UKC

Just back from roadtrip to Cham, here's the facts if you didn't already know them:

-Calais to Cham is about 8 hours driving on clear roads going just about

-When adding up costs remember to add 120 euros for the tolls.

-Last minute ferries can be booked from Dover to Calais for about £90, however this was a five day pass, if we'd have gone longer it may have been expensive.

-We found somewhere to stay for 11 euros a night in cham, will see if i can find details of the place.

-The cremerie had plenty to occupy us punters for a few days and also looked like there was some more hard stuff there for people perhaps a little better than us.

Some photos below give an idea,

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/~balmerm/4.jpg
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/~balmerm/6.jpg
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/~balmerm/7.jpg

Go do it!

In reply to Matt_b:

seems like u gad a good trip

We did it once in Minibus from Reading!!! ouch, then flight and hire cars - costly and then on National Express, very cheap on not a bad idea.

In reply to Matt_b:

The cheapest ferries around at the moment are from Dover to Boulogne - £50 return with www.speedferries.com (up to 6 people in the car with no extra cost). You don't want to miss the sailing time though, and obviously more liable to be cancelled in rough conditions.

In reply to Matt_b:

Being a tight bastard I can tell everyone that Calais to Cham is about 11 hours if you don't use the toll Motorways and go via Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Try doing that after you have been on 3 day bender.......f*cking hell on earth!

In reply to Matt_b:

Other useful ones - the tunnel is also not too expensive (<£100) if booked early enough.

Buy fuel at supermarkets, not service stations - diesel in particular seems much cheaper.

The best chance of not getting knackered is to ALWAYS change drivers every 2 hours, whether you think you need to or not !

In reply to Matt_b:
I just booked 1 month in the summer ferry pass from dover to calais £92 not bad considering you would be looking at around £300- 400 in the summer and i am going in august. Book early and save money!

Last year i flew ryan air to Lyon and then caught the train, it took me a day and a half to get to Cham from England and probably cost us £120 one way per person and we had major constraints on gear we could take. I recon driving breaks even with two people + in the car and if you have more than 2 people it becomes cheaper. Driving is also quicker than flying (Jeremy Clarkson proved it whilst racing Hammonad and May to Switzerland!)

Hope my findings may be usefull to thoes deciding weather to drive of fly!

In reply to robbo1row:
but why fly to Lyon ? Geneva is much closer

also, as said above speedferry.com seems the cheapest channel crossing at the moment (less than £92)

In reply to Matt_b: We flew to lyon because it was cheaper than geneva, but paid for it in time and on the trains.

In reply to Matt_b: you can avoid road tolls by turning left off the ferry, travellingdown the borderd of beguim etc, pick up europes cheapest diesel in luxembourg, drive alon the german border and hence down to cham, put four in the car and your saving hte environment as well!

In reply to Matt_b: Wow, why not fly to geneva £90 return and get a transfer to cham?

In reply to jimbo g:

I travelled with SpeedFerries last summer - end of July out and end of August return. Cost about £65. I got an earlier sailing than the one I had booked and only had to pay £10 extra. Thoroughly impressed - plan to do same again this summer.