Calais to Dover - ferry and home

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Didn’t sleep very well parked up as we were on Calais harbour as the ferries seem to ‘keep their engines running’ all night. Even so, it is an excellent spot to spend the night when we are taking an early ferry and we have used it several times.
Up at 6.30 and ferry left on time for Dover at 8.35. Another smooth crossing and we were back in England by 9am having won back the hour we lost 6+ weeks ago.
The drive home always seems rather tedious and I wish we could just be miraculously transported straight home bypassing the M2, M25, M1 and A50 but unfortunately we can’t.
Amazingly the car, which has been sitting on the drive for 6 weeks, started first time, which meant we could put the Tandy straight onto the drive and unload it.
Washing now well underway. Big pile of post still being sorted - all 2 foot of it, which has been collected from the mat by our kind neighbour. Garden looks astonishingly tidy thanks to the effort I put in before we left to stake up anything which looked as if it might fall over. We have come home from a trip before now to find a tropical wilderness but thankfully not this time around. The new border actually looks fantastic with sweet peas, massive allium seed heads, antirrhinums and poppies. Give me a week and I will get everything dead-headed and tidy again.


Final check after filling in our accounts spreadsheet and this is what we have done :

Total spend £ 4468 (of which £3500 by credit card - ouch) (£100 / day)
Miles travelled 5180
Litres of diesel used 906
at cost of £ 990
Driving time 120 hours
Average fuel consumption <= 26 mpg (excellent)
Total spent on ferries £ 773
“ “ “ housekeeping/food £ 700
“ “ “ Entrance fees / tolls £ 336
“ “ “ Campsites £ 785 (Ave. £18 per night)
“ “ “ personal / other £ 880

Countries visited 8 (over 45 days)

Nights in Denmark 9
Sweden 15
Finland 4
Norway 11
Netherlands 3
France 1
Germany 0
Belgium 0
UK / Overnight ferry 2

Weather = Generally excellent with
Sunny Days 27.5 (therefore =61% sunny)
Wet days 4.5
Ok days 13.0 (Neither sunny not wet)

Days we swam 11

Campsites we used (have included this just in case anyone reading this is wondering where / where not to camp) :
· My rating is based on how much we liked it, whether we would recommend it to others
· Price is after rough conversion to ££PP and includes electric where it was included in the price, otherwise we didn’t have it as our solar panel and two leisure batteries provide all we need





