 Poster: A snowHead
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I've only ever used the ferry before so appreciate your thoughts - what's your preference and why?
Trying to decide between the faster and more expensive eurotunnel or the cheaper, riskier (storm cancellations) ferry.
Cheers
B
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I prefer a P&O ferry on the way out, for the decent meal you can get in the Langan's Brasserie - sets you up for the drive ahead and means you don't have to stop for a good while. On the way back I prefer Eurotunnel for speed - or club class on the ferry so you can relax when you're tired.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Anyone sea-sick in your group. My girlfriend was once sick before we left Dover harbour, so the tunnel is essential for us 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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If I'm the only driver (which I usually am) then I prefer the ferry, as it gives you a break, you can leave the car, maybe even sleep, and then drive 9/10/12/14 hours the other side without too much of a break. If I have a co-driver then I prefer the tunnel for speed.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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MMmmmmm - I've been sea sick twice. Once when really hung over, second time was on a small fishing boat in really choppy seas. Only ever taken the ferry in calm summer months.
15 - Love to the Tunnel...
Driving with the missus who isn't keen on doing any of the driving on the other side to Chamonix.
15 All
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Night time with small kids the tunnel is far easier. They stay in their seats asleep, whilst you eat your pic-nic and fuel up on caffeinated products for the drive through the night. Daytime the ferry route has a lot going for it as Alastair & Elizabeth B say
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If price were the same/similar, I'd take the Tunnel everytime. Sadly, that isn't the case. I  hate the p&o ferries... and the food is ghastly.
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| Timmaah wrote: |
| I hate the p&o ferries... and the food is ghastly. |
Not if you go to the Langan's Brasserie - decent food in decent surroundings and decent value.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Tunnel everytime...just so easy. But its 300% more expensive most of the time. Just checked for my trip and it's £178 tunnel or £62 P&O Ferry... I always end up booking the tunnel though. Just drive up and go. Plus living in Kent I love the fact it's just so close and not having to go into Dover.
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bucking bronco, Some good point already made. I've used both methods.
Ferries are certainly cheaper.
I have used Tesco voucher in the past. P&O ferries dont accept them now. You do get 4 times face value if used to pay Eurotunnel so that can offset the higher cost.
The current situation with fire repair in the tunnel is affecting available services, so you do have to be careful and book well in advance.
Alastair, has a good point about booking one method outbound and a different one back, but that isnt allowed on the tunnel when using Tesco vouchers. These require a return journey to be booked and used.
Martin Nicholas,suggestion about sleeping kids overnight may have an advantage, if you are travelling through the night.
As I usually travel alone, distractions \ diversions on the ferry arent really necessay and I eat what I have prepred beforehand during the chunnel crossing
On reflection, I find the tunnel more convenient.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
You do get 4 times face value if used to pay Eurotunnel so that can offset the higher cost.
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3 times face value, but it's the way we go. I have not yet paid for a tunnel crossing - I get enough Tesco vouchers to do at least 3 tunnel returns free each year. It's infinitely faster and easier and in winter, unless you have a very strong constitution, it's often rough enough to make a meal on the ferry less than enjoyable.
But I do wonder why people who are confident and competent drivers in the mayhem of the British motorway system can't cope with a few hours down a deserted French motorway. It's most peculiar.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| pam w wrote: |
| But I do wonder why people who are confident and competent drivers in the mayhem of the British motorway system can't cope with a few hours down a deserted French motorway. It's most peculiar. |
It is. Apart from the cost of peage tolls driving on French autoroutes is a delight compared to any UK motorway I've driven on. Using Eurotunnel our drive to Ls Arcs before Christmas was a couple of hours longer than typical journey time if we fly, but felt a bit more relaxing because there was no need to haul luggage around airports, spend time waiting to board, disembark, collect luggage, etc. Just an easy door-to-door drive.
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pam w, Definatetly 4 time face value. "£10 in clubcard vouchers gives you £40 in Deals Tokens" Shame they withdrew the P&O offer.
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You know it makes sense.
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Spent the years they were building swearing that 'You wouldn't get me down there' now use Eurotunnel frequent traveller tickets, wouldn't travel any other way with the car. 
