Bicycles on Brittany Ferries

[Paul]

What ever happened to integrated transport? As rail travel with bikes gets
ever harder (eg the withdrawal of online booking by The Trainline), now even
ferries seem to be making it difficult to book online for bikes.

Here is Brittany Ferries FAQ on booking bicycles:

Can I book a group of motorbikes/bicycles?
A10. You can make more than one booking for a group, but each individual
booking is limited to one vehicle. The same applies to bookings made by
telephone. If you want to book 2 people with 2 motorbikes/bicycles, you must
make 2 separate bookings.

Having seen the long booking process, that's great fun for a family of 5
with tandems! I give up - they win!

Paul

 

[Paul]

I suppose the tandems make it easier - it would be five seperate booking
processes if we were all on solos.

Paul

 

[NC]

Paul wrote:
> What ever happened to integrated transport? As rail travel with bikes
> gets ever harder (eg the withdrawal of online booking by The
> Trainline), now even ferries seem to be making it difficult to book
> online for bikes.
> Here is Brittany Ferries FAQ on booking bicycles:
>
> Can I book a group of motorbikes/bicycles?
> A10. You can make more than one booking for a group, but each
> individual booking is limited to one vehicle. The same applies to
> bookings made by telephone. If you want to book 2 people with 2
> motorbikes/bicycles, you must make 2 separate bookings.
>
> Having seen the long booking process, that's great fun for a family
> of 5 with tandems! I give up - they win!


I'll put in a plug for the Eurotunnel service; little known but its there.
It would take your tandems.
They load bikes onto a special vehicle, then carry you and the bikes through
the tunnel.
If you have a car with you to get to the pickup (at their admin building
near, but not at, the tunnel entrance), you can park it for free.
Alternatively, get there by train.

http://www.eurotunnel.com/ukcMain/ukcBoarding/ukpBoardCycle



- Nigel


--
NC - Webmaster for http://www.2mm.org.uk/
Replies to newsgroup postings to the newsgroup please.

 

[Gonzalez]

On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 18:05:03 -0000, "Paul" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>What ever happened to integrated transport? As rail travel with bikes gets
>ever harder (eg the withdrawal of online booking by The Trainline), now even
>ferries seem to be making it difficult to book online for bikes.
>
>Here is Brittany Ferries FAQ on booking bicycles:
>
>Can I book a group of motorbikes/bicycles?
>A10. You can make more than one booking for a group, but each individual
>booking is limited to one vehicle. The same applies to bookings made by
>telephone. If you want to book 2 people with 2 motorbikes/bicycles, you must
>make 2 separate bookings.

I've always found that you can wheel a bike onto a ferry without any
special booking.

However, the only crossings I have taken with a bike are BF's
Portsmouth to St Malo and Townsend Thoresen's Dover to Calais.

And, of course, the Woolwich Ferry.

 

[JohnB]

Gonzalez wrote:

> I've always found that you can wheel a bike onto a ferry without any
> special booking.
>
> However, the only crossings I have taken with a bike are BF's
> Portsmouth to St Malo and Townsend Thoresen's Dover to Calais.

Ditto, and I've never had a problem.

I gave up booking when I approached a travel agent to book us on the
Portsmouth - Le Havre, and they insisted that the Burley trailer had to
go at the same rate as that for car pulled trailers (squillions of
pounds per foot).
When I said 'just book the "tandems then" (one a trike), they then said
they couldn't as I'd already said I'd be taking a trailer as well. I was dumbfounded.

In the end we just rode down to Portsmouth cycled on to the ferry with a
cheery wave from the crew.
Of course the trailer cost nowt.

