Brittany Ferries Road Trips

[Rick101]

I'm pricing up a Spain trip for next Summer. Ferry Portsmouth to Santander is coming in a touch under £900.
I noticed Brittany offer packages - https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/holidays/collec...

They don't have prices or hotels up this far out but hopefully should be up in the next few weeks.
Has anyone used this deal? From what I can see the hotels look decent. Not sure I want to be tied to a particular route though.

Hotel and food were pretty cheap last time I toured Northern Spain so the package deal would need to be good value to really consider it.

[blueg33]

I looked at those as I plan road trips every year. Concluded that I wanted to plan my own routes and hotels

[omniflow]

Not looked at those, but for my next trip I am probably going to go Portsmouth -> St. Malo overnight.

It's cheaper than going via Santander and in terms of elapsed time it's quicker. The downside is more miles in France (7.5 hour drive to San Sebastian from St. Malo).

If you caught the ferry on Monday evening, going via Santander you'd be in San Sebastian around 10:30am on Wednesday. Going via St. Malo you'd be in San Sebastian around 4:30pm on Tuesday and that includes stopping for lunch for 1 hour. Obviously if you're not going to San Sebastian then adjust the timings accordingly.

The overnight on the ferry gives me the "highlights" of the ferry experience without any of the downsides.

[Imasurv]

I’m on the st Malo ferry too next May, heading for northern Spain but taking 5 days to make my way down western France before a week in northern Spain. It’s been great fun researching a route and something I prefer doing myself rather than as part of a package.

[littleredrooster]

Can't remember if it was on PH or my 'other' bike forum that someone said that if you book a hotel - even a single night - via BF as part of a holiday package, the fare is substantially reduced (25% IIRC). This, I believe, can only be done by phone, but they have a list of affiliated hotels on their site.

I've never tried it myself as we have membership of Club Voyage so we get the discounts anyway. It's worth every penny of the annual fee, BTW.

[blueg33]

Interesting. For a Spain road trip , I always favour Santander. I like the longer ferry crossing, you get a full nights sleep and don't have to get up early. You can have a leisurely rather than a rushed breakfast, and as soon as you are off the ferry, you are at the start of the action

I always use Portsmouth St Malo for my French Road trips, but the drive down the autoroute to Spain for 7 hours plus is boring and the last thing I want from a road trip. The Santander route feels more like a mini cruise than a ferry.

[omniflow]

blueg33 said:

Interesting. For a Spain road trip , I always favour Santander. I like the longer ferry crossing, you get a full nights sleep and don't have to get up early. You can have a leisurely rather than a rushed breakfast, and as soon as you are off the ferry, you are at the start of the action

I always use Portsmouth St Malo for my French Road trips, but the drive down the autoroute to Spain for 7 hours plus is boring and the last thing I want from a road trip. The Santander route feels more like a mini cruise than a ferry.

Yeah - it's all about personal preference and previous experiences.

I made a small omission earlier - if you're starting in San Sebastian then it's 2 hours drive from Santander, so it nets out at only 5.5 hours additional driving and for that you get to spend an extra night in San Sebastian and you save enough money on the ferry crossing to make it a really good night.

[blueg33]

omniflow said:

blueg33 said:

Interesting. For a Spain road trip , I always favour Santander. I like the longer ferry crossing, you get a full nights sleep and don't have to get up early. You can have a leisurely rather than a rushed breakfast, and as soon as you are off the ferry, you are at the start of the action

I always use Portsmouth St Malo for my French Road trips, but the drive down the autoroute to Spain for 7 hours plus is boring and the last thing I want from a road trip. The Santander route feels more like a mini cruise than a ferry.

Yeah - it's all about personal preference and previous experiences.

I made a small omission earlier - if you're starting in San Sebastian then it's 2 hours drive from Santander, so it nets out at only 5.5 hours additional driving and for that you get to spend an extra night in San Sebastian and you save enough money on the ferry crossing to make it a really good night.

I'm normally heading SE from Santander rather than up to San Seb. I think I am addicted to the Pico's.

I generally don't enjoy 7 hours driving in a day, so prefer 4-5 hour max, which means an extra night so I may as well do the night on the ferry.

I have also done the western side of France so many times, I could probably do it in my sleep (a possibility with 7 hours of autoroute).

But as you say, each to his own. My next trip will be St Malo - Grenoble, Route Napoleon, a week in Cannes and then I haven't decided the return route but autoroutes will barely feature.

[Rick101]

I considered the French ports but they are just too far North. I want to be in Spain. Will be in the Exige V6 which is more than capable to cover distance, just not that enjoyable. The Drive from Yorkshire to Portsmouth will be torturous enough.

I'll be looking to do relatively short days, maybe 150km or so, some nice lunch and leisurely stop off's. Having to do 100's of KM autoroute isn't what this trip is about. I'll have to do that for LM and that will be plenty.

[s2sol]

I got the ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo last night. You get woken at 6am local time, 5am UK time. It's a short night!

