Which Ferry Route would you take?

[OneDs]

Going on holiday near St Malo. I live near Poole. I have a wife who doesn't travel well on the ferries unless it’s a reasonably calm day as well as a 2 and a 3 year old to put into the mix. Here are the options and details.

Sea Routes - Operator
Portsmouth - St Malo (Cruise) Brittany
Portsmouth - Caen (High Speed) Brittany
Poole - Cherbourg (High Speed) Brittany
Portsmouth - Le Harve (High Speed) LD Lines

Are high speed crossing noted for sea sickness over slower ferries?

Distance to Ferry/holiday – Car Time
Portsmouth - St Malo = 50/16 miles = (1hr/20min)
Portsmouth - Caen = 50/100 miles = (1hr/1.40hr)
Poole - Cherbourg = 10/130 miles (20min/2.10hr)
Portsmouth - Le Harve = 50/160 miles = (1hr/2.40hr)

Timings
Out
Portsmouth - St Malo (Cruise) Dep 20.30 – Arr 08.15
Portsmouth - Caen (High Speed) Dep 07.00 – Arr 11.15
Poole - Cherbourg (High Speed) Dep 07.15 – Arr 10.30
Portsmouth - Le Harve (High Speed)Dep 08.30 – Arr 12.45

Rtn
St Malo - Portsmouth (Cruise) Dep 10.30 – Arr 18.15
Caen - Portsmouth (High Speed) Dep 10.30 – Arr 14.15
Cherbourg - Poole (High Speed) Dep 11.15 – Arr 13.45
Le Harve - Portsmouth (High Speed)Dep 18.30 – Arr 20.45

Costs
Portsmouth - St Malo - Portsmouth (Cruise)
Car + 2 Adults + 2 infants, 4 berth ensuite inside cabin = £440

Portsmouth - Caen – Portsmouth (High Speed)
Car + 2 Adults + 2 infants, 4 normal seats = £315

Poole - Cherbourg - Poole (High Speed)
Car + 2 Adults + 2 infants, 4 normal seats = £300

Portsmouth - Le Harve - Portsmouth (High Speed)
Car + 2 Adults + 2 infants, 4 normal seats = £222

Would you do cheap & fast with a long drive or long & slow with no real car journey but twice the price, or, one of the two middle options?

The Portsmouth - St Malo - Portsmouth is the highest cost £440 due to the overnight cruise out, leaves us with a 50 mile journey this side and 16 mile on the other side, arrival time on the outward journey would probably mean we arrive too early to check in/pick up keys.

The Portsmouth Le Harve route is the cheapest £222 and has reasonably out & rtn sailing times. It however has the worst car requirements with 50 mile (1 hr) journey our end and a 160 mile (2.40 hr) journey the other side. Never travelled on LD Lines as whenever I went on that route it was always P&O before.

Then we have the two middle options. Fast service to Cherbourg from Poole or to Caen from Portsmouth, +/- for both.

Poole to Cherbourg, is cheaper, closer to us and both have a pretty unsociable 7am depart both cost £300 ish. Arrival times seem quite sensible, Cherbourg is a 130 mile (2.10 hr) drive to the holiday location, Caen is 100 miles (1.40 hr). Distance to Poole is 10 miles so we save 40 miles our side if we go to Poole, but lose 30 miles going to the holiday from Cherbourg rather than Caen.

Add in the petrol costs and it looks more like.

Miles Per Gallon assume 25 with a fully loaded BMW 525
Petrol Price Per Litre £1.20 approx

Portsmouth - St Malo £466.18
Portsmouth - Caen £380.46
Poole - Cherbourg £361.10
Portsmouth - Le Harve £313.65

Anyway, any insight, advice or preference and reason why gratefully appreciated.

Edited by OneDs on Wednesday 9th June 14:02

[itsnotarace]

Option 5 -Drive to Folkestone, get on Eurotunnel, drive to St Malo

You don't specify dates but an outbound journey is between £58 and £77 and the return leg is between £55 and £77 weekdays. So assume you want to travel peak time on both journeys that will be £154 at the most.