John B

 

[the.Mark]

Paul wrote:
> What ever happened to integrated transport? As rail travel
> with bikes gets ever harder (eg the withdrawal of online
> booking by The Trainline), now even ferries seem to be making
> it difficult to book online for bikes.
> Here is Brittany Ferries FAQ on booking bicycles:
>
> Can I book a group of motorbikes/bicycles?
> A10. You can make more than one booking for a group, but each
> individual booking is limited to one vehicle. The same applies
> to bookings made by telephone. If you want to book 2 people
> with 2 motorbikes/bicycles, you must make 2 separate bookings.
>
> Having seen the long booking process, that's great fun for a
> family of 5 with tandems! I give up - they win!
>
> Paul

Tie the bikes together and call the one behind a trailer. I'll bet a trailer
behind a car does't need a seperate booking. I'm not completely serious here
but what would they say to those kids bikes that can sometimes be used as
tag alongs (not sure what they're called).

--
Mark

1x1 wheel, 3x2 wheels & 1x3 wheels.

 

[JohnB]

"the.Mark" wrote:

>
> Tie the bikes together and call the one behind a trailer. I'll bet a trailer
> behind a car does't need a seperate booking.

Sorry but they do and see my post about an attempt [1] to charge my
Burley as such :-(

[1] albeit by a travel agent

John B

 

[BrianW]

the.Mark wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>> What ever happened to integrated transport? As rail travel
>> with bikes gets ever harder (eg the withdrawal of online
>> booking by The Trainline), now even ferries seem to be making
>> it difficult to book online for bikes.
>> Here is Brittany Ferries FAQ on booking bicycles:
>>
>> Can I book a group of motorbikes/bicycles?
>> A10. You can make more than one booking for a group, but each
>> individual booking is limited to one vehicle. The same applies
>> to bookings made by telephone. If you want to book 2 people
>> with 2 motorbikes/bicycles, you must make 2 separate bookings.
>>
>> Having seen the long booking process, that's great fun for a
>> family of 5 with tandems! I give up - they win!
>>
>> Paul
>
> Tie the bikes together and call the one behind a trailer. I'll bet a
> trailer behind a car does't need a seperate booking. I'm not
> completely serious here but what would they say to those kids bikes
> that can sometimes be used as tag alongs (not sure what they're
> called).

Or put them on a roof rack! The only difference that made was that we had to
register as "overheight".

Brian

 

[David Martin]

the.Mark wrote:

>
> Tie the bikes together and call the one behind a trailer. I'll bet a trailer
> behind a car does't need a seperate booking. I'm not completely serious here
> but what would they say to those kids bikes that can sometimes be used as
> tag alongs (not sure what they're called).

A car trailer does need a separate booking. What was more interesting
was booking a trailer (with a boat on it) but no car (to go from
Kristiansand to Newcastle). That took rather a lot of perplexed phone
calls and it eventually travelled as freight.

Getting it onto the ferry the way we did would probably be illegal now
under the EU port regs but was sensible at the time.

...d

 

[David Martin]

JohnB wrote:
> "the.Mark" wrote:
>
>
>>Tie the bikes together and call the one behind a trailer. I'll bet a trailer
>>behind a car does't need a seperate booking.
>
>
> Sorry but they do and see my post about an attempt [1] to charge my
> Burley as such :-(

Call it a wheeled suitcase you can attatch to your bike..

...d

 

[Jon Senior]

David Martin wrote:
> Getting it onto the ferry the way we did would probably be illegal now
> under the EU port regs but was sensible at the time.

I'm intrigued... did you float it out?

Jon

 

[David Martin]

Jon Senior wrote:
> David Martin wrote:
>
>> Getting it onto the ferry the way we did would probably be illegal now
>> under the EU port regs but was sensible at the time.
>
>
> I'm intrigued... did you float it out?

No. We drove onto the ferry, deposited the trailer and drove off again.
As the vehicle which did the towing was not registered on entry to the
port (and hence definitely not registered for going on board the ship),
it would be illegal to do so now under the new EU port regs. The
alternative would have been to deposit the trailer in an appropriate
place and the dockers would have had to load it, after finding a vehicle
with the right type of tow hitch (they usually tow HGV trailers).

So as we were early they said to just drive it on, leave it on the boat
where instructed, and drive off again. Then I should go to the terminal
for foot passengers.

