Are you considering travelling by overnight ferry to France? Are you worried about how the kids will get on sleeping on the boat? I’m always searching online for tips, so l thought it might be useful to write down my experience to help other families. So here’s what I have learned during my 4 years of travelling with kids on an overnight ferry!
With two young kids, and a mix of food allergies travelling by ferry provides us with a lot of ease. We have the freedom of having our car on holiday, we don’t have to worry about baggage limits, we can take all our food on board. A big plus point for families living with allergies! My eldest gets very excited in the lead up to the ferry trip.
Top Tips
We recently travelled with Brittany Ferries overnight from Portsmouth over to St Malo, France. This was our 4th year travelling with them. The trip takes 12 hours, normally departing around 8pm and arriving in St Malo at 8am the next morning. This year we had a really smooth crossing, and we all slept really well.
Here are my top tips to make sure the journey can go as smoothly as it can (not taking into account of the weather!). This is the plan l used for the night time ferry. l have a separate blog that gives my top tips for the day time ferry crossing.
Before you board:
- Book a cabin – cabins are compulsory on the overnight sailings on this route. Each traveller has to have a bed on the overnight crossing. So if you are a family of four, you won’t be able to book anything smaller than a four berth cabin. Our view is on the overnight sailing, a basic cabin does the job. It’s a small rectangular room, with bunk bed style beds, little desk, rail for clothes, TV, and an on suite bathroom with shower. Towels are provided, and we have always found the cabins to be very clean. No kettle though! We book an outside cabin, for me l like to see what’s going on. The inside cabin is the same though, without a window.
- Be prepared for a wait at the ferry port. If you are someone that arrives when check in opens, you may have a wait until the ferry boards. There are toilet facilities etc, but l would suggest having some entertainment available that is easily accessible for the kids, whilst you wait. We tend to go as late as possible for a short wait and a quick boarding. We always make sure we are in Portsmouth near the port though, can never be sure what traffic will be like.
- Make the kids a travel bag – this has become a bit of a tradition for us! The kids love them, and it keeps them occupied before bed. I collect arts and crafts, games and little toys in the months leading up to the holiday. This year l found a travel activity pack from The Works. This had a mix of activities, stickers and toys. Both kids really liked it. I also included some games, little toy figures that l know they like to play with, and a couple of snacks. Charity shops are a great place for finding goodies for the travel bags!
- Pack an onboard bag with essentials – you can’t visit your car once the ship has set sail….so anything you think you might need during the journey, pack in a bag and take it to your cabin. l use a large travel back pack. l find it’s easier to have your hands free when leaving the car deck and finding your cabin. I normally pack the following bits:
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- Pj’s
- A change of clothes for the next day
- Travel size toiletries
- Baby bag with nappies, wipes, nappy bags, and bibs
- Medical bag (pain relief, Calpol, motion sickness bracelets, plasters etc).
- Plan for motion sickness – l use the motion bands, and l find they work better if l put them on before l board the ship. And l always carry extra bands for the kids too – you just never know!
- Allergy bag (we have to carry epi pens, antihistamines and inhalers with us, so this bag never leaves me!
- Books for us all (a reading torch for when the kids are asleep)
- Water bottles
- Snacks/dinner – we tend to eat dinner a little later, so it works for us to take snacks/dinner on board with us. I ran out time to make a picnic, so we popped into Portsmouth and picked up some bits to eat on board. Normally with our allergies (and the fact we are vegetarian) its hard to find food in the restaurant that we can all eat. This time though, l noticed the Le Jardin restaurant had jacket potatoes (if you like cheese, it is a sauce though), pizza etc on the menu.
- Phone chargers and adaptors (continental 2-pin sockets, but newer ships have a mix. So it’s best to take adaptor with you)
- Jackets/jumper – if you are planning to go out of deck to watch the ferry depart.
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- Pre boarding check in (few days before journey) – makes the check in at port much quicker. Have your passport and booking details available at the port
- Know how to disable your car alarm when on board….to save your battery going flat (the alarms basically start going off when the ferry departs)
Once on Board:
- Take note of where your car is parked – it’s quite busy when everyone is asked to go to their car, so you want to make sure you are on the right stairwell/deck
- Find your cabin – you will be given your cabin key (like a ticket) when you check in at the port, and this will have your cabin number on it. Get yourself set up for the journey, unpack your bag etc
- Familiarise yourself with the boat – we go outside for the boat departing, its nice to see Portsmouth lit up at night. We have a quick look in the shop, and buy some hot drinks from the bar and head back to the room to eat. There is a hot drink vending machine in the corridor….but it doesn’t sell decaffeinated coffee!
- Eat and sleep – we eat the food we have brought on board, the kids play with their travel bags, then its pj’s on, story read and then all into bed. Kids normally sleep really well, last year we had choppy weather, it didn’t effect the kids sleep (it was only me!)
- Morning wake up/Breakfast – we have never yet had time to eat a proper breakfast before we arrive in St Malo. From the time the boat alarm wakes you up, there is enough time to get everyone ready, pack the bag and maybe have a snack. We normally take some fruit, bars or banana bread to eat in the car. The crew make an announcement for everyone to leave their cabins in advance of being told to head to your car.
- Disembark and passport control – we have found that the disembarking happens quite quickly once the announcement to head to your car has been made. So locate your car, pop the bags in the boot, and have your passports ready to be checked. Again we have never had to wait very long to get through passport control. After all of this……know which route you are taking. Once you leave the port you are straight onto your next leg of your journey.
Look out for my next blog on where we stayed during our two weeks in France!
Bon Voyage!