Rally Chat Gathering at the Caravan Salon, Düsseldorf. 29 August 2025

GMak57 said:
Interested in this but need to work out options for travelling from NE Scotland and which ferry options are best, any suggestions welcome
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Newcastle is a good one not used it for a few years though.
 
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Definitely interested , just depends on the 90/180 day thing .
 
We’d certainly be interested, although planning things way in advance always seems to go wrong for us!

To go with @cliffanger’s uke, I can offer a variety of musical deterrents including three recorders and a kazoo.
 
Jane And Rog said:
We’d certainly be interested, although planning things way in advance always seems to go wrong for us!

To go with @cliffanger’s uke, I can offer a variety of musical deterrents including three recorders and a kazoo.
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We could end up with a field all to ourselves with that lot! :rofl:
 
We would definitely be interested.

Planned to go this year but pesky thing called work got in the way😀

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Brains said:
A bit of an old chestnut as far as I'm concerned.

If you left your home in SE England at the end of the working day:
Via Harwich you can easily be in Dusseldorf in time for lunch the next day.
Via Calais the bars should still be open in Dusseldorf by the time you arrive in the evening.

We live in SE London. We can be in Kent in under 10 minutes, Dover/Folkestone are just over an hour away.
We NEVER use Dover-Folkestone/Calais for any trip except Paris, north west France and maybe southern Belgium.

For Germany (And all points east, Italy, etc) we always use Harwich/Hoek of Holland.
We always try to take the night boat, which means a pootle in the evening to Harwich, load up at 9pm in bed for departure at 10.30, sleep your way across and get off the ship at 8am for a late breakfast in Germany.

It's cheaper, if the cost of fuel, overnight camping etc are all included.
It's faster, if you count door to door time
You have to sleep somewhere;
Which do you prefer? An Site or Aire in Kent or Calais area or a nice ships cabin with ensuite etc. (And bar and restaurant)
It's a considerably shorter road distance.
It's a LOT less hassle, as only one ship departs at a time, so they can check all the passports etc without the need to mess you around like Dover.
And of course the quality of the ship is a lot better than a cross channel ferry!

Stena of course know all the above, and therefore price their fares accordingly!
It may 'appear' to be the more expensive option, but not when you add it all up
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Still less than half of p and o hull to Rotterdam and a better boat.
 
BILL 875 said:
Wont use P & O any more due to the mass sackings of local workers.
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I agree with you re P&O:
Utterly atrocious treatment of their own staff.

Anyone considering a Fire & rehire at a lower rate for the same job should automatically be included in the Fire & Rehire at a lower rate policy.
I'd also like to see an automated prison sentence for any company that does, unless it includes all staff top to bottom.
(With the same percentage reduction in wages)

You best solution for ferries to Germany, Italy and eastern France is to:

Use DFDS from Hull
or
Stena from Harwich

The Stena Harwich/Hoek van Holland route is very nice as cabin included n the night boats.
 
Do dfds still go from hull? I thought it was only p and o .

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lorger said:
Only P&O
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Correction
P&O from Hull
DFDS from Newcastle

So if you are one of the many thousands that will not use P&O due to their abysmal staff Fire & Rehire policy, then the options are Newcastle or Harwich.
Both options are a better class of ship than the P&O offering in any case.
 
Brains said:
Correction
P&O from Hull
DFDS from Newcastle

So if you are one of the many thousands that will not use P&O due to their abysmal staff Fire & Rehire policy, then the options are Newcastle or Harwich.
Both options are a better class of ship than the P&O offering in any case.
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Have you seen the price of the Newcastle to Ijmuiden ferry it’s eye wateringly expensive.