...d

 

[JohnB]

David Martin wrote:
>
> JohnB wrote:
> > "the.Mark" wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Tie the bikes together and call the one behind a trailer. I'll bet a trailer
> >>behind a car does't need a seperate booking.
> >
> > Sorry but they do and see my post about an attempt [1] to charge my
> > Burley as such :-(
>
> Call it a wheeled suitcase you can attatch to your bike..

The thought of taking my daughter on tour in a suitcase has made me
chuckle ;-)

John B

 

[JohnB]

David Martin wrote:
>
> JohnB wrote:
> > "the.Mark" wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Tie the bikes together and call the one behind a trailer. I'll bet a trailer
> >>behind a car does't need a seperate booking.
> >
> > Sorry but they do and see my post about an attempt [1] to charge my
> > Burley as such :-(
>
> Call it a wheeled suitcase you can attatch to your bike..

The thought of taking my daughter on tour in a suitcase has made me
chuckle ;-)

John B

 

[David Martin]

JohnB wrote:
> David Martin wrote:
>
>>JohnB wrote:
>>
>>>"the.Mark" wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Tie the bikes together and call the one behind a trailer. I'll bet a trailer
>>>>behind a car does't need a seperate booking.
>>>
>>>Sorry but they do and see my post about an attempt [1] to charge my
>>>Burley as such :-(
>>
>>Call it a wheeled suitcase you can attatch to your bike..
>
>
> The thought of taking my daughter on tour in a suitcase has made me
> chuckle ;-)

Daughter? "Has anyone seen the old bag?"

...d

 

[Clive George]

"David Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> No. We drove onto the ferry, deposited the trailer and drove off again.
> As the vehicle which did the towing was not registered on entry to the
> port (and hence definitely not registered for going on board the ship),
> it would be illegal to do so now under the new EU port regs. The
> alternative would have been to deposit the trailer in an appropriate
> place and the dockers would have had to load it, after finding a vehicle
> with the right type of tow hitch (they usually tow HGV trailers).

What did you do at the other end?

cheers,
clive

 

[David Martin]

On 13/12/04 2:22 am, in article [email protected], "Clive
George" <[email protected]> wrote:

> "David Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>
>> No. We drove onto the ferry, deposited the trailer and drove off again.
>> As the vehicle which did the towing was not registered on entry to the
>> port (and hence definitely not registered for going on board the ship),
>> it would be illegal to do so now under the new EU port regs. The
>> alternative would have been to deposit the trailer in an appropriate
>> place and the dockers would have had to load it, after finding a vehicle
>> with the right type of tow hitch (they usually tow HGV trailers).
>
> What did you do at the other end?

The docks unloaded the boat. I waited ages to clear it through customs as
freight onlythen to be told that as I had accompanied it, it was baggage and
was clear to go. And my father collected me from Newcastle en route to
Dundee.

...d

 

[somersetbiker]

JohnB wrote:
> I gave up booking when I approached a travel agent to book us on the
> Portsmouth - Le Havre, and they insisted that the Burley trailer had
to
> go at the same rate as that for car pulled trailers (squillions of
> pounds per foot).
> When I said 'just book the "tandems then" (one a trike), they then
said
> they couldn't as I'd already said I'd be taking a trailer as well. I
was dumbfounded.
>
> In the end we just rode down to Portsmouth cycled on to the ferry
with a
> cheery wave from the crew.
> Of course the trailer cost nowt.
>
> John B

The one bike per booking rule has always been a bit of a pain. When my
family of four do our tandem cycle-camp trips we invariably have to
make 2 bookings. We've never mentioned the BOB trailer when booking,
and never been challenged at the port about it. It's just a 12 foot
long articulated bicycle built for 2!

 

[Dave Larrington]

Paul wrote:

[Ferry blean]

We had hours, well, minutes of fun getting on the ferry from Kalundborg to
Samso (Denmark) in 1998. The fact of there being ten people but only nine
bicycles[1] confused the ticket clerk no end.

1 - one was a trike, and two were towing trailers, but we didn't mention
that as otherwise we'd still be there...
--

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
World Domination?
Just find a world that's into that kind of thing, then chain to the
floor and walk up and down on it in high heels. (Mr. Sunshine)