[littleredrooster]

Rick101 said:

I considered the French ports but they are just too far North. I want to be in Spain. Will be in the Exige V6 which is more than capable to cover distance, just not that enjoyable. The Drive from Yorkshire to Portsmouth will be torturous enough.

I'll be looking to do relatively short days, maybe 150km or so, some nice lunch and leisurely stop off's. Having to do 100's of KM autoroute isn't what this trip is about. I'll have to do that for LM and that will be plenty.

We've done Thirsk -> Portsmouth -> Caen/St. Malo/ or Cherbourg 4 times this year in the MX-5, and Thirsk -> Plymouth -> Santander once. The Santander crossing was particularly rock 'n roll/bouncy and Mrs. Rooster said definitely never again! I'm a reasonably good sailor but felt quite poorly for about 18 hours - it was horrendous.

We also tend to aim for about 150-180km between overnight stops and have leisurely lunches on the way. We're too old to do marathons these days.

Our most often used route/timing is to get the afternoon ferry from Portsmouth (allowing an easy drive down from oop North), arriving in Caen at about 22:00, then a 10-minute drive to an Ibis in Herouville for an early start the next day. Works for us!

[Shnozz]

s2sol said:

I got the ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo last night. You get woken at 6am local time, 5am UK time. It's a short night!

I quite enjoyed the 2 nighter from Portsmouth to Santander. Especially if you book c club lounge so all inclusive food and drink.

Plenty of room between the cars also and the ferry staff all great.

[Rick101]

Nice one. Was a rough sailing last time I did it but now I know I'll go prepared.
Will consider the lounge option if you think it worthwhile. I suppose much more useful on the 2 nighter.

[omniflow]

Rick101 said:

Nice one. Was a rough sailing last time I did it but now I know I'll go prepared.
Will consider the lounge option if you think it worthwhile. I suppose much more useful on the 2 nighter.

On any Brittany Ferries crossing it's well worth digging a bit deeper into the premium cabins / lounge options / priority disembarkation. On the Portsmouth -> Spain boats the lounge is a definite plus, as is priority disembarkation. To be eligible for priority disembarkation you need to have booked a "premium cabin" which used to include the CC lounge for "free". Depending on the boat, priority disembarkation works really well at both ends of the crossing - pretty much first on the boat when departing and same on arriving. It's most useful when arriving back in Portsmouth - you get to passport control ahead of all the motorhomes and motorbikes. It may also prove useful when arriving in Spain, depending on the impact of the EES system.

I haven't worked out the lounge on the new St. Malo boat yet, but I suspect it's also worth doing.

[Rick101]

I just can't get my head around the Northern French ports, as they are so far North.

Even using the Southernmost option, St Malo, that's still 963km away from Santander. 3 tanks of fuel and a full days drive.
It would be more than my drive to Portsmouth and back again!

Yes, the crossing is rough and expensive, but that's what it is. I am absolutely not tramming all the way down to Portsmouth to have the hassle of a ferry to only go 35 miles off the coast of Jersey!

Good tip on calculating the premium cabins. Will look into it, cheers.

[Shnozz]

Rick101 said:

Nice one. Was a rough sailing last time I did it but now I know I'll go prepared.
Will consider the lounge option if you think it worthwhile. I suppose much more useful on the 2 nighter.

To be honest mate, it was well worth it even on the return leg one nighter. For the cost of the upgrade and the fact we ate in there all day and I could have tea/coffee/soft drinks and they had 0% beers by the bottle too. Frustratingly I was only travelling 8 miles from Portsmouth on disembarking!

Definitely worthwhile when you have a full day at sea and a further night on board.

Always welcome to take me up on the offer to split it into two road trips a little apart and leave the car on the trickle charge down at my place.

[blueg33]

I prefer Plymouth Santander, only one night on the Ferry, 24 hours, perfect. Its 3 hours for me to drive to Plymouth and 2 and a quarter to Portsmouth.

[quarryman111]

Confirming that you get (or did!) a 30% reduction on the ferry fare if you book a hotel/hotels through BF; had to be done by phone. They have a huge list of hotels…not just the ones featured in their fixed-route holiday packages…that you can explore online. I’ve always found them to be of a good standard, well-located and reasonably priced.
Also another vote for the one-night-onboard Plymouth-Santander route.

[Boxster5]

Rather than taking the Plymouth/Portsmouth ferry to Northern Spain, we’re opting for the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry crossing then travelling down through France stopping near Poitiers for 2 nights before travelling to San Sebastián for 3 nights, then near Santander for 4 nights before heading into Basque Country inland for 7 nights. We then. head back through France stopping in Cognac for 3 nights and 2 nights in Dieppe then back on the ferry to North East England.

[Boxster5]

Rather than taking the Plymouth/Portsmouth ferry to Northern Spain, we’re opting for the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry crossing then travelling down through France stopping near Poitiers for 2 nights before travelling to San Sebastián for 3 nights, then near Santander for 4 nights before heading into Basque Country inland for 7 nights. We then. head back through France stopping in Cognac for 3 nights and 2 nights in Dieppe then back on the ferry to North East England.