Its a bit like some folk complain about Chinese made goods but when they see the price compared to others they still opt for the cheapest.
 
krclink said:
For what it's worth, based on our experience.
We went this year for the first time and stayed for 2 days. Prebooking was relatively easy. It took over an hour to get parked up in the P1 parking area which has about 5000 motorhomes parked there. Althouigh you are parked pretty close together, you are among the trees and can get out if you have to leave in a hurry.
Good points include free busses to and from the show, (red ones did not have air conditioning switched on for some reason). Lots to see, esp if you are looking for a new van. Plenty of space to wander, unlike NEC where you always seem to bump into somebody.
Bad points include ; out of 16 halls, only hall 3 sold accessories to buy. You could get some bits and pieces on the manufacturers stands, but Truma for example refused to sell their products from them, they said to go to hall 3. Something about unfair competition. There is only 1 service point in P1 parking which is on the way in. Okay if you are parked there, but it is quite a walk there and back if you are parked in the middle or on the other side. Fortunately, we have a second toilet, so only needed a top up of water.As the showground sits right under the flightpath of Dusseldorf airport, there was a plane landing every minute and a half right through the evening. Our friends were parked on the other side of the autobahn in a smaller field, and they only had the 1 bus transporting them back and forth to the show, and had no service point at all.
All in all, we were glad to have gone and seen the show, but wouldn't bother returning again.
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You were only there for two days, why did you need a top up of water? and surely one cassette is enough for two days?
 
CazPaul said:
Have you seen the price of the Newcastle to Ijmuiden ferry it’s eye wateringly expensive.

Its a bit like some folk complain about Chinese made goods but when they see the price compared to others they still opt for the cheapest.
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The comparison is the cost to do the same journey A to B (an arbitrary point say 100 km due north from each port)

Costs to include:
  • Fuel
  • Tyre wear
  • AdBlue
  • Ferry/train costs
  • Overnight costs
  • Food
  • Tolls
  • Extra wear and tare on the vehicle
  • Queueing time on the M20
  • Waiting/Customs clearance time
  • Drivers Hours for those with Taco's
.... and of course your time.

Even if you are retired, the extra day travelling down from the Scottish border area to Dover/Folkestone and the extra day travelling from Calais to Dusseldorf, plus the same on the way back is worth something.

If your home was anywhere in England except the West Country or anywhere in southern Scotland using the North Sea routes you could leave home Friday PM and be in Dusseldorf by Saturday lunchtime.

Using the channel ports, if you live in Southern England also leaving Friday PM you should make Dusseldorf my Saturday night.
Obviously if you live in Northern England or Scotland or Wales and also leave Friday PM and use the Channel Ports you should make Dusseldorf by Sunday night.

All the Ferry companies are well aware of these costs, and each one will have a small department that continually looks at all the values.
The same applies to the freight companies, if they can find a way to do it cheaper they will take it.

Hence the reason the ships on the route are normally full, even mid winter.

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Jim said:
How about a group gathering at Düsseldorf next year? We could all meet at a nearby service station and travel as a group to the show to get parked together. While I expect that during the day, most will want to explore the show on their own. Funsters could gather in their area in the evenings for beer and BBQ's etc making it a memorable show.

Who'd be up for it?
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Yea Great Idea! count me in I'd love to do that. I speak fluent German if that can be useful (although I'm from Scotland so maybe hard to understand my English :))
 
Ditcha said:
Newcastle is a good one not used it for a few years though.
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I'm going t be travelling form Fife and using Le Tunnel. I have used the Newcastle in the past and it was a great experience - usually quite smooth in the summer months however its very expensive
Ditcha said:
Newcastle is a good one not used it for a few years though.
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Ditcha said:
Newcastle is a good one not used it for a few years though.
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Yes I've used Newcastle many times and its always been fine - BUT and there is always a but - expensive. I travel abroad from Fife and like to go down to Folkstone and use Le Tunnel. Its probably as expensive as the Newcastle route but seeing as my wife doesn't like ferries its my only option. I've tried all the routes Hull etc. and once you factor in overnight stays and additional fuel to travel there is just no really cheep way to go unless you look at the short hop options form the south coast where i believe there are still bargains to be had - BUT - see there it is again - you end up being further south in France which is fine if you are heading to the south of France but not so good for Dusseldorf.
 

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