Petrol, well you're looking at 493 miles each way. In my non-economical car that is about a tank and a half, so lets say 3 tanks at £50 per tank for the round trip

Therefore the entire return journey would be £304 (your car is about as economical as mine) and you don't have to worry about rough crossings. Plus, as this is PH, it would be criminal to ignore the roadtrip idea!

Edited by itsnotarace on Wednesday 9th June 14:15

[hornetrider]

Avoid the high speed ferries like the plague if you are concerned about travel sickness. We took one back from Le Mans last year (in April) and it was a bit choppy. The loos were swimming in puke (I kid you not) and the smell of it pervaded through the entire vessel as they are quite small and open.

I was okay with it but clearly other passengers were not - and the smell triggered further sickness. It was not a pleasant journey!

The slower ferries in contrast I find very stable and you shouldn't have a problem.

[Puggit]

I grew up living in France and catching the ferry over to the UK many times per year - and remembered some rough crossings. However, we've recently bought a house in France so we're often going the other way, and I can honestly say the only bad crossing we've had was on a high speed Cat.

We do Portsmouth - Le Havre or Caen overnight mostly. Our kids are the same age and just sleep!

[OneDs]

itsnotarace said:

Option 5 -Drive to Folkestone, get on Eurotunnel, drive to St Malo

You don't specify dates but an outbound journey is between £58 and £77 and the return leg is between £55 and £77 weekdays. So assume you want to travel peak time on both journeys that will be £154 at the most.

Petrol, well you're looking at 493 miles each way. In my non-economical car that is about a tank and a half, so lets say 3 tanks at £50 per tank for the round trip

Therefore the entire return journey would be £304 (your car is about as economical as mine) and you don't have to worry about rough crossings. Plus, as this is PH, it would be criminal to ignore the roadtrip idea!

Edited by itsnotarace on Wednesday 9th June 14:15

I would do this on my own but not with the OH & Kids.

One way 490 miles in a car would mean at best 8 hours in a car with a 2&3 year old. £213 in petrol + £150 for the standard weekend ticket for our dates = £363.

Unfortunately the roadtrip wouldn't amount to much with screaming kids on autoroutes for hour after hour.

[Bluebarge]

Avoid the high-speed ferries. I don't normally get sea-sick but these have a very unpleasant rolling motion even on a calm day.

Either do the Portsmouth - St.malo overnight ferry - v.comfy, stable and your missus will be asleep most of the trip so hopefully minimum stress, or, take a low-cost flight with Flybe from Soton to Brest and hire a car.

[OneDs]

hornetrider said:

Avoid the high speed ferries like the plague if you are concerned about travel sickness......

The slower ferries in contrast I find very stable and you shouldn't have a problem.

Yep this is the conumdrum, is the short painful hop over worth the money and time saved when we can start the holiday early and cruise overnight, and then have the issue of chasing the kids all over the ship for a day on the return.

[Puggit]

OneDs said:

hornetrider said:

Avoid the high speed ferries like the plague if you are concerned about travel sickness......

The slower ferries in contrast I find very stable and you shouldn't have a problem.

Yep this is the conumdrum, is the short painful hop over worth the money and time saved when we can start the holiday early and cruise overnight, and then have the issue of chasing the kids all over the ship for a day on the return.

Get a cabin for the day return. Like I say above, ours' are the same age as yours'! It makes it so much easier to have somewhere you can control them, let them watch DVDs, sleep, tell them off, leave bags, etc etc etc.

We are part of Brittany's Owners Club, so get comp-ed a cabin, but would pay every time if we didn't.

[hornetrider]

OneDs said:

hornetrider said:

Avoid the high speed ferries like the plague if you are concerned about travel sickness......

The slower ferries in contrast I find very stable and you shouldn't have a problem.

Yep this is the conumdrum, is the short painful hop over worth the money and time saved when we can start the holiday early and cruise overnight, and then have the issue of chasing the kids all over the ship for a day on the return.

