You'd probably be better off going through Holland (Hoek) to Harwich which would cut your overall journey in half.

Certainly Harwich to Cambridge would be faster than Dover to Cambridge, but the advantage of driving Zurich to Calais is that it's motorway all the way. At Christmas, a friend and I left Zurich at the same time - he was going Hook of Holland to Newcastle, I was going Calais to Dover. We both arrived at the ports at about the same time. He would have got there sooner, but he got lost on some very badly signed roads and then got stuck in traffic in or around one of the cities on the way. All in all, I'd rather just bomb along the motorway and pay a little more at the port. Certainly won't be travelling on the tunnel though - I was quoted GBP300 for a return ticket over Christmas. As it was, the cheapest deal I could get was about GBP150 on the SeaCat or hovercraft.

and duty free has ceased to exist, don't forget

The difference in the prices of alcohol and cigs, even where duty has already been paid, between France and the UK is sufficiently large that many people make regular runs across the channel to stock up. There is a reasonably large black market for imported goods too.

Plus, if you felt sociable, you could drop in on the way for a beer and a demo

Well, you're more than welcome to pop down to Switzerland :-)

Nick.


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