(Not able to shop in Tesco)
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Tunnel every time. I hate ferry travel as I suffer seasickness if it is not a millpond and the thought of a storm keeping the boat stranded outside Dover (as was reported few years back) fills me with horror.
As for the driving - has the missus never given it a go before or done so and had a scare? Could you encourage her to do a a few short straightforward sections of motorway when the traffic is light and she could stay quietly in the inside lane if she wanted? When we first went abroad my hubby didn't want to drive but after a few gentle goes he found it wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought and now is quite happy about it.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Tunnel for the time savings. I use it a lot so have the frequent traveller deal. This works out well if you are going to use it a lot (£39 per crossing) but you have to pay for the first 10 in upfront and (I believe) those first 10 singles must be used withing a 12 month period. Perhaps 2 or 3 could share this?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| pam w wrote: |
| But I do wonder why people who are confident and competent drivers in the mayhem of the British motorway system can't cope with a few hours down a deserted French motorway. It's most peculiar. |
It is. Apart from the cost of peage tolls driving on French autoroutes is a delight compared to any UK motorway I've driven on. Using Eurotunnel our drive to Ls Arcs before Christmas was a couple of hours longer than typical journey time if we fly, but felt a bit more relaxing because there was no need to haul luggage around airports, spend time waiting to board, disembark, collect luggage, etc. Just an easy door-to-door drive. |
Just out of interest, how long did it take you door-to-door?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Alastair,
Indeed.
I hate the sitting around in the train with nothing to do. I like the outward journey on the ferry with a full english even tho I am no fan of hot plate meals. It just sets the holiday up.
Coming back, I don't mind the tunnel as I just want to get home..but then I am 30 mins from the coast anyway. I prefer the tunnel via eur0star, and the ferry for a car. Delays can happen
on either and none of the operators want that anyway.
I think both P&O and the tunnel offer a good service
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I like the ferry. Get a meal, some drinks, stretch your legs, do a bit of shopping, watch some TV, have a sleep. The choices are endless. I usually get a 9pm boat out to arrive in resort (PDS) for mid morning. I like to have a good meal on board before the long drive across france. Also on the way back after a long drive it's nice to have a proper evening meal before the shorter (but more boring UK leg of the journey).
However I do like the speed and reliability of the tunnel. Often been stuck for a couple of hours due to industrial action/weather. Also using clubcard vouchers on the tunnel is good.
But from now on its ferry only for me as I have a LPG vehicle and can't use the tunnel anymore.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I always go eurotunnel - but make sure you are there in plenty of time, before the last checkin time.
and book early - if you look at the prices, they get more expensive the nearer you get to travelling - even by hitting refresh on a late booking the price goes up.
there are usually queues at the checkin - on ave about 15 - 20 mins, can be 45mins though,
they do last checkin 30 mins before departure, but it takes you that long to get through passport control, then queue to the train, load on the train and go.
last night on way back from France, checked in 1 hr 30 mins early, went into main terminal building, soon as we were called for 9.55pm departure, that was about 40 mins in advance, we went straight to car and queued for ages to get through passport control, by the time we queued at the passport bit and drove to the main queuing area, we waited less than 5 mins there and were loaded onto the train - guess what, we went on a later train - not even the 9.55pm. the 9.55am train was pulling out of the station as we went down the ramp and we got put on the one which left about 10mins later.
I flew out from gatwick with easyjet and it was chaos and came back by car on eurotunnel and that was also chaos.
Just saying that you are gonna be in trouble if you are cutting it fine.
cheers
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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BMF Skier, yes, of course you're right, it's four times the voucher value - I must have been half asleep when I posted that this morning. I've been using Tesco vouchers for years, earlier on for the Portsmouth - Le Havre ferry (as we live very close to Portsmouth) but they don't do that run any more, quite apart from having stopped doing Tesco vouchers.
You don't have to shop at Tesco - I actually get most of my points from a Tesco credit card which I use to shop for everything, including all my supermarket shopping which is normally in Waitrose.
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Doesn't rob@rar's g/f hate the tunnel too? I found it very bizarre sitting in the car, watching the car bounce on its springs, sitting inside the railway carriage, also bouncing on its own springs. Very peculiar...
