We’ve travelled from Portsmouth on Brittany Ferries quite a few times now, as foot passengers and also with the car. We’ve sailed from Porstmouth to the French ports of Caen and St. Malo; and to Santander and Bilbao in northern Spain.
Being a French company, all their vessels are not surprisingly, very French in character. Clearly this sits well on the services to France, but I can’t help thinking that there could be a greater inclination towards Spain on the Santander and Bilbao runs. For example, the menus in the cafe and restaurants are in French and English, but not Spanish. Also the onboard shops sell mostly French products, so if you did want to buy a gift for someone on the way back from Cantabria, it would be French rather than Spanish!
For our most recent trip we sailed out on the Cap Finistere to Bilbao, and returned via Santander to Portsmouth on the Pont Aven. The latter is our preferred option for travelling to Northern Spain as the ship seems to be bigger, smarter and consequently has more facilities than the Cap Finistere.
Loading all the vehicles on a ferry of this size can take a while, but is still less hassle than all those security checks and waiting around you do when you fly. And if you are a foot passenger, it’s even quicker. Cabins on the ferry are functional, with en suite shower and toilet; and if you are prepared to pay extra, you can have a balcony. They also have a limited number of pet friendly cabins if you are taking your dog. It can get a little noisy in your cabin when the sea is rough. Last night we didn’t sleep much due to the waves crashing into the ship making everything shudder and rattle. However, in our experience such conditions are the exception rather than the norm. That said, some fore warning of what to expect and some reassurances would have been welcome.
Life on board is pretty much what you make it. You can spend all day in one of the bars, go whale spotting, play bingo, watch a film in the onboard cinema, take a swim (if it’s warm enough), go shopping, take a spa treatment or simply sit and read. There is also a special play area for little ones, and some organised children’s activities. In the evenings there is cheesy middle-of-the-road entertainment, usually involving a singer or two, and a magician for the children. These tend to be better supported on the outward trips rather than on the return journey, presumably because people are simply more knackered by then.
Our only real gripe with Brittany Ferries is the lack of any decent vegetarian choices in the cafe and self service restaurant (we’ve never tried the smart looking posh restaurant although it is clearly very popular). Indeed, with some estimates putting the number of British vegetarians as high as one in every ten, then Brittany Ferries could be providing a poor service to anything up to 10% of their customers. Here is where they can improve:
(1) Provide more non-meat and non-fish options, especially when it comes to sandwiches, rolls and salads which almost exclusively have fish or meat in them.
(2) Label the dishes that are suitable for vegetarians. We simply couldn’t tell which of the salad dishes, if any, were meat and fish free.
(3) Ensure that staff use separate serving spoons for meat/fish and vegetarian food. I was horrified to see my (lukewarm) tomtato served with the same tongs used for the sausages. (I have enough trouble explaining how wrong this is to British meat eaters so I didn’t even bother to raise it with the French speaking chef who served me. But just so you know, it is not acceptable).
The food aside, we like the slower pace of a ferry crossing. We’ve had a couple of short delays at the Portsmouth end but apart from just the one trip, we’ve always arrived at our destination on time. As for the staff onboard the ships, they are excellent, being friendly, polite and patient.
We’ve booked three complete holidays now with Brittany, an experience we’ve found to be easy, either by phone or online. What’s more, it’s reasonably good value, both onboard, and in the quality of the hotels or other accommodation that can be booked directly as a package.