 Poster: A snowHead
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Looking at putting together a trip in early March to one of the French resorts and have been trying to get a good deal for the channel crossing as taking the car. We'll be doing this mid-week to mid-week.
Eurotunnel are quoting £195 return whilst Sea France (Dover to Calais) £128 return. All the ferry companies offer Eurotunnel as an alternative, but surprise, surprise these all come in at £228 return.
Personally I prefer Eurotunnel, but am surprised they are not more competetive. Anyone know of any on-line (or otherwise) companies that handle Eurotunnel that sometimes get better rates?
Cheers.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Mark, give Speedferries a try, it's the catamaran service from Dover, you can get a return for £50.00.
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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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Mark;have a look at www.ferrysavers.co.uk Takes a bit of work juggling times and re-entering details,but often turns up a surprise.Doubt if you'll find Eurotunnel discounted anywhere.Think they may still be up the financial creek so to speak!!
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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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Mark, Eurotunnel have a lower price fare, £98 I think, if you travel after 17:00 and return before 11:00 - please check times as these are from memory.
I used the tunnel for the first time in December and paid full whack for it as I wanted to drive in daylight. It is a far superior way to cross the channel than a ferry. All IMHO of course 
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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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We have used both but tend to favour the ferries. Three hours drive to Dover which means the ferry crossing is convenient for a stop and a hearty meal using the ferry restaurant.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Have used tunnel once and was stuck on the train in Dover for 3.5 hrs, no honestly we were. it was a complete debacle. I think you have to balance the pros and cons. If there is a problem with a ferry then you have more options, however the tunnel doesnt make you vom in the bad weather and the ski season and bad weather run hand in hand. If there is a problem with the tunnel however it shuts, end of story. They are both 330 miles from my house so give me an airport any day.
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Having being caught by the French 'industrial' action back in December, we got to use the tunnel for the first time. And since then have not even bothered looking a taking the ferry again. Thouhgt it was excellent. None of this waiting around to disembark. A few minutes and your off. I will have to admit that the last two times have been in a booze cruise situation 
We only got charged £38 and that was with eurotunnel on their own website. Personally i would pay the £60 extra and relax in the comfort of your own vehicle for 35 minutes.
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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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If you are a member of the Ski Club, try booking through them. My sister in Law got a good deal for the Christmas period!
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If you're using the tunnel, try to avoid a weekend when people are smuggling 60-year-old munitions through it.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Mark Hunter, Speedferries as previously mentioned are excellent and cheap. Failing that try Norfolkline from Dover to Dunquerque. Other than Speedferries they're usually the cheapest. Both of these (happily) fail to have loads of loudmouthed youths and school children playing annoying video games and so on. Norfolklines is really civilised with a nice bar and sort of giant sitting room with TV and couches you can lie down on. Everyone's driving you see. I've never paid more than £100 return, and that's for a longer stay.
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As I see it ferries and tunnel are both prone to delays. So, if you take that out the equation you're left with the fact that the ferry is anywhere up to ~£80 cheaper, but it takes an hour longer. Personally I'd rather spend an hour relaxing and walking around a ship than spending an extra £80 to sit in my car.
It's all about time and money. I'd just rather save the cash for the resort
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You know it makes sense.
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Mark Hunter. If you book P&O club class you can get priority boarding, so you can be one of the first on and off the boat, includes champagne coffee and biscuits. Not much more than buying a coffee and beer in one of the other bars. We always use the ferry and so far, have never been delayed or had a rough crossing.
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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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Mark Hunter, if you plan on leaving the night before you arrive, your travel plans might allow you to travel off-peak (after 5pm outbound and before 11am inbound) taking advantage of Eurotunnel's off-peak prices as CP suggested above. We did this at Christmas and paid £98 return. You might well need to factor in a couple of night's cheap accommodation to break your journey there and back, but as we had planned to do this anyway adjusting our travel times to get the off-peak ticket saved us a couple of hundred quid.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Hmmm, new dilema.
Just tweaked the dates we're looking to go and tried Tuesday to Tuesday and the flights with Easyjet come in at £228 for 2 adults and a child! On that basis, this could be the option. So....next question....the best car hire company? Have tried Avis in the past and they were OK, but not cheap!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Mark Hunter, try www.travelsupermarket.com. Their site searches all the companies and consolidators, has always found me the cheapest price. (I've even searched myself and got quotes, then used them to check it out).
