Hi all

Just thought I'd let you know how I went researching and booking a ferry for me and my bike from the UK to Spain.

There are two operators running UK to Spain. Brittany Ferries runs Plymouth to Bilbao, and P&O runs Portsmouth to Santander. Both ferries are approx. 24 hours each way.

For me, the bike and a reclining seat, the cost was £208 with Brittany. Upgrade to a shared 4-berth cabin and the cost is £244 (I went with this one).

Brittany offer cheap fares on certain sailings. Go to the website (link below) and look the the 'schedules' page. The pdf that appears will have some sailing marked with a red (instead of black) square. These are 'reduced fare' sailings. Both legs of my trip are on reduced fare sailings.

P&O do not offer reclining seats (which sound awful anyway) or shared cabins on the Portsmouth-Santander route. This means you have to find a travelling buddy or book a whole cabin to yourself. I'm travelling on my own so the cheapest fare I could get was around £430. When I called to ask about this policy they couldn't give me a reason why they didn't offer shared cabins.

The only downside with Brittany is that Plymouth is more than twice the distance from London as Portsmouth. However, considering the price difference and the fact that an extra couple of hours on the road doesn't compare to a 700-mile dash through Spain to Morocco, the Brittany option made more sense.

Links to websites:

Brittany Ferries:
http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/

P&O:
http://www.poportsmouth.com/

Hope this info was useful to you.

Barry

__________________
Barry
XT600Z 3AJ Tenere (rebuild in progress)
SRX600

I think riding there will be allot more fun

Depends .
Taking the national routes will take at least 2 days , more like 3.
The motorways across France are tolled and boring .

Hey, thanks for the research and the websites. We will definatly be using this info for the summer.
danette

Hi Penguin

The answer is to motorway boredom is simple - use the Routes Nationales!
But if you want to move on quickly-well thats what autoroutes are for...

Bonne route!
Denis

HI

I have a return booked, with a cabin to myself (Cos my mates can't understand why anyone would want to go to Africa to ride on tracks when there's perfectly good tarmac round here), from Portsmouth on P+O.

I was quoted £352 return by P+O. but "Allsports Logistics" quoted £304.


So it all ended happily(apart from the no mates bit)

David at Allsports can be found on +44 (0)1873 859500

Cheers Simon.

I use Motorsport Travel, they are always cheaper than booking direct with the ferry companies, this year £187 Newcastel-Amsterdam went in 2004 with DFDS booked direct thought i would save money cost me £340 , Hollyhead-Dublin £56 going Easter Monday, great service
Motorsport Travel 01759 301010

Discounts are also available for P&O through "Bike" magazine and the BMF.

There is a new Portsmouth - Bilbao servcie being advertised as commencing on 16 May. I do not know how they will compare in terms of cost. Further information can can be found at: http://www.southernferries.co.uk/ATferries.html

I have tried these P+O discounts in MCN most are a con i got the same price quoting ref number as i did going direct