Euro star V Ferry

[shellyd]

Hi, we have not decided how to travel yet, euro star (done twice this before) or ferry. I have a few concerns and wondered if you would give me your opinions.
.
Firstly we have a 5 hour journey to get to Dover or Ashford I am not worried about this,
But adding another 3 hours after ferry is a lot of driving.
Euro star will be a lot more expensive and we will have to stop at Lille the direct one would have cost over £700 and indirect will cost £360. (This is in May school hols).
The ferry will cost £90 and we will be driving in France for the first time. (Worried about finding way roads etc)
Also I am worried about getting to the ferry on time on the return journey, as I have heard that the queue can be long because of all the Lorries and if you are late you have to pay full price.
I have also priced flights and a longer sea crossing (Hull/Rotterdam) these are way to expensive.

I am hoping your experiences will help me make up my mind.

Thanks

Shelly

 

[Cyrano]

Given that you have a 5 hour drive either way I think you could be looking at a night in a travellodge etc the night before as I think you would be tired either way.
Can't help with Eurostar as we have never went this way. We are trying Eurotunnel which has the advantage of letting you take your own car and much quicker than ferry. We are £146 for this which compares favourably with ferry
Driving in France is a breeze. Motorways are much better than at home.
I've driven in Paris but that is not for the fainthearted But thankfully Calais to DLP is relatively easy.
Any time we have taken the ferry we have had an overnight stop in Dover.

 

[bavaria]

I would agree that an overnight stop may make the trip more bearable. So long as you are not going THROUGH Paris (which you won't be) driving should be ok (I don't like it as much as driving in Germany, but others find the Autobahn . Since I drove the Autobahn in a Citroen 2CV in past I don't find them bad.... )

Have you tried skyscanner.net for airfare? I find great fares there, and you may be able to find something palatable once you factor in the cost of time, fuel, hotel, etc from driving. I am going to take a low cost flight rather than drive from Bavaria on my next trip (albeit not during school holiday season)

The last thought would be ferry travel - I travel via ferry all the time where I live now, but the Dover run made me very very green.... (not to scare you off!) Just something to consider if you have any weak stomachs in the group!

 

[Dimplenose]

Another advantage to using the Eurotunnel is that they are more flexible with late comers. Our ticket stated we could be up to 2 hours late without any financial penalty (although they could not guarantee which train we'd be on if we were late).

Eurostar is great if you live in the South East but you'd still have to get to Waterloo or Ashford to join the train. It's a long time since I went via Lille but I didn't find it a very comfortable station to wait for my connection.

I think flying is a better idea if you are worried about what will be an 8 hour plus journey whichever train option you choose, although in May flights will be expensive as you stated.

Libby

 

[pixiepower04]

Hi there,

We live in Dundee and drive to Guildford to stay with the in laws, we then get up the next morning to drive to Dover to catch the Eurotunnel (35 minutes travel) and then we drive for another 3 hours.

If you add it all up our travel time is a little over 16 hours but financially for us it makes more sense, the prices saved on flights gets us there in petrol and with some money left over for goodies.

We're used to driving to and from Guildford/Dundee and the kids like the freedom of the car, they can watch their dvd's, draw, read play etc and eat and drink and they get to see the French countryside and that gets them even more excited about the holiday.

My kids are 6 & 8 and driving for us is just so much more comfortable, yes it's a longer trip but for us it's worth it, Eurotunnel is a breeze, the drive to DLP is great and we get to see the family on the way down. If we didn't have in laws I would still go this way and stay over night in Dover.

Good luck with the plans

 

[Cyrano]

If you add it all up our travel time is a little over 16 hours but financially for us it makes more sense, the prices saved on flights gets us there in petrol and with some money left over for goodies.

That's our think too. Better than two flights to get their.
Based on your experience looking forward to Eurotunnel

 

[pixiepower04]

Eurotunnel is great, staff direct you to a lane to sit in (a bit like the ferry) and then you drive down into a train station to a double decker train, you either go up to the top level or you stay on ground level, and then you drive to the end of the carriage and everyone drives in behind you.

You can then get out and stretch your legs, eat or drink your supplies, check the map etc, the journey goes really quite quickly and then before you know it you've arrived and you're driving off the train to the exit and you're off!

We didn't do it last year but this year instead of driving straight to DLP we will be stopping off at Calais Hypermarket to get supplies for the hotel because we arrived on a Sunday last time and the Auchan Hypermarket at DLP was closed so we had to wait until Monday morning to get a cup of tea (really not good ).

 

[shellyd]

Thank-you so much for the replies.
I am trying to do this a cheap as possible, we don’t normally do school holidays at all but son is Y10 so didn’t want to take him out of school.
I did look a flights but the cost from Leeds was £650 but what put me off more was the flight times, late going out, early coming back, so that was almost 2 days knocked off our holiday.
We have stayed over at Holiday Inn before but we are a family of 5 so would need 2 rooms. I think I will still book something for on the way home. I have heard some people say that they have had 5 people in a Travelodge room before, but I think I would be too scared to try it.
I think I will look a Euro tunnel as well, as I don’t like water or flying so this could be a good option.
Thanks again.
I will let you know what we settle on.

Shelly

 

[Cyrano]

We have stayed over at Holiday Inn before but we are a family of 5 so would need 2 rooms.

We the same which is why the davy Crockett Ranch is perfect for us

 

[Disney owl]

We usually have our car with us when we visit DLp & stay at Davy Crockett Ranch as we have 3 children.

On our last visit we only took 2 of the Kids & would have fitted into a hotel room for the 1st time but still chose the Ranch. It has a great pool & the trip to the parks takes just minutes & parking is free.

The trip to DLP via the motorway is easy & because it's DH that does all the driving we now split up the trip by stopping off in a Travelodge.We are 4 /5 hours from Dover.If you are lucky & book far enough in advance you can get rooms for £15