Always remember that planning a return trip shouldn't always mean buying a return ticket

[Le Scouse]

Regulars will be aware that it really does pay to make the calls to the agents and scour the websites. I've  typically used ferrysavers as I found them cheap for a crossing I needed when I first bought in France and needed to bring a van and or  trailer over. This got me regularly travelling from Dover to Boulogne or Dunkirk which was not our preference as our pile of stone is in Manch (50), but it was always so much cheaper (£200 cheaper typically). Then came that nice man who introduced Speedferries.. all of a sudden I could get a return for £50.. bargain

I always booked returns, picked up 5day specials etc when they came up and life was sweet. Recently though, i've noticed that it's possible to get two singles, even from the same ferry company on the same route, cheaper than their advertised return price

Weird but true.. I have just saved an extra £60 doing this.. just seems that there are anomilies in their price structure sometimes for us to exploit.. makes a change from them exploiting us eh?

Now, I just can't wait for someone to pick up the slack since P&O stopped their sailings into the Cherbourg area... Why don't we all club together and buy speedferries a second boat !!!  Brittany Ferries have nice boats but surely all businesses should have some competition to keep the standards up and prices down

Lee

[Coco]

Interesting that you have found this Le Scouse, as I recently found more or less the opposite to be true.  My brother and sister in law are coming to us in Manche in June and I checked out Speedferries.  Two singles at £39 each.  I then thought I'd just try Brittany, so that they didn't have that 3 and a half hour drive both ways, therefore perhaps out Speedferries, return Brittany.  For the same sailing on Brittany I found that if I requested a return in under 5 days the single route was £101 each way, for a standard return it went up to £164 each way and if I just tried a single it went up to £184!!!! Now how can they justify that????

[Brilec]

That's just Brittany Ferries. Don't expect them to justify it.

Boulogne to Manche in 3.5 hours, you do well.

Have you checked Transmanche, and LD?

[Coco]

Why does everyone on this site always say that we do well to do the journey in that time?  240 miles door to door, steady 80 miles an hour, (I can honestly say we've never broken the speed limit) motorway from Boulogne to within ten minutes of home - it's really not hard but I've been amazed at just how many people ask if our car is rocket powered.  Most of our B&B guests do it in about 4 and a half hours but they have usually stopped for a quick lunch on the way.  Now what I call rocket powered is when our Aussie neighbours used to do it in 2 and 3/4 hours!!!!!

[Brilec]

Thinking about it more, I suppose you are able to keep north of Rouen and go over the Pont de Normandie, I end up a little further south, and have to go through Rouen, then onto the A28 south for a bit. I have never managed to 80 through Rouen!

Even so, it takes me at least 10 minutes to get to the autoroute from the ferry terminal at Boulogne, and your 10 minutes at the other end, only leaves 10 minutes for the various toll booths (even with telepeage), and there are quite a few parts of that route with speed limits way lower than 130kph.[:D]

[Coco]

TEN MINUTES FOR THE TOLL BOOTHS!!!!!  Yes we do have telepeage but wouldn't say that the toll booths (the whole lot) have ever taken more than 1 minute (if that), we barely even have to stop, certainly never get lower than 2nd gear!  Just call me schoomie!! [:D]

[Bilbo]

[quote user="Brilec"]

That's just Brittany Ferries. Don't expect them to justify it.

Boulogne to Manche in 3.5 hours, you do well.

Have you checked Transmanche, and LD?

[/quote]

condor are pretty good as well