Country Town Campsite My rating My Comments ££.PP
1 Denmark Ribe Ribe Camping 9.5 Superb campsite 15.15
2 Denmark Romo Rømø Familie Camping 8.5 Excellent site except no pool.Oddly not many showers but lots of basins. 11.01
3 Denmark Fyns Hoved Fyns Hoved Camping 8.5 huge/ lots of bird song / by sea 17.75
4 Denmark Sandager Næs Sandager Næs Camping 8 Ok - wind too cold to see really 12.64
5 Denmark Ebeltoft Ebeltoft Strand Camping 9 Lovely pitch on sea shore for which we paid mega bucks 27.42
6 Denmark Sindal Sindal Camping 9.5 Excellent site. Beautiful, pool, sanitaires, green 13.57
7 Norway Oslo Bobilspark - Oslo marina 9 Excellent - aire in marina 15.79
8 Norway Rjukan Rjukan Hytte og Caravan Park 8 Ok overnight site 15.26
9 Norway Bergen Bergen Bobilsenter Damsgardsveien 7.5 20 mins Walk to city so fine(Most expensive city in the world ?) 17.89
10 Norway Floro Krokane camping 6 odd fishing camp, good view(Cheap for Norway) 13.68
11 Norway Alesund Prinsen Strandcamping 9 Superb sanitaires, by sea. Lovely spot, all we need.Wifi free as they were having problems with it 22.11
12 Norway Trondheim Flakk camping - by the ferry 9 Super, by the sea, no internet.Meant to use Trondheim bobilpark but it has been dug up !Some ground rather soggy but lovely green setting behind, sea in front 21.05
13 Norway Bronnoysund Mosheim camping 5 Odd site - very limited.Bobilpark in town but campsite owner spoke no English so couldn't work out where it was 19.47
14 Norway Arctic circle Arctic circle carpark 9 Wonderful free spot 0
15 Sweden Jokkmokk Jokkmokk camping center 7.5 By a lake, fantastic pool. Sanitaires rather limited. Had to pay for electric as non electric pitches inferior, right next to noisy playground and monster mossie lake 20.00
16 Finland Rovaniemi Ounaskoski Camping 8 Excellent-on river bank.Would rate a 9 with pool but only river 19.17
17 Finland Oulu Nallikari Camping 6 Would not recommend. OK but seen much much better.Site full so given pitch on edge of site. Outside fence, not secure + motorbikes. Miles from water and decent sanitaires. Free wifi does not ! Beach for swimming but sea only inches deep. Oulo good for a few hours visit. 18.33
18 Sweden Lulea First Camp Lulea 5 Loos ltd and a bit smelly. Facilities very poor for price. Have to pay, a lot, for pool. 50 SK each and as this was the campsite pool we were not impressed. Found it closed first day at 17:30 but should be open until 18:00 24.35
19 Sweden Ramvik Snibbens Camping & Stubgy 9 Lovely little crowded site by lake. Like this small site a lot especially after the big ones we have just been on. Swam in the lake, lovely - water copper coloured. 14.78
20 Sweden Stockholm Långholmens husbilscamping 7.5 OK city site . Squashed aire central Stockholm. No unsecured wifi anywhere !! Walking distance to city centre. Hot, noisy,squashed But can swim in lake 5 minutes walk away, there is a washing machine which has done our washing. 20.00
21 Sweden Gamleby KustCamp Hammarsbadet 8 Peaceful. Super sea pool 17.39
22 Sweden Oland Stenasa Stenasabadet 8 Excellent. We loved it there. Sanitaires are new and best we have found in Sweden. seaweed and muddy sand. Need to be desperate - I was !Sea view = fantastic. 14.78
23 Denmark Copenhagen City Camp 7.5 Convenient for city - walk in. Horribly noisy road overnight. Loos/showers ok. 25.28
24 Denmark Hummingen Hummingen Camping 8.5 Pleasant site with pool.Everything we need 24.04
25 Netherlands Bourtange Camping t'Platuis 8 Pleasant site. Very cheap 8.05
26 Netherlands Wassenaar Camping Duinhorst 9 Like it very much. Got a super size comfort pitch overlooking the racecourse. Only one left and that only because someone was leaving as I was begging to be allowed in ! Excellent location, lovely pool. 21.00
27 France Calais Aire on the harbour 7 We have used several times before. Very handy for baguettes, frites for dinner and ferry. Has been tidied up since our last visit and the pier is finished. Looks good. 5.93

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Photos

Garden is quite tidy
house is still standing and Tandy is home

Comments

[Ashleygerrald]

Good Tour Analysis
Detailing an extremely good spending on a tour to many countries is made up open to all. There is an alternative route from Dover to Dunkerque on ferries promy, a route, which is being preferred by many. If you can make a note on this route it could be more helpful to others.

[BobsJoy]

Dover Dunkerque
Hi We did use this route when Norfolk Lines first opened to passenger traffic but as they became more popular they also increased their prices. We prefer the route via Calais which is also good for overnight stop which we didn't find at Dunkerque. Thanks for your comments. Joy

[digitam]

very good analysis - nice trip
very good analysis report on expenses u incurred for a tour. Travelling to Dover by ferries is a great experience. Once I travelled to Dover by booking cross channel ferries online. If you can make a note on some other routes it might be helpful to us.

[BobsJoy]

Calais Dover
We always use this route. We have priced up fuel and overnight stops compared with longer and more expensive ferry crossings and find that as long as we book low rate ferries it always works out cheapest. The extra driving is part of our holiday and we are quite happy to visit Normandy / Brittany en route for places further south. Joy