Getting a good ferry deal from the UK

The best time to buy a ferry ticket is probably between October and March. During this time deals for the following year abound. Good deals can be found throughout the year especially by using the Internet. lastminute.com might be a good place to start - they offer a service where they will locate the cheapest fare for your journey on a given route and date. Also try ferrysavers.co.uk who try to find you the cheapest deal. We've deliberately chosen Wednesday as our change-over day to ensure you don't pay top prices for your ferry!

BY SEA

Brittany Ferries

Plymouth to Roscoff - day crossing time is 6 hours. Overnight sailings from Plymouth arrive at 06.30 next day. Overnight sailings from Roscoff arrive at 06.00 next day. Ships operating this route: Pont L'Abbe (elderly boat, but new to Brittany Ferries), and Pont-Aven - Brittany Ferries' magnificent flagship. Beauty and the Beast?

Portsmouth to St-Malo - day crossing time is 8 hrs 45 minutes. Overnight sailings from Portsmouth arrive 08.00 next day. At St Malo, tidal conditions may lead to variations in departure and arrival times - this is shown on tickets. Ship operating this route: Bretagne.

Poole to Cherbourg - conventional cruise-ferry crossing time is 4 hours 15 minutes. Fastcraft crossing time is 2 hours 15 minutes. The ships operating this route are: Barfleur, Normandie Vitesse (fastcraft).

Portsmouth to Cherbourg - from March to October , the day crossing time is 3 hours in the High Speed Normandie Express. From October to March there is a traditional ferry serving this route.

Portsmouth to Caen also leaves you with an easy four-hour drive to La Roche-Bernard - and driving in France is so much more pleasant and less stressful than driving in the UK! Classic cruise ferry: 5 hours 45 minutes (day); 7 hours (overnight); High Speed: 3 hours 45 minutes . Ships operating this route are: Mont St Michel, Normandie, Normandie Express.

Cork to Roscoff - crossing time is 12 hours. Ships operating this route: Pont-Aven - that magnificent flagship, with state-of-the-art facilities and superbly appointed cabins. (The luck of the Irish.)

Incidentally, if your route takes you via Rennes there is an excellent Ringroad (La Rocade) which takes you easily around this busy city. You just need to know which exit to take: follow the sign for Nantes-Lorient!

Condor Ferries

Condor Ferries runs a high-speed service between Poole/Weymouth and St-Malo though it can be trying on a rough crossing.

Poole to St-Malo - usually from May to October; one crossing daily - just under 6 hours.

Weymouth to St-Malo - normally May -September daily (calling at the Channel Islands)

Portsmouth to Cherbourg. This service operates on Sundays only between 15th July and 9th September. Crossing time 5 hours 30 minutes. Prices on this route start from £106 return for a car & 2 passengers.

P&O European Ferries

P&O now offer just the route from Dover to Calais.

L D Lines

LD Lines run a passenger and freight service between Portsmouth and Le Havre, Rosslare to Le Havre, Newhaven to Dieppe, and Dover to Boulogne.

Speed-Ferries

A brand-new service operates between Dover and Boulogne, cars/passengers only, and it takes a mere 50 minutes. The web-site claims "a booking is always amendable - even if you miss the ferry". Go to <www.speedferries.com> for details.

Irish Ferries

Irish Ferries take you from Rosslare to Roscoff, or Rosslare to Cherbourg. We haven't had the opportunity to travel with them, so can't offer any opinion. The ferry is the Normandy.

Hoverspeed Fast Ferries

Hoverspeed run services from Dover to Calais and Folkestone to Boulogne.

SeaFrance

SeaFrance also do Dover to Calais. What a choice you have in the south-east!

BY CAR AND RAIL

Le Shuttle Channel Tunnel service takes you to Calais, and is great for poor sailors!

BY RAIL

Eurostar run an excellent service which takes you from London to Lille in two hours. Change at Lille and travel to either Vannes or Auray, which takes another 5 hours - but on a super-fast French train (the TGV) which runs to the minute and is very comfortable! You can come via Paris, but it means changing stations....

BY AIR

Nantes is the nearest airport to La Roche-Bernard.

Air France operates a Brit Air service daily from London-Gatwick to Rennes, Nantes and Brest, a service we often use, as Nantes Airport is only 40 minutes away.

Aer Lingus will fly you from Dublin via Cork to Rennes. (Rennes Airport is on the south-west of the city, so is convenient for your onward journey to La Roche-Bernard.)

Aer Arann has announced it will start two new routes in the spring of 2006 to the west coast of France. The low-cost airline will fly six days a week from Luton to Lorient Airport, in the south of Brittany, with the service expected to start on March 26, 2006. And a day later Aer Arann will begin flying twice a week from Kerry Airport, in Ireland, to Lorient, with flights operating on Monday and Friday. Aer Arann already flies to Lorient from three other Irish airports, Galway, Waterford and Cork, and the addition of Kerry is being seen as a way to boost the local area. May 2006 - Flights begin from Cork to Nantes and from Manchester to Nantes.

There are excellent Ryanair services from London Stanstead, East Midlands, Shannon and Dublin to Nantes, and from Luton to Dinard. If you book early enough, you can get flights for a few pounds. Hiring a car is thus a cheap prospect, compared with the present ludicrously inflated ferry prices.

Other low-cost airlines such as bmibaby and Flybe have recently announced new routes for summer 2005, including Southampton - Rennes. There is talk of a possible link to Lorient from the south-west of the UK.

American visitors may well fly to Paris and hire a car. The journey from Paris to La Roche-Bernard takes just over 5 hours by car, but there are good deals to be had with the SNCF railways using the TGV, price including a hire car (pick up in Nantes or Vannes). Otherwise, to fly to Brittany, change at Paris and come to Nantes (under 1 hour from La Roche-Bernard).

FLYBE has announced it will start flights between Southampton and Cherbourg, pitching itself against the cross-Channel ferry companies. They also offer Exeter, Southampton and Birmingham to Brest.

Also Air Wales are planning to begin flights to Rennes on March 27 from Cardiff, Manchester, Jersey and Waterford, in Ireland. However, there seem to be problems (March 19th) with the Cardiff flights, so please check carefully.

Breaking the Journey

If you plan to break your journey - for example if you are travelling from Calais and have time to spare - then you will find it easy to get cheap and convenient rooms for the night in France. The new breed of low-cost, no-frills hotels, usually on the outskirts of towns or by motorways, has boomed in recent years. Try:

Campanile (0033 825 003 003; www.campanile.fr)

Etap (0033 323 67 03 34; www.etaphotel.com)

Fasthotel (0033 142 35 26 00; www.fasthotel.com)

Formula 1 (0208 283 4500; www.hotelformule1.com)

Mister Bed (0033 146 143 800; www.misterbed.fr)

All the above have no-frills accommodation starting at about £20 per room or less. Just roll up and pay by credit card. (Best to book ahead in August, though.)

Balladins (www.balladins.com)

Ibis (0208 283 4550; www.ibishotel.com)

The two above are a little more up-market, and prices for a room start from around £36.