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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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Nice one Helen. While I'm waiting for those results, National Car Hire quoted 440 Swiss Francs - a mere £196! Ouch! Mind you, that still comes to a total of £424 which is going to be less than driving. I'll come back on the quote, as it's taking a bit of time...
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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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Simple answer here is to move/relocate to the mainland then you will eliminate this problem/discussion
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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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Why don't you check out the transfer possibilities to the resort, in ADH there are people who'd do a transfer for 60 euros per person return. Alternatively, I don't know about other resorts but here there is a pretty good bus service from the airport up to the resort for about 25 euros return - if you're feeling brave this could cut your costs - public transport isn't that scary!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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sarah@alpedhuez, I guess that those transfers are from Grenoble to Alpe d'Huez? I took the public buses on up to Les 2 Alpes a couple of years ago from Grenoble when Buzz still flew there and that was very painless! Just a shame Mr O'Leary cut the route!
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I always use the ferries but since I work for them you would expect me to say that. Even if I didn't get the ferry free I would still rather travel on the ship than the tunnel. If you time the load right on the ferry there is very little time between them.
I don't think the tunnel handles large volumes very well but each to their own.
If you have time try the ferry's website and go for low volume times to get the best deal. P&O have scaled down the facilities for night crossing so some of these are not open. But you can still get food and drinks, of course.
Bad weather will not stop these ships sailing, that is dictated by the ports of Calais and Dover. All the ships are ocean going 30,000 tonners so a force 9 is no problem at all.
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From the north P&O North Sea Ferries Hull to Rotterdam/Zeebrugge is a splendid way to travel, although not so sure what it would be like in Jan/Feb having only sailed in Summer.
Pretty expensive though.
Suggested to P&O that they could do 'skiers specials' eg for a week, car + 4, during those months to fill up their ferries. Got a negative response though," not in competition with cheap airlines, pricing policy to cover their capital costs blah blah blah."
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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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That's odd because the cheap airlines are exactly the competition.
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T-Dub, I used to do Hull/Zeebrugge in winter and it was fine. In fact it was very good if you wanted a quiet crossing (I often did it with a hangover) as it was 90% lorry drivers. I did end up with the Scarborough Town football team once though.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Right, Airline Network have come back at £135 for a week's hire, which sounds OK. Anybody used them or heard anything about them?
What's the best option for picking up/dropping off at Geneva? French/Swiss side? There does seem to be a difference in the terms etc.
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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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Swiss side, no one can find the French side. Also, the desk you'll need to go to will be the one with the half hour queue, the other desks will be completely free. That's the experience of my mates who booked through Jet2, anyway.
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Mark, as I said before, the ski club are offering special deals on Eurotunnel. £149 return for travel at any time, and £100 return with restrictions i.e. out after 2.00, returning before 2.00 (or something like that). Look on website.
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You know it makes sense.
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sallyanne, just checked the SC "deal" and whilst it is possible to get a return for £106, the condition is that you need to cross outward after 14.00 which is ideal as we're looking at 22.00, but return before 14.00 which is no good at all. If it takes 8 hours on the return leg to Calais, then we'd need to leave at about 05.00, and that doesn't strike me as quite so good.
The woman at Eurtunnel didn't mention anything about £149.00 anytime returns though. Is this something you've recently looked into? If it is then I'll take it up with the SC.
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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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Was looking at the ski club website for something else, and saw it under the news section, right at the bottom "eurotunnel deals" - having said that, bound to be a catch somewhere, probably your dates? Always worth investigating though - http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/news/item.asp?intCategoryID=1&intItemID=2341
My brother and family used the £100 deal over Xmas, but they stayed somewhere overnight in order to arrive in Calais in time, but obviously all hikes up the cost!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Mark
Swiss side for sure, its dead easy, also if your with easyjet its a do it yourself check in at Geneva now. A bit of a faf but eliminates queues,
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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'm a great tunnel fan - it certainly came into its own after xmas with the storms cancelling all ferries.