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Some spring bouncing may be due to the mile under club............................. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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innerspaceservices, the Tunnel has some problems at the moment, following the fire. But in normal times it's gloriously flexible. Turn up before, or after, your booked time and just get on another train. Sometimes you have to pay a bit more. But not always, and it does make the journey less stressfull. You can also change your bookings without penalty (unless you switch to a more expensive crossing time). And that's just with the cheap tickets (free, if you use Tesco vouchers!). I can't think why anyone pays the vast premium for "fully flexible" just to get a free coffee and newspaper in the terminal.
As for watching the springs, I'd prefer that to watching the heaving of the English Channel on a dirty day in January, not to mention the heaving of the passengers around me. And in fact I've never really noticed anyway - it always seems pretty smooth. No mile unders for me, Boredsurfing,
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| PJSki wrote: |
| Just out of interest, how long did it take you door-to-door? |
12 and 1/2 hours door to door.
| James the Last wrote: |
| Doesn't rob@rar's g/f hate the tunnel too? |
No, she's perfectly happy with the tunnel.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Apart from the cost of peage tolls driving on French autoroutes is a delight compared to any UK motorway I've driven on. |
Should that be BECAUSE OF the cost of péage tolls, driving on French autoroutes is a delight compared to any UK motorway I've driven on...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I've only ever used ferries but the last couple of times I've used the norfolkline to dunkerque. Its only about 3 miles driving extra to geneva (I used multimap to check this) but I got much better prices than the calais ferry, takes a bit longer on the boat but you get a bit longer to grab some sleep.
When I last used the Norfolk line it cost me £30 where as the P+O was £60. This was for the Rock AM Ring festival though not the slopes. Decent enough boat and food aswell!
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You know it makes sense.
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Butterfly, I know someone who was on that ferry (for 24 hours) who tells horror stories of the carnage!
Tunnel wins for me despite price. Book early enough and you can usually get return at decent times for £140. Flexible, quick, stress free and no sea sickness. I reckon is saves a good hour at least in journey time. We do Lichfield to Samoens in 13 hours door to door with just me as the driver and that includes lunch and toilet stops. In my opinion, timing your journey is the key. This differs for everyone - some like to travel through the night, but with only one driver.. I prefer to time for as much daylight as poss. We usually lave Lichfield at 5:30am to maximise this.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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took us 40mins to Eurotunnel (live in kent so very convenient)
to get to Geneva takes about 8.5hrs door to door by eurotunnel.
find that flights for 4 people and airport parking is more expensive than driving and you can pack everything in your car including the kitchen sink.
we even worked out how long it would take to fly to Geneva and there is not much in the difference, this is my workings...
2 hrs to Gatwick or 3 hrs to Heathrow, Luton or Stansted (including parking)
2 hrs checkin
1.45 hrs flight
1 hr get baggage
1 hr before bus departs for resort as it waits for other flights to arrive
15 mins to get to main highways
8-9 hrs
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Poster: A snowHead
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Used Norfolk line to come back last night (lost Tesco vouchers being replaced.... long story but wasn't prepared to pay a lot of real money for the tunnel). I'd always go for the tunnel, it's so much quicker (and a quarter of the price with Tesco vouchers) but I'd recommend Norfolk Line, which was the cheapest when I looked at the options. 10 pm sailing. We paid an extra 12 euro each for VIP/First Class lounge which was well worth it. Priority boarding (we were first off the boat, apart from an enormous articulated lorry with whom I wasn't about to dice), a very peaceful lounge, free teas, coffees, fruit, biscuits (excellent quality) and soft drinks, and a free glass of wine each (I did the whole drive so the OH had mine ).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| innerspaceservices wrote: |
took us 40mins to Eurotunnel (live in kent so very convenient)
to get to Geneva takes about 8.5hrs door to door by eurotunnel.
find that flights for 4 people and airport parking is more expensive than driving and you can pack everything in your car including the kitchen sink.
we even worked out how long it would take to fly to Geneva and there is not much in the difference, this is my workings...
