Not a good start to this trip I’m afraid! The ferry terminal at Plymouth, I’ll leave you to judge whether it’s suitable for foot passengers or not. Once on board, it was time for a quick drink before heading to bed for the night, arriving in Roscoff the next morning.
Roscoff is a lovely town and easily accessible by foot. Heading back to Plymouth, I had plenty of time to look at the ship but I have to be honest, I wasn’t much impressed with that either. Or the crew!
But let me know what you think of this trip. Have you done the same? What do you think of Plymouth as a port? Is it suitable for foot passengers? As always guys, I really value your considered opinions and all likes, comments, subs are massively appreciated.
Cheers for now!
Mark
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📖Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
02:45 – Boarding the ship
06:00 – The cabin
09:19 – Leaving Plymouth
10:47 – Arriving into Roscoff
15:27 – On the way back
27:34 – Arriving into Plymouth
28:27 – Summary
38 Comments
From Plymouth Railway Station you could of got any bus to the City Centre (Royal Parade) then took the City Bus Service 34 which passes the port entrance (there is a stop immediately passed that entrance).
We`ve just got back from Spain, having done the mini cruise from Plymouth to Santander. Out on Wednesday and back on Friday, as a foot passenger, cabin included, BF had it on special for £99 each. I was glad we were on the Pont Aven as she`s a comfortable ship, and we had a great time. Santander was an eye opener, a dedicated foot passenger terminal, maybe 25 metres walk into town and the place is smart, tidy and welcoming. I agree with you about Armorique, we found that she wasn`t very comfortable to sleep on and seems more suited to being purely a day sailer. We drove to Plymouth and the parking outside the terminal was confusing, the machine was out of use, I didn`t have a mobile phone so had to go into the terminal to ask what to do at the BF counter, luckily there is a big touch-screen inside to use. Fair play to you for walking from the train station to the ferryport, I used to live around the North Road area in the late `80s and it was always a bit rough. The Millbay road area was the city`s red light district, you couldn`t walk through there after dark without getting accosted by a few ladies of the night along the way. I understand that the area has gone through some re-generation in the last decade though.
I would love a longer summer film from he round robin with a train, a ferry and a bus by the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company
What a whinge fest. As you said yourself about the cabin "i've only just thought about it". Don't blame the ferry company for failire to think/plan ahead.
I would love to see a Cruise experience, perhaps try P&O on an inter-Europe cruise to compare with P&O ferries and see if there are any similarities in service at all (hopefully not!).
One ferry crossing I would love to see is the HSS Condor Liberation, the idea of a wave piercing catamaran really does sound cool!
Nice video nonetheless, always a pleasure to watch 🙂
You were lucky not to get mugged in the dark streets and the ferry port building looked even worse. Letting passengers WALK onto the ship in that way, looked like a H&S nightmare. Vehicles following you in, and no HI VIS – B.Ferries I note provide HI VIS for their people, perhaps the passengers don't matter or something. I thought BF had evolved since I reported them for various shortcomings perhaps not??
I did Portsmouth to Santander on the Pont Aven with my motorbike. It took over 2 hours to disembark due to malfunctioning bow doors. Speaking to another traveller this had been a regular occurrence for more than 2 months. Not a good start to my Pico's tour.
How about the ferry from Bergen (Norway) to Hirtshals (Denmark)?
Did you get a deckplan leaflet from them it tells you all about the ship.?
Question, Plymouth – Roscoff or Portsmouth – Cherbourg?
Hhm. That cabin…, could hardly have made it more sterile, spartan and uninviting if they tried.
All the good Brittany Ferries, ie. Salamanca, Galacia etc are actually owned by Stena RoRo and are on a permanent charter to Brittany Ferries.
We liked the pride of Bilbao, we are on the Galicia to Bilbao in June , been on it before , not impressed , it’s just convenient, we also like the mont st michelle
I’ve been across the channel hundreds of times over the last forty years and never had a problem except for a couple of years ago. I arrived early at Cherbourg on a dark winters night and was first in the queue. No-one told me where I had to go so I ended up driving round the port looking for the boat. Thing was all the cars behind just followed me as none of them knew where to go either!
Great video as always mate, extremely informative, shame the whole experience was an average one! Cheers for now 😉
Idea for a trip get the stagecoach bus from Lancaster to Preston then get the stagecoach bus from Preston to Liverpool from there get the stageoach to manchester then a bus from there to sheffiels then the bus from there to leads from to York then to Scarborough endding up at take 2 days to do it in and tell us all how you got how you got on and tell us if you have a bus pass could you do in on one of those
I'm going on the Pont Aven to Santander this weekend. I'm even more excited about the trip now that I've heard you saying how nice the Pont Aven is. On a contrasting note though, I'm managing and lowering my expectations accordingly though re the walk from Plymouth station to the ferry terminal, and the facilities there. 😂😂👍
Please do a video in Scotland. South Queensferry & North Queensferry
I'd love to see a video about the Portsmouth-Caen overnight crossing (and the onward bus+rail connection to Paris?) – the Roscoff-Cork ferry would also be nice…
Thank you for an excellent video! !Yes id love a review of Pont Aven and a cruise p&o is good one!
