Talk:Dover

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Revision as of 21:53, 6 July 2017 by OlcheMaith (talk | contribs)
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Hey

When I need or want to give advice on hitchhiking from the UK to mainland Europe or vice versa I usually refer to this page on Digihitch: Hitchhiking Into and Out Of The UK

It tells you that it is better to hitchhike to Europe or to the UK on motorway services: Maidstone in UK and Jabekke in Belgium.

However, these pages on the growing Hitchwiki resource mention Calais and Dover again as options to hitchhike: United Kingdom, Dover, Calais.

That's quite confusing to me. So, what is better? To hitch from the services or on the harbours. My guess the first. Would the Hitchwiki need to be edited on this?

It needs correction indeed, hitching the harbour isn't easy as it is prohibited to actually be in the harbour property. Most of the traffic all do the electronic check-in and therefore barely no traffic stops anymore at the Travel Centre for booking, the trucker flow is quite dense and there isn't really sideway for them to stop over.
The Tunnel is still the best option, from Maidstone Services, or potentially the truck stop in Ashford area. Maplefanta 00:56, 3 July 2007 (CEST)

After my last few experiences, I have to say that nearly everything written in this section is wrong, the channel tunnel entrance has revealed a great option; maidstone services is still the place to be in Kent when picking a ride into the south-east; dover harbour is impossible to catch a ride and nobody does stop at the customer services anymore as everything is now electronic way into the harbour; car going into the ferry can only take passengers for free their tickets were bought during a promotion, otherwise ferry crossing are car + passengers (truckers excluded) while the tunnel is always paid per vehicule only. Anybody up to support refreshing this whole section again? Maplefanta 15:23, 30 October 2007 (CET)

Well, if you say it's wrong, then we should surely change it. I only went over the channel in the other direction, and my experiences there were: Standing at the tunnel entrance is senseless, and the staff sent us away after a while, saying this is illegal. So, the port is the best option. Many people buy their tickets online and the number of persons is on it, so they can't take you. However, if they buy their tickets on the spot, they can take you for free, but the number of passengers still has to be on the ticket, so you have to ask before they buy it. We waited in front of the ticket office, which worked very great. Does that fit into your experience? I did it in July 2007. --MrTweeksite, wikitalk 15:38, 30 October 2007 (CET)

Petrol Station in Dover

why isn't it listed in the article? did I just miss it or is there a catch? will elaborate in a couple of days, after I've successfully used it :-)--Zenit 01:14, 29 September 2010 (CEST)

Hey, I'm on an editing roll :) I edited these out since it seems too confusing to me - why send people to all these places when they can just stay at the bus stop near BP? I didn't want to erase things that might be useful, so I'm copying it all here. What do you think? Can anyone confirm any of these options as alternatives to BP? (Are there cases in which any of these would be better than BP?) Otherwise my suggestion is to edit them out. If eventually anything happens to the BP spot, we can edit it again :)

Here's what I erased from the page:

* There is a small park at the entrance in front of this hitchhiking point. If there are any drivers you might try to ask them. * You can try your luck inside the Travel Centre or on the car park in front of it. The problem is that both are nowadays very quiet as most people book on-line. If you speak to people here, you will have to convince them that they don't pay anything extra for taking you across and possibly that you are not an illegal immigrant. Grégoire was told by a person working at a ticket office that you can also directly ask to the people making the queue if they have room in their car before they buy the ticket, so that they can verify it is legal. He found a car in ten minutes, but thinks it should be done discretely. Pete the Temp found some leads by approaching cars but there was much suspicion and many people coming to buy tickets were crossing as foot passengers. * you are allowed to stand at the rail of the last roundabout leading into the port, i.e. before the port property. You'll be standing at the height of a truck driver who can see you clearly and can pull aside just in front of the Port Police building after the roundabout. This is far from ideal, and some police don't like it. *Much better are the normal bus stops on the main seaside road with a sign that says France. [recommended] * If you're really stuck you can also try at the Western Docks, there is a truck park where drivers carrying certain types of goods or from outside the EU have to stop to complete some paperwork.

Also, there was a lot of contradicting information on being/not being able to spend the night in the ferry terminal. Does anyone know what the current situation is?

And I think the entire Channel crossing/Maidstone/Dover/Calais scene should be reorganized so that information is easy to find. I'll get to that soon if no one stops me ;)

OlcheMaith (talk) 20:51, 6 July 2017 (UTC)