When I say the whole boat stank of puke, trust me when I say the whole boat stank of puke. There was no escape. That was as a result of the pitching and rolling, and other marginal passengers sympathy puking due to the smell. Not a pleasant place to be, and there were kids bawling there eyes out all over the shop.

I would do it again if time was a strong issue because I'm a hardy type and don't really give a st, but if you are at all concerned you really want to take the overnighter (which we did on the way over).

[Puggit]

hornetrider said:

OneDs said:

hornetrider said:

Avoid the high speed ferries like the plague if you are concerned about travel sickness......

The slower ferries in contrast I find very stable and you shouldn't have a problem.

Yep this is the conumdrum, is the short painful hop over worth the money and time saved when we can start the holiday early and cruise overnight, and then have the issue of chasing the kids all over the ship for a day on the return.

When I say the whole boat stank of puke, trust me when I say the whole boat stank of puke. There was no escape. That was as a result of the pitching and rolling, and other marginal passengers sympathy puking due to the smell. Not a pleasant place to be, and there were kids bawling there eyes out all over the shop.

I would do it again if time was a strong issue because I'm a hardy type and don't really give a st, but if you are at all concerned you really want to take the overnighter (which we did on the way over).

And the cats go a lot slower if it's rough too!

[dougc]

The high speed boats do have a tendency to roll, even on flat calm seas and if there's a breeze up or a bit of a chop on, you'll have one poorly wife.

Of the slow boats, LD lines are pretty good. They used to be a bit ropey (and very cheap) as they used old lorry ferries and didn't take that many cars but they have taken on a couple of new boats now.

I regularly use the Newhaven - Dieppe crossing then drive to the Cote d'Armour, around an hour and a quarter on from St Malo. The drive from Le Havre to St Malo is pretty good - decent blacktop all the way and the bridge at Le Havre is very cool. Just watch out for the Caen Peripherique. You can easily miss your turn off.

[OneDs]

Well that sorted it then. overnight there, long day back both with cabins, many thanks for your pointers.

[Puggit]

dougc said:

Just watch out for the Caen Peripherique. You can easily miss your turn off.

And easily upset the local plod too. Some sections are a mere 70kmph

[OneDs]

dougc said:

The high speed boats do have a tendency to roll, even on flat calm seas and if there's a breeze up or a bit of a chop on, you'll have one poorly wife.

Of the slow boats, LD lines are pretty good. They used to be a bit ropey (and very cheap) as they used old lorry ferries and didn't take that many cars but they have taken on a couple of new boats now.

I regularly use the Newhaven - Dieppe crossing then drive to the Cote d'Armour, around an hour and a quarter on from St Malo. The drive from Le Havre to St Malo is pretty good - decent blacktop all the way and the bridge at Le Havre is very cool. Just watch out for the Caen Peripherique. You can easily miss your turn off.

Cheers dougc, we used to camp in France near Le Harve before the kids and always loved driving over the pont. The Caen circular a known entity cheers.

Edited by OneDs on Wednesday 9th June 15:12

[OneDs]

cheers I'll have a look at membership. And a good catch on the tolls I hadn't factored that in.

£70 registration + £60 annual membership and a 20% discount on the ferry fare for a 6-10 day trip,

Portsmouth St Malo is the choice now and with membership it works out like this.

The Ferry rtn is £343 so - £68.60 saving

Cabin out is a boggo inside 4 berth at £75 (not sure you get any discount on this or upgrade for a similar price in the membership)

Breakfast vouchers saving £25 + 10% off all food = probably £5 so £30 in total.

Cabin Back is £26 so free on return plus £10 saving on two meals = £36.

So for £130 upfront I get about £134.6 in savings + not having to pay the £70 next year and we will probably travel late spring early summer next year within the 12 months.

There is no option to pick a better cabin on the overnight out, so I assume there all gone.

Edited by OneDs on Thursday 10th June 14:05