A few years ago it made good financial sense to hop in the car, drive onto a ferry and head over to Calais in France to stock up on wine and beer. But once the Euro got stronger and the pound weakened it wasn’t cheap enough to warrant the journey anymore.
However the exchange rates nowadays are very different to how they looked a few short years ago. Now the Euro is in trouble and the pound is getting stronger almost by the minute. Once again it has made good financial sense to think about booking a day trip on a ferry and travelling to the Continent to stock up on your favourite tipples.
Indeed this summer looks like it might be a bumper time for the few discount wine merchants still in business over in Calais. With the London 2012 Olympics just a few weeks away and the opportunity to hold street parties in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, there is every reason for people to stock up. With the Euro taking a nosedive that shows no sign of changing direction, more and more Brits could be seen driving onto ferries and coming back laden down with cheap alcohol.
But perhaps the biggest question is whether this trend would continue if the Euro were to cease to be. The answer would rely on how the replacement currencies would perform against the pound. It is reasonable to assume they would be a lot weaker than the Euro – at least to begin with. But until and unless such an event occurs it is impossible to tell what the outcome would be.
Until then, there will undoubtedly be more and more Brits thinking about resurrecting the booze cruises that were such a big part of the Eighties and beyond. If you haven’t yet tried one because you didn’t think they were worth doing, perhaps now is the time to give it a go while you can. There are some significant savings to be made – but no one can tell quite how long they will last.
Ah yes the good old booze cruise – I remember it well. I can also remember when it didn’t make sense to do it anymore. I miss it – it wasn’t just the fact you could go over and get your cheap booze for the day. We used to go over early and go round the hypermarkets too, stopping off for lunch in a restaurant and generally having a nice day out just over the water. You can’t do that now, it just isn’t cheap enough. If it does become cost effective to do it again I’d welcome it back, I really would. I’d love to know how this goes and I will be keeping an eye on the prices for sure. I bet I won’t be the only one either!
The last time I went on a so called booze cruise was probably about four or five years ago. I used to love it, even though we didn’t really go to stock up on loads of booze. We’d get a few nice bottles of wine, have a nice lunch and then head to the hypermarket to get loads of things you couldn’t get in the UK. I can remember getting some ham and a real French stick and just having an al fresco lunch at one point – well ok, it was in the car so not really al fresco but it was certainly nice! I would love to see the prices come down to make it worth doing again.
If we do we’ll find out anytime now. We used to do it on the run up to Christmas each year, but we’d make a day of it. I don’t think we’ll do it this year but who knows, some people might.