Condor Ferries > Reviews > Gets you there quickly (when they are running)

Author's product rating:   

Reliability	Quite reliable
Comfort	Comfortable

Advantages:	Fast .  Fairly spacious inside .  Comfortable .
Disadvantages:	Hopeless in rough weather .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I often travel to Jersey, as quite a few of my relations live there.

The last few times I travelled by plane from Coventry, as it is more convenient, but sometimes, stung by my conscience into not flying, I make the long journey down to Weymouth, or Portsmouth, or Poole to get the Condor.

If you are taking a car over to Jersey, then the Condor is your only option, as they have a monopoly on ferries to the island (having put the other ferry operator, British Channel Island Ferries, out of business ages ago).

If not, then you can always fly. If you live near the South coast, then I would take the ferry - it is probably about as expensive (£30 day return, but prices vary up to £70-80 for a longer return for one adult). At the moment, there is a sale on - only £14 day return to Jersey.

I tried booking a ferry online as preparation for this review, but found it was fairly complicated to do so. Their website could be much better laid out. You have to input details more than once to book, and unless you get the times exactly right (you have to remember these from a previous page) - it returns an error message, rather than giving you alternatives. Then again, that is a Jersey company for you. The entire island seems to be about 10 years behind the times.

After about 15 minutes of navigating, I finally managed to get to the page where you actually pay for your booking.

As Jersey is part of the United Kingdom, but not part of Great Britain, or part of Europe?! (Don't ask me, I don't understand either) you can still get duty free on board the ferry. The prices on Condor are very reasonable, yet still make massive profit margins for the company as they do not have to pay any duty, and thus help to reduce the fares - though these can still be a bit steep, especially in the summer, especially compared to air travel.

The problem with the fast catamaran is that, although it is a very advanced ship, it can't handle wind speeds of much more than 40 miles an hour (which happens regularly in the Channel). Then you have to take an 8 hour journey to the island from a different port, or get stuck while you are waiting for the weather to improve. (They did give me a £15 voucher towards B & B when this happened to me once, however). It does, however, cut the journey time down by half - four hours as opposed to eight. Arrival times are not always adhered to though, especially in rough weather.

There isn't really much of a case whether or not to recommend Condor - as they are the only ferry service that exists. With the advent of cheap air fares, they are overpriced, even compared to cross channel services serving Brittany from Portsmouth. Yet they do offer, fast, state-of-the-art ferries (when they are running). If you are taking a car, you have no choice. Without it, you are better off getting a plane. Services from Coventry go from under £10 single + taxes (though the airport is a small metal box 6 miles from the city, and transport links to it are horrendous).