2 hrs to Gatwick or 3 hrs to Heathrow, Luton or Stansted (including parking)
2 hrs checkin
1.45 hrs flight
1 hr get baggage
1 hr before bus departs for resort as it waits for other flights to arrive
15 mins to get to main highways
8-9 hrs |
That's a touch over the top, 2 hrs 15mins from landing before you get on the roads? I find I get my bags within 10mins of getting off plane, in the hire car and on the road within 30-45 mins depending on the q at the desk.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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kitenski, perhaps, if you are in charge of your own transport, the above suggests a tour op was involved.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Hells Bells, ah yes, maybe with big tour ops, doesn't happen with smaller independents or DIY...........
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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It's way over the top. two hour check in?  It's very unusual to wait long for luggage in Geneva. I meet people off flights a lot, and they're often out within 20 minutes or so of landing. Very, very, rarely more than 40 minutes. You can park immediately outside the arrivals lounge. From saying "hello" to getting everything into the car and onto the motorway generally takes, I'd say, 15 minutes max. I was once (with hand baggage, admittedly) switching on my ignition in the Chambery car park within 6 minutes of touch down.
We generally drive - it's much the cheapest for longer trips. But the time taken depends a lot on conditions. I drove home yesterday. Left Les Saisies at 0930 (when the temperature at 1550m was a miserable 4 degrees!) and with pretty minimal stops just got to the ferry port at Dunkerque for 9 pm. It rained, torrentially much of the time, for almost the entire journey. Probably had the wipers off for 30 minutes in total. So that means maximum legal speed on the motorway is 70 mph - which was by no means safe for the whole time, given the very poor visibility and sheets of water on the road. The mountain road down to the A40 was pretty slow, both because of the weather (lot of fog/cloud) and because the traffic was quite heavy - and even the French drivers weren't gunning it. It was a Monday mid morning - not a transfer day.
Of course flights and baggage can take longer on busy peak days - but then driving Calais to Geneva on those days takes a lot longer too and a spot of fresh snow or fog can seriously disrupt any means of travel.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| pam w wrote: |
| It's way over the top. two hour check in? It's very unusual to wait long for luggage in Geneva. I meet people off flights a lot, and they're often out within 20 minutes or so of landing. Very, very, rarely more than 40 minutes. You can park immediately outside the arrivals lounge. From saying "hello" to getting everything into the car and onto the motorway generally takes, I'd say, 15 minutes max. I was once (with hand baggage, admittedly) switching on my ignition in the Chambery car park within 6 minutes of touch down. |
Are these people flying scheduled or chartered? From the sounds of it (as someone else mentioned) his timings sound like tour operator/chartered airline timings whereas you're probably meeting people who have flown scheduled.
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Pretty simple choice for me.
18 miles to NorthShields ferry. ( Overnight sleep to Amsterdam, 09:30 docking time and less than 100 miles I shall be in German autobahn.)
350 miles to the Eurotunnel.
Choice of resorts tend to be biased towards Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
Ski passes also for the whole valley(like Zillertal) or area (Ski Amada) or region (Dolomites Superski).
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I wouldn't pay the extra for the Tunnel unless I had Tesco Clubcard vouchers because then it costs only a quarter of the real price like pam w, and others have said. I've only used it once so far on the way out but once I'd got past the gate they said there was a delay with a freight train stuck somewhere or something and I ended up crossing at least 4 hours late. I wish I'd known before I got past the gate because then I could have just scrapped it for the £27 it cost in vouchers and driven to Dover instead and got a ferry. Rare, I know to have trouble with Eurotunnel though. I got a ferry back and it was quite nice to sit for an hour and a half and have something to eat, relax etc.
I hadn't used one of those ferry club lounges before but they look like good value compared to buying food in the ferry canteens so I think I shall do the VIP lounge or what have you next time I use a ferry.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Agree with pam w that Geneva airport is generally very efficient (although it did shut this year - most unusual), but the Maths teacher in me says that the Tunnel can't be "infinitely faster and easier ". I just prefer the ferry and the chance to stretch my legs and eat a meal in comfort. I've also found them very flexible and seldom actually get on the ferry I've booked and never had to pay extra. Although as an ex-caver I'm not claustrophobic I just dislike sitting in my car in a boring carriage.
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FAQ
