ferries

[paul.a]

For the last 3 years we have used speedferries but obviously not this year so we are thinking about trying portsmouth to le havre on the overnight ferry has anybody used this and is it any good also how long does the drive to le mans take from le havre any advise welcome thanks chaps

[Martin B 7]

You could try Newhaven Dieppe as an alternative, overnight ferry out, evening back
£140 return including cabin on the way out. I'm trying this for the first time this year.

Martin

[Vette_1978]

Used it in 2006 for the rugby world cup. It's a good route and if it wasn't so expensive I'd use it for Le Mans. Think I looked this year and it worked out about £350 for the car, 2 people and a cabin.

Make sure you stock by Mont St Michael (I think) and have a coffee. The shops are amazing inside the abbey. I almost bought a musket and my mate was going to get a sword. Most bizarre!

[johnhere]

Are you sure you went from Portsmouth to Le Havre and not Portsmouth to St Malo as its a hell of a detour to Mont St Michael from Le Havre.

[grumbas]

We did it last year as with 3 kit cars we wanted to reduce the drive a bit! Think we ended up paying something like £70 per car, but didn't bother with a cabin - the trick is to get into the lounge area early armed with a sleeping bag and a roll mat, although we weren't that organised and ended up in the bar.

From memory the drive took just over 2 hours but taking a slightly scenic route, and the Normandy bridge is very impressive. Watch out in Le Harve though, the roads seem to have been completely re-arranged recently and our (new) sat navs got very confused.

[Vette_1978]

johnhere said:

Are you sure you went from Portsmouth to Le Havre and not Portsmouth to St Malo as its a hell of a detour to Mont St Michael from Le Havre.

Ooops! Yep, that's the route. The midnight crossing got in about 6am and we were at the abbey just as the morning mist was rising.

[anonymous-user]

Use the Portsmouth-Le Havre ferry every year for our Summer hols, a car and four passengers with 2 four berth cabins on the way out and comfy chairs on the way back was just under 400 squid last year. Leaves Portsmouth at 11ish pm and you get kicked off the other end at 7:30 am on to lovely quiet roads. Makes a very pleasant start to the journey for us.

[jamiebae]

Portsmouth to LH boat is brilliant, I use it all the time outside of the summer for heading over to France. Unfortunately in summer it becomes stupidly expensive

[RVVUNM]

We always get the 23.45 on Tues night (with cabin)which gets us in to Cherbourg or Caen at 6 ish, then arrive at the track by 11am after a B road drive and super market stop. One year we went via Dover-Calais (from Bristol) and doubled our mileage to 1000 miles, when I did the ferry price v MPH there wasn't much in it.

[paul.a]

Thanks for the info guys. my group are from the north west so we always travel to dover stop in a travel lodge and then get the speed ferries from dover to boulogne. so with no speed ferries this year thought we could weigh up all the different options thanks

[baron bashoneov]

paul.a said:

For the last 3 years we have used speedferries but obviously not this year so we are thinking about trying portsmouth to le havre on the overnight ferry has anybody used this and is it any good also how long does the drive to le mans take from le havre any advise welcome thanks chaps

Paula.

we booked www.ldlines.co.uk today dover / boulogne return £40 great value

[Pacey]

RVVUNM said:

We always get the 23.45 on Tues night (with cabin)which gets us in to Cherbourg or Caen at 6 ish, then arrive at the track by 11am after a B road drive and super market stop. One year we went via Dover-Calais (from Bristol) and doubled our mileage to 1000 miles, when I did the ferry price v MPH there wasn't much in it.

We're in the same situation, we're travelling up from Cornwall to Dover, admittedly to meet 2 others in our group. When planning everything last year the old dover route came out the cheapest even with tolls and fuel included. The only thing which we'd lose out on is time spent on the road its a extra 2/3 hours. Although we plan to reach Le Mans around 13:00 on the wednesday.

[AndyWoodall]

We've decided (more or less, haven't booked it yet) to use the Portsmouth-St Malo crossing with Brittany Ferries. Seems decent enough, short (couple of hours) run down to Le Mans.

[Buck Bundy]

I've used LD Lines Portsmouth - Le Havre once, and Brittany Ferries Portsmouth - Caen 3 times, and can definately say that the Brittany Ferries boat is worth paying a bit extra for. Not sure how much the difference would be, but it is a much better service.

This year I shall be going out Holyhead - Dun Laoghaire and Rosslare - Roscoff, and returning Cherbourg - Poole. Might be fun!

Buck

[jobbit]

I'm on the LD Lines Dover-Dieppe boat. Seems like a nice balance between ferry costs and fuel costs.

[perdu]

I went Newhaven-Le Havre last year cost £86 return for the Midget

Not sure how or if I'm going this year though, but without Speed One I s'spect I'd do it again.

Speedferries was cheap but the extra miles from Brum were too teejuss, both sides of the Manche

Le Havre is the easiest way I've tried yet and it is possible to avoid the terrible "Road To Ruin (Rouen if you have never been)" via Lisieux after crossing the super Pont De Normandie

I'm not keen on Boulogne or Calais meself

[Buck Bundy]

Yep, it's a nice run down through Lisieux(sp?) though you can bypass it if need be.