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Clicking this banner link will open the Coast's on-line player in a new window,
which you can minimise, to listen whilst you are browsing or otherwise working. |
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There's a real buzz going around the ferry port at Portsmouth, and it's not just the sound of engines revving up for the spring and summer season's cross channel business, but the air of anticipation as LD Lines' multi-million pound super-catamaran starts it's daily crossings to Le Havre.
The MV Norman Arrow is quite unlike anything else that Portsmouth's historic harbour has ever seen and the fastest by a very long way, with a top speed capability in the area of 50mph!
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Starting its spring and summer schedule from Friday 26 March 2010, following its move to Portsmouth from Dover, the Arrow will depart for Le Havre daily at 8.30am, returning in the evening, with each one way trip taking just three and a quarter hours to cover nearly one hundred miles.
Fares are astonishingly competitive, and early reports are that advance bookings are running at an all-time high.
To read a lot more an bout this, with more photographs and video links of this amazing ship in action, click on the blue button above.
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Traveling by ferry is still the most comfortable way to get to the continent, or even to that still-British part of it, the Channel Islands, and the car ferry is the only practical option if you are taking any sort of vehicle with you - and although the trips from Portsmouth are not the shortest actual sea crossings, they do offer travelers the opportunity to go directly to Brittany and Normandy in France, and to Bilbao and Santander in Spain.
In 1994, Portsmouth Continental Ferryport opened a new Travel Centre building, just a few metres south of the main passenger terminal, designed and intended to cater specifically for the needs of traveling motorists and their passengers - this single storey building faces the lanes in which vehicles queue, prior to boarding, so is only a very short walk away.
Inside the Travel Centre, you will find all the essential services, such as a cafe, a bureau de change, run by local company InterCash, and a shop providing essential and handy accessories for all manner of vehicles, run by another locally-based company, European Motoring - this particular website is run by these independent companies and the local people who work in them, all dedicated to ensuring that your continental venture gets off to a smooth and enjoyable start.
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Wisely, most passengers, whether traveling on foot, or in their own vehicles, aim to arrive in plenty of time for their ferry, but depending on how far they are coming from, "plenty of time" can sometimes, in favourable traffic conditions, mean arriving up to several hours before departure.
This isn't a problem at Portsmouth, but it can leave travelers with a boring interlude to fill, and time on their hands which they don't know how to pass.
So, in addition to the friendly and personal service which we in the Travel Centre strive to offer to every single visitor, within this site we have included some very useful details of things you can do to occupy your time locally, without having to stray too far from the port itself.
We also offer you everything you need for your journey, including advice on European motoring requirements, together with all the essential accessories you need in order to comply with continental road law, and what everyone has come to regard as the best and cheapest bureau de change facility on the south coast.
On the left of each page you will see links that will take you to different pages, each with full details of everything you may need to know, complete with assorted contact details for ourselves, the port authority and the various ferry operators whose services run from Portsmouth.
We think we have covered everything, but if you think there is something else we could usefully add, please let us know, via the link "E-Mail the websmaster" (just click the link and wait a few seconds).
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Whether your stay in Portsmouth is measured in minutes, or hours, we want you to enjoy your experience of our city and leave with fond memories of what you experienced here.
Should you arrive with several hours to spare - which often happens to people - whatever else is happening in the ferry port, you will always find someone on hand inside the Travel Centre, at the InterCash counter, between the hours of 5.30am and 11.00pm.
Not everything else in the ferry port is open and staffed during all those hours, although port security and police and immigration are always on hand.
However, all port services are fully staffed in the run-ups to ferry arrivals and departures (we have included full timetable details, via the link on the left, near the top of the page) and the cafe in the main terminal building is usually open for most of the day and evening. |
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Inside the Travel centre, when the cafe here is closed between sailings (especially "out of season"), there are vending machines, offering a choice of quick snacks and hot and cold drinks, and a BT payphone, although mobile reception in the port is excellent, thanks to the close proximity of most of the main mobile service provider signal masts.
There are also seats available, and InterCash offers a range of excellent quality books, provided mostly by one of our subsidiary companies - these are free to travelers, but if you wish to make a donation to the RNLI Lifeboats, you will be supporting an excellent cause.
Many thanks - and bon voyage!
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CLICK THE BANNER ON THE LEFT TO GO TO OUR COMMENT SECTION |
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