Ferry advice for next summer

Looking at the plan of sailing to Spain, riding up through France and
returning from a French port around 10 days later. Probably will be
doing it in July / August.

So far, I've checked the Brittany Ferries site, and got a quote of
around £370 for Plymouth - Santander, returning Caen - Portsmouth.

Obviously, I'm thinking *how fucking much?* - the week in the Algarve
cost only £400 for flights and apartment, ffs!

Any ways to make this cheaper? - the only requirement is that we go in
the summer and sail to / from Portsmouth / Plymouth.

I did look at P&O - don't really know what the score is there as they'll
happily take a booking for a route they plan to close.

 

I've done this, altough I returned via Dover.

Well, air travel is much cheaper than driving, unless you take a
seven-seater diesel car and fill every seat.

It's better to compare the Plymouth-Santander route with what it might
cost you if rode down to Spain through France - say 100 quid for the
ferry ticket (more than five days, high season) and something like 800
miles of fuel before you even enter Spain. Plus a hotel on the way
because you'll not do in in a single day. Autoroute tolls.....

Looked at that way, it isn't bad value for money and it is a very, very
enjoyable voyage.

 

I've gone back to have another look, managed to get a few more quid off
using a crossing into Poole for the return.

Aye, I suppose you're right. It's not like we'll be doing it every year,
so it looks like we'll be shelling out the cash on it.

Also very quick these days, too. Leave Plymouth at 4pm on Sunday, in
Spain for 9am on Monday. For convenience, I think it's probably not
_too_ bad. Especially as we had to shell out 200 euros for bike hire
last week.

 

SteveH emerged from their own little world to say

P&O are keeping the Bilbao route on IIRC. As BF are taking over the Le
Havre - Pompey routes they are almost certain to honour any booking taken
by P&O.

However, as you have found, it's much quicker by BF. They have fast craft
on the Biscay and Channel crossing to Poole.

 

It's no longer two days.

The nice thing is that you leave at 4pm and arrive at 9am, which makes
it no worse than spending a night in a hotel really - with the advantage
being that you wake up in Spain.