Martin J Stirling

I'm planning a driving holiday next month in France and was wondering if anyone has any experience of the cheapest way to get over there and back with a car?

The cheapest ten day return fare I have come across is around 250 quid, yet you can buy a day return, with car, for around £20. I was thinking of buying a day return for the outward journey with one ferry company and then buying another day return for the return leg with another company, saving £200 in the process. Has anyone tried this, is there any way I could get found out?

Very cheeky I know, but I'd rather spend the money on beer

Any ideas?

MS

Chip

Maybe worth a try, but I have recently read that the ferry companies have caught onto this and have ways of checking. This can be easily done as all tickets are logged on computer so they will know that you have not sailed out with them in the first place.

Whatever way you go over you'll have a good time as the roads are superb in france.

Chip.

HunterB

So, could you not buy one day return in England and another in France (if you can buy one at the same kinda price)? Can't see how they can force you to use the return part of your ticket - you could have lost it! £20 one-way is a good deal anyway.

Brian

druddle

well, one of the family works at a certain ferry company beginning with p and ending in o so.........

basic rate for the crossing is 284 quid. if you buy a return crossing for the day outward and another one for the journey back then you get caught by the t's and c's and end up paying alot more than 284 quid for 2 one-way tickets !!!

try ferry.co.uk, they are the easyjet of the ferry world (run by p&o) and they do the crossing for about 165 quid.

dave



[This message has been edited by druddle (edited 01 August 2001).]

Martin J Stirling

I'm unsure whether to give it a go or not. I spoke to a guy at P&O today and he said that they'll invoice you the full ticket price if you don't use both legs of the ticket. Is this legal? Surely they can't make you use both legs if you don't wish to!?

I have a contact in France who can buy a French day trip ticket for me, but I don't want them to be clobbered with the full fare if it all goes pear shaped.

Anyone else have any ideas?

MS

chelsie_uk

Hi Martin

Shark and I have just come back from France,

we went on internet to look for the best deals, and we found this,
just the two of us in our Scooby
with France crossing and we paid £155.00.
This covers you only for a five day trip,
then once your there and you want to use the motorways,
then you pay from £10.00 up wards every so many miles,
can get expensive but the motorways are the quickest roads to get where your going,
also there lovely and quite because the french wont pay so they use the B roads

hope this helps a little

chel

Steve Williams

Best way (and my mate has done it lots..... once with me in car)

Get day return with channel tunnel.....
(have to leave, in chunnel, early)

Get day return with ferry company...
(leave early again)

Use one each way (only using outward leg of each ticket), but and this is the CLEVER BIT, when you get the ticket give one address (homeward one) as a house in France.... it helps that my mate is french...

Bobs your uncle......

SteveB

iTrader: (1)

Martin,

Not sure if air travel is classed differentl to sea travel but I fly a fair bit and our company looks to minimise the cost wherever possible. The travel agent we use regularly issues us with "back to back" tickets. The same as you are suggesting for the sea crossing. I find it unbeleivable sometimes that I have two tickets unused at the end of a trip that I have to throw in the bin.

Steve.