Ferry to France

The most common mistake is booking Dover out of habit. Dover-Calais is the shortest crossing and often looks cheapest, but the shortest time at sea isn't the same as the shortest journey. If you're heading anywhere other than the Calais area, the drive on the French side can wipe out everything you saved on the water.

The clearest way to see this is in road miles: a trip from west London to the Loire or south-west France is roughly 200 miles less driving via Portsmouth-Caen than via Dover-Calais, and a journey from Birmingham to central Normandy is about 500km via Portsmouth against 820km via Dover.

If you live in the West Country or you're heading west or south in France, a longer crossing from Portsmouth or Plymouth often gets you there sooner, cheaper and far less tired.

Ferries to France leave from four English ports, each suiting a different part of the country.

• Dover: is the busiest, with three operators to Calais plus DFDS to Dunkirk — the natural choice from London and the south-east.
• Newhaven: in East Sussex is served by DFDS to Dieppe, and is one of the few crossings that genuinely works without a car, with the terminal a few minutes' walk from the train station.
• Portsmouth: is Brittany Ferries' main hub, sailing to Caen (Ouistreham) for direct access into Normandy.
• Plymouth: sails to Roscoff in Brittany, the natural port for anyone in Devon, Cornwall or the wider West Country.

Fares swing widely by route, season and how early you book, but as a rough guide the short Dover crossings start around £30–£60 each way for a foot passenger and £60–£150 for a car with two passengers. Lead-in fares can dip lower still — Direct Ferries lists one-way starting prices as low as £18–£30 on the Channel routes when booked well ahead.

There's a genuine catch worth knowing about, though: the shortest crossing isn't the cheapest per mile. One 2025 analysis of summer fares found Dover-Calais was the most expensive day route per kilometre, while Newhaven-Dieppe came out the cheapest day crossing for families and Dover-Dunkirk the cheapest for couples in the shoulder season.

The overnight Brittany Ferries routes cost more up front but bundle in a cabin, effectively replacing a night's hotel.

Booking early is the single biggest saving. Operators release early-bird deals before Christmas, and booking then can save roughly 20–25% against leaving it to late spring. Prices climb as departure nears and spike hard across the July–August school holidays.

If your dates flex, mid-week sailings usually beat weekends, early-morning and late-night departures are cheapest of all, and overnight crossings often undercut daytime ones on the longer routes. Comparing a couple of nearby dates before you commit almost always turns up a cheaper sailing.

The main alternative to a ferry is Eurotunnel's LeShuttle — a drive-on train through the Channel Tunnel rather than a ship. It's the fastest crossing at around 35 minutes Folkestone to Calais, runs up to several times an hour, and shrugs off weather that can disrupt sailings.

But it only serves the Folkestone-Calais corridor, so it's no use from further west, and being vehicle-only it doesn't take foot passengers. It's usually quicker but not usually cheaper — for most car trips the ferry wins on price, the tunnel on speed.

Without a car your choices narrow: only P&O (Dover-Calais), DFDS (Newhaven-Dieppe) and Brittany Ferries (both their routes) take foot passengers — DFDS's two Dover routes are vehicle-only.

All four operators carry pets, though the details differ by route; dogs, cats and ferrets need a microchip, a valid rabies vaccination, and an EU Pet Passport or GB Animal Health Certificate, and coming back to the UK dogs also need tapeworm treatment.

With a vehicle there's effectively no luggage limit; foot passengers should check the individual route's allowance. One tip worth knowing since Brexit: you can't bring meat or dairy products into the EU, so eat or bin them before the French border.

Because France is in the Schengen area, the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) applies to every ferry to France. Dover is the one crossing where the check happens before you leave the UK, under its reciprocal border arrangement with France — everywhere else, you're checked on arrival in France. The system is still bedding in, so it's worth reading up on what EES involves before you travel.