last trip we would have saved a bundle. Our last trip cost us £412.

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mikebeaches

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Someone on here was buying blocks of 5 tunnel returns and splitting them with another person so it worked out cheaper
Yes, we do it with our neighbour and the fixed price return for the van works out at £108, all year.
 

Ja63

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Just a thought....

Could we/should we have a thread where people who have spare frequent traveller tickets for eurotunnel can offer them 'for sale'.....or would eurotunnel or the administrators of this forum object.

I have no idea what the restrictions are on them, i.e. Do they have a vehicle reg number on or anything that restricts them to the original purchaser?

Does anyone know whether you could add two dogs to the tickets?

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Charlie

Charlie

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An additional question if I may...
We are going to buy a Scooter and a trailer to put it on.. Roughly how much extra does a fairly small trailer with a scooter add to the cost of fares ?

Thanks
 
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quick reminder tescos voucher cant be used to pay for a dog on the chunnel currently £17 each way

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presto

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Think yourselves lucky going to Spain from N Ireland we need to get to the mainland first.Return from Belfast to Scotland is around £300 return plus.Our only other alternitive is to drive to Rosslare and overnight to Cherbourg.Still a long drive to Spain.
 
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An additional question if I may...
We are going to buy a Scooter and a trailer to put it on.. Roughly how much extra does a fairly small trailer with a scooter add to the cost of fares ?

Thanks

The easiest way to find out is to input the dimensions into the booking site and compare prices.

Another way of reducing costs if you have a friend or relative that will also use BF crossings is to make them an associate member and share the membership costs.

I have the French membership and my daughter is an associate on my membership for an extra annual cost of £30 and gets all the discounts and benefits available to full members.
 

Emmit

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Tip.
If you dont have a code for Brittany ferries and you book online with them, then use the Brittany ferries FRENCH site at www. Brittany -ferries.fr
You don't save much but its cheaper to book on that site than the uk site.
The above assumes the current euro rate remains favourable AND you have a credit card that does not penalise you for using it to buy a Euros product ie HX clarity.

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