Day trips to France

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It's a relatively long crossing - about 6 hours - but the journey itself is all part of the experience, and is very enjoyable. Brittany Ferries have recently introduced a brand new vessel - the Amorique - purpose built for the Plymouth to Roscoff service. The ferry is comfortable and stylish, and offers a couple of nice bars and a good quality self-service restaurant serving decent food (for example, steak and chips, salad bar, seafood starters, pastries, baguettes and English breakfast) all at very good-value prices.

Cabins are well designed, clean and comfortable - and with great showers.

At the time of writing, the ferry timetable allows you to leave Plymouth in the late evening, arriving Roscoff early the following morning, with a return sailing later that day. For the overnight crossing, it's well worth paying the very modest extra charge for a cabin. Obviously the timetable does vary according to day and time of the year - check the Brittany Ferries website for the latest details.

Roscoff itself it delightful. Nothing like the average cross-channel port - really just a large village, with traditional restaurants, small and interesting shops, and (if you're staying longer) some nice looking small hotels in the heart of town. The centre of Roscoff is an easy 10-minute walk from the ferry terminal, and makes for a really pleasant day out or a short break. There are also beaches within walk of the town centre - deserted when we visited, and with beautiful, clean white sand.

Whilst there seems to be a general opinon that France is expensive these days - particularly with the current euro/pound exchange rate, we actually found it surprisingly reasonable value. We paid the equivalent of about £8 for tasty Moules Frites, whilst beer and coffee were on average about £2 each, which isn't that different to UK prices.

So in summary, we think that Brittany Ferries offer a great service from Plymouth to Roscoff, either for a quick day-away or for a longer break. You can take the car if you want, but if you go as a foot passenger it's especially good value and a really nice way to experience a bit of France with the convenience of sailing from Plymouth.

Even though a "day trip" as such isn't possible because of the sailing times, Brittany Ferries offer an excellent "day trip" rate on this route (check under "offers" on their website). We paid about £75 for the round trip, for two people, including an outside "Club" cabin. Great value for money in our opinion. And it doesn't cost a lot more if you want to take the car with you (handy for picking up supplies of delicious French wine at good prices).