Watched this last week. Looked a bit of a faff at times.
Good video 😊
Armorique used to be just freight only then after a while let passengers on its just a basic no frills ferry where truck drivers could get there heads down and get some food which was rubbish as the french crew did not bother about the look of it some times you get that ship on plymouth to bilbao via roscoff
Myself And My Wife Done This Trip on foot In 2015 , We Where Shattered..
Earlier in may we did DFDS/Transmanche Ferries from Newhaven to Dieppe..an alternative to dover-calais & returned Cherbourg to Poole… Next month having our first trip on Manxman
I use Brittany ferries to France but usually Spain 2 to 3 times a year but always with a car. The problem is that you HAVE to travel from Plymouth if you want to travel on the Pont Aven, as said on the video this is their best ship by far. Useful video; and more informative than BF's own website! Overall though I do find BF to be pretty good.
Like many we love your ferry vlogs, and from our point of view the more we see the sea the better! Cruise ships are wonderful too. So please don’t be put off by landlubbers, but coming from a different angle would be refreshing. Good to see you are almost at 25k subscribers – congratulations! 50k by end of year. David & Joy.
Great video as always. I don't think I recall you doing it before but I'd like to see you do the Denmark to Faroe islands/Iceland ferry. Epic trip.
we do get pont avon aswell as armorique in plymouth
Last time i went was the year 1997 with my parents. Still gives me nostalgia. I remember always the strawberry tarts with custard. Heaven and lots of milka chocolate and at the time glass bottles of origina.
Poole to Cherbourg on the Barfleur
Never had a problem with Brittany ferries, food okay therefore and holiday deals can be a bargain.
I find it easier to talk to them to get a good deal
Great video with interesting and insightful comments. We’ve just come back from a trip to Brittany and went Plymouth Roscoff and back. Had Pont Aven on the way out and Armorique on the way back. Pont Aven was amazing. A delightful mini cruise ship, it’s a beautifully roomy ship, love the lifts and main staircase and the piano bar restaurant make it all very grand, and we upgraded and had a posh cabin with a balcony. Armorique is fine but seems to have been designed so badly. Outside areas are plentiful, but most face aft and often had exhaust smells and why does the top floor have so much room but so little seating! Granted helicopter access needed but surely some extra seats could be placed around. Brittany Ferries still in a class of their own overall. Love the staff who we all found friendly. And you’re right Roscoff is delightful to visit. We were last off at Plymouth but waiting for passport control wasn’t too long. I’ll do the route again but try and time it for Pont Aven both ways next time.
Are there lifts to get to the cabins?
We have travelled on the amorique, im sure the same cabin as yours lol. I found the vessel very good but then, ive never been on another brittany ferry. But it was a lush crossing. I kinda get what you mean about stagnant areas of the vessel. Could of been better thought out. Boarding on the vessel was fun driving on board. And leaving was fine too. Good video! Enjoyed your ios trip i live close to pz and very close to leq
Your title is very misleading, what you basically don’t recommend is walking to the ports. This has nothing to do with the ship or the company. It’s not anybody’s fault of the station is in the city center and the port is in the water.. and about your cabin rant for the day, the lady in the information desk was right, you should have thought about it earlier. Though I would agree with your that it’s a missed opportunity Booking a day cabin is something that has to be done through the reservation system which can’t be accessed from onboard. They can only give you a new cabin key, but can’t book a cabin for the day that late, it has to do with cleaning m. But having watched your video, I don’t think you disliked the rest of the crossing, so why did you choose such a harsh title ? That’s a shame because the video is pretty good otherwise.
I now live in France and the Roscoff-Plymouth ferry is a godsend to us. We have done the foot passenger crossing in the past and it was fine, enjoyed it. We now go by car and quite look forward to the crossings. The food is lovely, nice little shops, cinema, cafe area, tv if football is on, and the cabins are fine. I enjoy having a shower, using my own toilet, privacy etc. Keep using this service to keep it available. The staff are great too.As someone said Plymouth is the problem, not my favourite town. Roscoff is pretty.
I've never liked the Armorique! Pont Aven is a much nicer vessel for the crossing to Roscoff.
I did Plymouth to Roscoff many years ago on the Quiberon. Great old ferry and had a lovely time touring Brittany mainly by train. Having spent many years working out of Plymouth in my younger days, I'd recommend a taxi from the train station. Mill Bay can be a bit grim in the dark.