To Europe and back with bike on a budget

[22camels]

OK so I've done a couple of one week tours - Portugal and Italy, would like to do more, looking at the possibilities. Both of those times I didn't have to worry too much about transport costs - first time I had miles (though still had to pay nearly £100 in taxes) second time I could combine it with something else.

Talking about getting to continental Europe (or even some peripheral countries like Morocco or Turkey) and back for let's say under £100 not including travel within the UK to get to e.g. airport. Not difficult these days if you are on foot with hand luggage only. Not that easy with a bike. The options I can think of are:

- BA budget fares. The two times I've flown so far have been with BA and they were excellent. They take bikes for free, no fuss, as part of your checked allowance, if you have a standard economy ticket. Their cheapest fares are hand baggage only fares, and are ~£10-15/way cheaper than standard economy. It's also nice to fly with a full service airline without all the gimmicks. Looking at their low fare finder http://www.britishairways.com/travel/lo ... blic/en_gb it looks like you have to limit to destinations no higher than £80 "hand-baggage only return" which picks out Nice, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Pisa, Turin, Alicante, Amsterdam, Genoa, Malaga, Naples, Geneva, Venice, Verona, out of high season - not summer basically - and if you book well in advance. And it's possible to combine these by purchasing one way fares so you fly into one and out of another.

- Ferries from UK South Coast to France and back - never done this but looks like it's £65-75 return in June with a bicycle to places like Cherbourg/St Malo.. do they get cheaper in the off-season? Obviously I expect the Dover-Calais ferry is cheaper still but I don't think that part of France is as nice as Bretagne or Normandie.

- Ferries from UK East Coast to Holland - e.g. Harwich to Hook of Holland looking like £75 return with bicycle.

- Ferries from UK to Spain e.g. Portsmouth-Santander look more expensive than flights, is this always the case?

- Easyjet and Ryanair. Don't look like options at all. Easyjet charge £70 per bicycle for return flight (£35 each way), Ryanair £100, and it seems this is flat across all destinations (though the booking system suggests it might be variable because you can only see the price of sports equipment if you try to make a booking - I have not found any variation). So you'd have to find a return fare under £30 inc taxes on Easyjet or £0 on Ryanair to keep the total under £100 which seems almost impossible.

- Trains - Eurostar to Paris/Brussels? Looks like even if you can find a promotional £69 Paris/Brussels return you would still have to pay £25 each way for your bike if you bike bag is over 120cm long

- Buses - Eurolines, seems full-size bicycles not allowed? Still possible?

What other full service airlines are there that, like BA, take bikes for free and have budget fares from the UK? Any budget airlines that are cycle friendly?

[foxyrider]

You could try Megabus - they don't specifically seem to say no bikes

Try Jet2?

[22camels]

Jet2 charge £30/way: http://www.jet2.com/extras/sports-equipment which would rule it out as well. Megabus might be possible - sounds like it's not officially allowed but if it doesn't obviously look like a bike you might get away with it.

[randomblue]

Megabus has a definite no bike policy as of a month ago when I called and asked

[TrevA]

We recently flew with Ryanair to Fuerteventura and it was cheaper to hire a bike whist there, than to fly our own bikes there and back (65 euro each for a weeks hire plus 25 euro delivery to hotel).

[FarOeuf]

You don't say where you are starting from in the UK, which can make a big difference. So I'd assume you're near a well serviced hub in the South East somewhere ?

for me, living in Scotland, Bike Express work out at the most cost effective way of getting down to Western Europe (France/Spain).

[nirakaro]

Newhaven-Dieppe was £28 each way last year. Nice bit of France to arrive in.

[22camels]

I'm in South Wales for the time being, but for the purposes of this question I am not including the UK part of the journey, logic being that any variation in that part of the cost can potentially be absorbed into other activities e.g. riding part of the way or people/places I need to visit anyway. Any ports/airports/stations from Manchester south would be more or less equivalent to me. Yes I am excluding starting from Scotland

[khain]

You don't say where you are starting from in the UK, which can make a big difference. So I'd assume you're near a well serviced hub in the South East somewhere ?

for me, living in Scotland, Bike Express work out at the most cost effective way of getting down to Western Europe (France/Spain).

How much does that cost you? I'm having a look at their site just now and it doesn't seem all that cheap. Do they start from Scotland?

[TrevA]

You don't say where you are starting from in the UK, which can make a big difference. So I'd assume you're near a well serviced hub in the South East somewhere ?

for me, living in Scotland, Bike Express work out at the most cost effective way of getting down to Western Europe (France/Spain).

How much does that cost you? I'm having a look at their site just now and it doesn't seem all that cheap. Do they start from Scotland?

I think they start from Middlesborough and pick up from various places on/near the M1 corridor.

[Psamathe]

Always used t be the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry was very "low cost". That was in the days when it was operated mainly be several French Communes/business groups, etc. with the main aim of getting tourists (from the UK) to the area to spend their money (in France). Then the operation was taken over by LD Lines but prices stayed low.

Worth checking out though as it's a reasonable crossing ... and I'd expect prices lower than the Caen/St Malo/Cherbourg routes.

Ian

[22camels]

Yes looks like Newhaven-Dieppe is 40 return or 28 single for some random June dates. Similar to the Dover-Calais ferry. Both cheaper than the other alternatives.

[3spd]

Dover - Dunkerque is usually cheaper tha going to Calais.

[nmnm]

From Edinburgh, BA works out cheap for S.France as they throw in the Edinburgh-London leg for free, and the bike is free of course. With avios, it's £35 + 9000 avios, all in, return. Even paying cash (via Avios it's £180ish, less via the BA site for many flights probably), I'd be surprised if the bike express coach bus is cheaper, though it offers a different experience of course.

[vjosullivan]

BA budget fares. The two times I've flown so far have been with BA and they were excellent. They take bikes for free, no fuss, as part of your checked allowance, if you have a standard economy ticket. Their cheapest fares are hand baggage only fares, and are ~£10-15/way cheaper than standard economy. It's also nice to fly with a full service airline without all the gimmicks. Looking at their low fare finder http://www.britishairways.com/travel/lo ... blic/en_gb it looks like you have to limit to destinations no higher than £80 "hand-baggage only return" which picks out Nice, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Pisa, Turin, Alicante, Amsterdam, Genoa, Malaga, Naples, Geneva, Venice, Verona, out of high season - not summer basically - and if you book well in advance. And it's possible to combine these by purchasing one way fares so you fly into one and out of another.

While I'd agree that the hand baggage only fares are good value, I'm not sure they're much help on a cycling trip...