1. If you can possibly help it, travel during the week. Weekends are always exceptionally crowded and will most likely annoy you because the ferry will be bustling. Travelling in the week is often much better with Sunday to Thursday being better for outbound journeys and Monday to Friday being better for returning
2. Avoid travelling on the overnight ferry if you want to save money because it is more expensive. Ferries to destinations a little further away than France may go overnight but they are required to provide you with accommodation, which is obviously more expensive. Travelling during the day is much cheaper in many cases as a result.
3. Conventional ferries are much cheaper than the faster ones. The faster services are express travel and you have to pay for that. Think along the lines of a normal flight and travelling on concord – you’d expect the latter to be more expensive than the former so you should expect the same of the ferries.
4. Look for open tickets. Some providers and ferry services offer open tickets so you can return within a week or five days when you want. There aren’t many of these offers around but they do tend to offer real value for money. If you’re going away for a short break then they’re perfect because you can come back to the UK whenever you like.
5. Compare for the best deals. There are so many ferry providers heading to the various destinations so make sure that you compare the fares to get the best possible deals. You can save a lot of money overall so why pay more than you have to?
6. Give all the details the travel provider wants in regards your car. Some will ask the dimensions of you car so give them accurate information. If you don’t then you could end up paying extra when you arrive at the port or not even being allowed to take your car on board.

Guest Article by Louise Crowley

A: No. UKferrytickets is an eCommerce website and we do not produce brochures for any of our products. All the information you are likely to need can be found on either our website or in our email newsletters.

A: UKferrytickets offer you the BEST ferry booking technology available today. Other ferry booking engines force you to choose a ‘carrier’ and ‘route’ BEFORE you can get a quotation, making it frustrating and time-consuming to find and compare the best fares. UKferrytickets uses sophisticated web technology to simultaneously check and return all the best prices from all the relevant carriers WITH JUST ONE SEARCH. Just try it and see how easy it is. We even present your choices in price order with the cheapest at the top.

Our engine is clearly the quickest way to sift through all the most competitive prices from all the major carriers and routes. We are objective and independent and we have no vested interest in persuading you to book anything other than the best possible fare to suit your particular travel requirements.

Once you’ve chosen a fare, your booking is made directly with the carrier through a secure, live connection and your confirmation is instant.

A: Onboard shopping facilities vary from carrier to carrier but most ferries stock beers, wines, spirits, confectionary, perfumes & gifts as well as newspapers, magazines and souvenirs. Eurotunnel has extensive shopping facilities within its terminal buildings and a small shop in each Flexiplus lounge next to the loading lanes.

A: Duty Free shopping is available on all sailings to and from The Channel Islands.  On all other routes within the EU, ports and carriers tend to sell discounted wines, spirits, tobacco, confectionery and gifts in their shops but, even though they can often be very good value, they are not Duty Free.

A: This varies from carrier to carrier but most ferries are reasonably well equipped for disabled passengers.  Special services include:

• Positioning your car close to doors and lifts on the car deck
• Providing wheelchairs in the port, terminal building or onboard
• Access to specially designed cabins onboard
• Reserved seating area on the ship

A: All carriers are obliged to provide facilities for disabled travellers. If you require wheelchair assistance or if you are interested to know what special facilities and services are provided before you make your booking, please call the port and the carrier directly or visit their web sites.

A: Yes. Most carriers can arrange wheelchairs onboard ship, subject to limited availability. Please contact the carrier directly for full information and to make a reservation.

A: Yes. Disabled travellers or those with reduced mobility can request special cabins where the location and design are better suited for wheelchair access and any specific requirements should be specified at the time of booking. If in doubt, please contact the carrier for full information on the disabled cabin choices for each vessel.

A: This message means that you have selected routes that must be paid for in different currencies. Therefore to get a price you must do a separate quote for each route.

e.g. Dover-Calais (GBP) and Ancona-Patras (EUR) must be done as 2 separate single bookings.