How / where should I cross the Channel to go on my first motorcycle trip abroad?

I do the trip regularly in a car, I come down through Warwickshire on the M40 but the M25 is very unpredictable

To avoid delays or having to leave hours in advance, nowadays I just drive down and stay the night before in the Holiday Inn Express Folkeston Channel Tunnel hotel, it’s a couple of minutes from the terminal

Holiday Inn Express Folkestone Channel Tunnel By IHG - Guest Reservations

As an independent booking service offering over 100,000 hotels worldwide, we can get you the same deals you expect with a bigger travel agency or direct from the hotel.
www.guestreservations.com www.guestreservations.com


I tend to do similar coming back too, used this place last time, will use it again

Accommodations | The Originals Hotels

www.theoriginalshotels.com www.theoriginalshotels.com
 
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I personally very much fond of an overnight Portsmouth —> St. Malo crossing in Brittany Ferries. Departure is just after 8pm. You get you dinner, a few start of the trip chilled out drinks and a bed for the night. There is now a brand new boat (called St. Malo) on this crossing. Meaning all of the cabins will be fresh and not as tyres after 35 years of daily use on a now departed Bretagne.
You arrive in St. Malo at circa 8am and can be out the port and on the road by 9am. To get to Spain, is a 2 days jaunt whilst avoiding motorways.

However. It is cheaper still to get a Brittany Ferries boat from Plymouth to Santander. Yes you will be in the boat for near 24h, but your tyres won’t be squared off, and essentially you will have a complete two days (for each leg of the journey) of riding still in the bag.

I’ve come across this video not long ago. Yes it is a few years old now, but the theory is still same today as it was back then.

 
Flintlock said:
Through Wales
Ferry to Rosslare
Ferry Rosslare Bilbao
Picos or Pyrenees from there
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Cheaper for sure, but hell of a long journey and timing is silly early/late from what I did hear.
 
Albeit in a van, Poole-Cherbourg is our normal route across for heading south, just seems more relaxed , certainly compared to Dover\Folkestone routes, a few more miles to drive off the Cherbourg peninsula before getting to the main routes south but worth it in my opinion. Fairly easy ride from Warickshire too.
 
EVskij said:
However. It is cheaper still to get a Brittany Ferries boat from Plymouth to Santander. Yes you will be in the boat for near 24h
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interesting point and great video. Indeed if time is of the essence ferry seems to be the most logical. Good to know for future.....thanks Ev
 
I always use the tunnel and it's a long way from the Scottish highlands!
Overnight in / near Ashford, get an early train and, as soon as you get off it in France, you're clear to go as all passport control is done before you board.
I've had some long delays getting off the ferry and through passport controls.
 
DevonAl said:
Albeit in a van, Poole-Cherbourg is our normal route across for heading south, just seems more relaxed , certainly compared to Dover\Folkestone routes, a few more miles to drive off the Cherbourg peninsula before getting to the main routes south but worth it in my opinion. Fairly easy ride from Warickshire too.
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Agree we like Poole but then we used to live 20 mins drive away so the only departure at 08:30 wasn't a problem. However if coming from further away you'd likely want an overnight in Poole (or somewhere close by).
 
Runnerboy said:
I have started you a fresh thread under a fresh heading.

Richard

Great thread (https://www.ukgser.com/community/threads/my-two-week-5-country-euro-trip-2024.429097/) has helped us get our arses in gear and now we are planning our first Eurotrip for late March, at least first on the GS rather than a car or plane!
Some advice please from the great and the good here, thinking tunnel to Calais as ferries to Sant/Bilbao/ Le H all seem tricky in terms of dates and price, but main worry is getting stuck at a queue in Dover, or is that not an issue on 2 wheels?
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Humble apologies if this is teaching granny to suck eggs but if this is your first long trip on the bike then consider the fatigue aspect and don't overdo the length of daily trips, at least during the first few days. If you've been over in a car or van before then that'll really help but I've seen a number of euro trips by first-timers come to grief due to either dozing off on the bike (resulting once in a couple on a K100 gracefully entering one of the famous French deep road-side ditches and needing les Pompiers to get it out) or just making a brief mistake eg when exiting a one-way street or a petrol station and forgetting about driving on the right.
 
Viamichelin will compare the cost of routes on toll roads if you change the settings to your vehicle type - this route from Caen to Pau shows two options, one costing 75 euros with no tolls, the other 135 with 55 in tolls. The cheaper route is 35 miles shorter but takes over 3 hours longer.

For me, when you start looking at these costs for travelling through France to get to Spain, add on that you will probably use a hotel for at least one night and of course use a lot of time and energy, I'm taking the ferry to Santander from Plymouth. It departs at 1645 so plenty of time to ride there the same day from Warwick, beer, dinner, more beer, sleep and on the road at lunchtime the next day. Just 22 hours on board. I am paying under £480 for a return crossing including a cabin, booked last July for a trip in May/June this year. Although, booking this late for March might be spendier.
 
wessie said:
Viamichelin will compare the cost of routes on toll roads if you change the settings to your vehicle type - this route from Caen to Pau shows two options, one costing 75 euros with no tolls, the other 135 with 55 in tolls. The cheaper route is 35 miles shorter but takes over 3 hours longer.
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+1 Viamichelin is very handy for working out relative costs.
wessie said:
Although, booking this late for March might be spendier.
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Possibly worth noting that Plymouth Millbay Docks is shut until 2nd April.
 