We nearly always get the £98 fare booked direct with Eurotunnel. Ifyou are late you can change by paying £30 admin. If you are early you can sometimes get an earlier train. We go out at about 9.30pm (usually Friday) , drive all night and arrive at resort 8.30am - ski all day and then get into accommodaiton at end of day. On last day (usually Saturday) ski til 5pm and drive all night- tunnel at about 3.30am back to Birmingham in time for 9am start. That way you get 8 full days sking when booking 7 days accommodation - much much much better than the mean 6 days you get with packages. Its also pretty much office to piste to office non-stop - only really for us obesessives.
bon ski
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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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| Quote: |
We go out at about 9.30pm (usually Friday) , drive all night and arrive at resort 8.30am - ski all day
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This kind of travel/ski arrangement is a recipe for problems . It is one of the biggest killers in Austria & I guess it must be the same in France.
Many Germans who drive the night to get the first lift to ski all day have suuffered/died of a Heart Attack on the slopes. I have witnessed this at least three times in St Anton. 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I'm sure that it is false economy to drive through the night. In addition to the dangers highlighted by stanton there is also the danger of falling asleep at the wheel, particularly on the journey home. Much better to stop on route at a cheapish hotel (Ibis for about £40 per double/triple room) and arrive at the resort fresh and fit to ski. We usually stop around Chamberry on the way out (or the outskirts of Lyon if we can't get into the Chambery Ibis) and somewhere near Troyes on the way back.
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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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A Danish lady in my ski class one year was very traumatised by an accident she'd witnessed on the autobahn in germany. She said it would be the last time they drove that distance in one go. Personally although we do drive down, we ALWAYS stop overnight at least once (It is also a longer drive from up here). If we only have time for a week away, we always fly instead. Driving tends to be our Summer option. There were also some Dutch people in the class who'd driven non-stop . Crazy.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Sat-Sat on P&O Ferry website, departing car for 4, Audi A4, for example.
Outward 19th Feb 0945
Inward 26th Feb 1840.
£139.50
Seems pretty good to me and an extra £10 each way for priority loading.
And in my experience if you give the checkin people a chance, ie 20 mins, and the ship isn't full, so chose your times in this respect, then that is a quick load
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And just to add that the ferry's suffer no more cancellations than the tunnel.
Weather is hardly a factor and when it is you can cancel that out against tunnel problems like safety issues or breakdowns.
Horses for course, I think..!!
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| JT wrote: |
And just to add that the ferry's suffer no more cancellations than the tunnel.
Weather is hardly a factor and when it is you can cancel that out against tunnel problems like safety issues or breakdowns.
Horses for course, I think..!! |
Do you have some figures to support that? I doubt it somehow. Reliability on the tunnel would be around 98%.
My own experience (and I was basically a weekly commuter for a few years) is that the tunnel rarely, in fact exceptionally, has problems. I know pretty much exactly how often the problems on ferries exceed this record since they get diverted to the tunnel and used to hold me up. Personally it used to really p*ss me off that I could be delayed by people who'd not even booked onto the service and had booked on to a patently less reliable service.
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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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Go on ise, say what you mean...don't hold back now 
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ise,
Yes, I know, because Operation Stack is a big factor in my job.
Ferries are affected by strikes predominately which also affect the Tunnel, although a different lot of strikers in France.
These are mostly political strikes and the Port and tunnel stoppages make maximun news for the strikers.
Both the tunnel and the ferry's will break the strike by injunctions but this will take half a day typically to get the papers served.
There aren't many weather conditions that will stop the ship sailing, docking is another issue and so is passenger comfort so it isn't true to say that weather is completely irrelevant it just makes the act of docking the ship take longer and therefore a delay.
However, if you have been a regular crosser you will know and no doubt laugh about high winds stopping trains from running. This is because Sangatte is very exposed to the winds and the power cables would 'untrack' whilst turning the train around.
At its height these problems affected the tunnel and caused delays at least 3 times as many as ANY ferry delays
This was a huge delaying factor in the last couple of years. I believe they have got around it or at leats keep it very quiet now.
Both the tunnnel and ferries have reciprocal 'carry' arrangements when one or the other has problems. If one or the other does not implement it it is a cost exercise.
As regards reliabilty figures how do you equate that? Ships and trains will have problems but a stuck train will delay more than a ship's gearbox problem for example.
I would say reliablity would be governed by the amount of times they turn the M20 into a car park and in my very personal recent experience it is now about 50-50.
I must point out this ferry versus tunnel arguement relates to P&O and not Norfolk, Sea France or the Cat operation which is only a sumer seervice at the moment
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FAQ
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