Ferry versus Low-Cost Airline
The benefits that low-cost airlines now provide to UK owners of french property is tremendous.
I have a cottage in Southern Brittany, and since 1990 have chosen to take the ferry from Portsmouth, Poole, or occasionally, Plymouth, arriving at Cherbourg, Caen, St Malo or Roscoff. This year I tried to book a fast-ferry crossing to Cherbourg in May for myself and my daughter, plus Car, and was staggered to be quoted £355 for the return trip - this even included a discount as a french property owner!
Seeking out alternatives, I came across a Flybe service from Exeter to Brest which, if memory serves me, cost around £120 return for the two of us. We booked a car for our arrival at Brest (around £125 for our 6 day trip), and were fortunate enough to park my car for free (as my mother lives close to Exeter airport!).
As a result, our trip cost around £100 less than the ferry option and the door-to-door time was greatly reduced, leaving us more refreshed on arrival! Certain flights can be bought for much less than we paid, if you travel midweek and outside of peak seasons etc.
Clearly, this won't be an option for those who need to travel with more than a large suitcase each plus hand baggage. Nor may it be suitable for larger families who might otherwise have squeezed into one large car (thereby reducing their price-per-person cost on the ferry). But, if you are time-constrained, or able to travel light, or if there are only a few in your group, then flying is a real alternative.
I use the Flightchecker website to find out prices and services. It offers a useful service whereby you can select your destination from a drop-down list. It then displays all flights out of the UK to that airport.
My next challenge is to see whether I can do the door-to-door trip in less than 4 hours! This would be a remarkable achievement (as the shortest ferry trip alone is currently around 2.5 to 3 hours). I am only 1 hour away from Southampton Airport. They have flights to Rennes in France, which would leave me 1 hour away from the cottage. Adding on the 1 hour check-in time, I reckon that 4 hours is achievable (just). I'll report back when I've done it!
I have a cottage in Southern Brittany, and since 1990 have chosen to take the ferry from Portsmouth, Poole, or occasionally, Plymouth, arriving at Cherbourg, Caen, St Malo or Roscoff. This year I tried to book a fast-ferry crossing to Cherbourg in May for myself and my daughter, plus Car, and was staggered to be quoted £355 for the return trip - this even included a discount as a french property owner!
Seeking out alternatives, I came across a Flybe service from Exeter to Brest which, if memory serves me, cost around £120 return for the two of us. We booked a car for our arrival at Brest (around £125 for our 6 day trip), and were fortunate enough to park my car for free (as my mother lives close to Exeter airport!).
As a result, our trip cost around £100 less than the ferry option and the door-to-door time was greatly reduced, leaving us more refreshed on arrival! Certain flights can be bought for much less than we paid, if you travel midweek and outside of peak seasons etc.
Clearly, this won't be an option for those who need to travel with more than a large suitcase each plus hand baggage. Nor may it be suitable for larger families who might otherwise have squeezed into one large car (thereby reducing their price-per-person cost on the ferry). But, if you are time-constrained, or able to travel light, or if there are only a few in your group, then flying is a real alternative.
I use the Flightchecker website to find out prices and services. It offers a useful service whereby you can select your destination from a drop-down list. It then displays all flights out of the UK to that airport.
My next challenge is to see whether I can do the door-to-door trip in less than 4 hours! This would be a remarkable achievement (as the shortest ferry trip alone is currently around 2.5 to 3 hours). I am only 1 hour away from Southampton Airport. They have flights to Rennes in France, which would leave me 1 hour away from the cottage. Adding on the 1 hour check-in time, I reckon that 4 hours is achievable (just). I'll report back when I've done it!
posted by The Boss @ 12:09 PM
2 Comments:
At 3:18 PM,
Admin said…
May be the low cost airlines are cheaper than ferries but traveling by ferries to france is totally a different experience. And its not as costly as stated by you.
At 8:08 AM,
The Boss said…
Actually, I do agree with you when you say that travelling by ferry to france is a different experience. I've taken a few crossings from Portsmouth since I added this post, and I have to say that (apart from over-long Caen-Portsmouth daytime sailings) they have been very pleasant, and having your own car with you (rather than an airport hire car) does allow you to travel with more stuff, and to bring a little more back!
I still think it's expensive, though. Even with my Brittany Ferries property owners club discount I spent about £250 on a crossing in late September - 5 days, 2 adults, standard car, cabin on outbound leg.
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