leadfarmer said:
I do the trip regularly in a car, I come down through Warwickshire on the M40 but the M25 is very unpredictable

To avoid delays or having to leave hours in advance, nowadays I just drive down and stay the night before in the Holiday Inn Express Folkeston Channel Tunnel hotel, it’s a couple of minutes from the terminal

Holiday Inn Express Folkestone Channel Tunnel By IHG - Guest Reservations

As an independent booking service offering over 100,000 hotels worldwide, we can get you the same deals you expect with a bigger travel agency or direct from the hotel.
www.guestreservations.com www.guestreservations.com


I tend to do similar coming back too, used this place last time, will use it again

Accommodations | The Originals Hotels

www.theoriginalshotels.com www.theoriginalshotels.com
Click to expand...
That’s what we did in January this year. It does make the trip less stressful as one isn’t trying to keep on time for the crossing. Luckily for us it was our last time doing the long drive south from Yorkshire. We don’t have a dog anymore so will be using the North Sea ferry from Hull from now on. Happy days 👍🏻.
 
Runnerboy said:
Just saw Newhaven to Dieppe return for much less. Not as comfy as the Brittany offering, only 4 hours each way. Anyone have any experience of that route?
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my preferred route always , i do overnight , cos it spits you out at 0500 to empty roads .
take a blanket , kip in the chairs , cabins are £90 for 5 hours , i'm a cheapskate so i don't . leave helmet with the bike , hold is locked while sailing.
if over 60 RING for your booking = oap discount.

i don't do m'ways on holiday , N roads rarely have lots of traffic , and the frogs are very bike friendly .
just check cities for ulez stuff.
 
Wapping said:
OP, it seems you live in Warwickshire and want to ride your motorcycle to Spain. Is that correct?

You have looked at crossings to San (Sebastian) / Bilbao / Le H(avre) and rejected them on the grounds of cost or the dates. Is that correct?

If so….

A. Have you looked at the other north west French coast ports, Caen, Cherbourg, Roscoff and St Malo?

B. If you have and you’ve rejected them too, then your choices are basically:

1. Newhaven to Dieppe or Dover to Dunkirk.

2. Chunnel Folkestone to Calais

3. Dover sailing to Calais

4. Harwich to the Hook of Holland. Given that you seem to live in Warwickshire and seem to be heading to Spain, does this really work?

C. If you have already rejected option 1, you are left with options 2 and 3. Your only concern over these crossings is queues. Queues can occur at the Chunnel, for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:

1. Volume of passengers, particularly around the popular crossing dates (bank holidays / the start of the school holidays / popular crossing times ie. Friday or Saturday mornings).

2. Technical problems with the train / the tunnel itself.

3. Problems with the M25 / M20 / M2.

Are they enough to put you (or indeed, me) off on a crossing in ‘late March’? They shouldn’t, not least as it’s not Easter this year and it’s not the school holidays.

Are queues a problem on a motorcycle? Less than if you are in a car / lorry but being on a motorcycle does not in anyway speed the Chunnel’s repair of technical issues and / or the operation of the train itself. Will being on a bike speed you along a queue? If you are prepared to filter and / or (possibly rudely) push in, then maybe yes.

Will the Dover to Calais ferry be delayed / have queues? Maybe, who knows? The most common delays / queues are caused by bad weather / the M25 / M20 / M2 / problems with the Chunnel / popular (high demand) crossing times. Will they occur in ‘late March’? Who knows? Should they be enough to put you / me off? They shouldn’t.

In all this, remember that you have got to come back, where the same queues might occur, for pretty much the same reasons. By crossing to / from north eastern France, you have also extended your likely journey time to and from Spain, to some degree or another.

Me? I’d chose the crossing(s) that suited my wallet / destination / starting and return points / time available best. That might well lead to a compromise but, you can’t have everything in life. Queues? I generally can’t control them (unless I use less popular crossing times, which should mitigate many of the causes) so I’d put that concern to one side.

Failing all that?

1. Look at flying to Spain and bike hire.

2. Go to Wales.

3. Enjoy your holiday; you’ll be fine.

:beerjug:
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Thanks for the detailed response, we want to tour in Europe so we will be going one way or another. Great advice, JFDI!
 
Snaf said:
Portsmouth, Poole or Plymouth for us every time but then we're starting from the west country and always have bikes in van. All the other ports are for heading East imo and when we have used them you have to allow for M25/20 hold ups or stress of worrying about them. The initial routes heading south west in France are not much better.
Caen/Cherbourg, St Malo or Roscoff and you're onto much more relaxed roads from the offset. Overnight ferry with decent cabin and you're off to a good early start and full days ride to take you SW.
I can't recall what the motorway toll situation is (do bikes pay them).
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Meet us there Rob….?!
 
MrC99 said:
Humble apologies if this is teaching granny to suck eggs but if this is your first long trip on the bike then consider the fatigue aspect and don't overdo the length of daily trips, at least during the first few days. If you've been over in a car or van before then that'll really help but I've seen a number of euro trips by first-timers come to grief due to either dozing off on the bike (resulting once in a couple on a K100 gracefully entering one of the famous French deep road-side ditches and needing les Pompiers to get it out) or just making a brief mistake eg when exiting a one-way street or a petrol station and forgetting about driving on the right.
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Thanks good shout on fatigue, will be mindful. We’ve done the car a couple of times. We ride most weekends here, long loops generally around 250 - 350 miles. This will only be the second long ride of the year, so caution noted and well received.
 
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