Portsmouth to Caen Ferry

Brittany Ferries is the only operator on this route, running up to three sailings a day using the ships Mont St Michel and Normandie. Daytime crossings take around 6 hours; overnight sailings, which include a cabin, take up to 8 hours.

Caen's ferry port is actually at Ouistreham, giving direct road access into Normandy and onward to Paris. Foot passengers are welcome on this route, which is part of why it's Brittany Ferries' most popular France crossing from Portsmouth.

The crossing covers around 105 nautical miles. Pets travel for a £35 fee each way.

Caen's ferry port is actually located at Ouistreham, around 15km north of Caen itself, giving direct road access into Normandy and onward to Paris. Portsmouth's ferry terminal serves this route alongside Brittany Ferries' other France and Spain sailings.

Caen itself is worth time if you have it: largely rebuilt after heavy fighting at the end of the Second World War, it still keeps landmarks from the era of William the Conqueror, who is buried in the city's Abbey of Saint-Étienne.

This is the route's real distinction: you don't just arrive near the D-Day beaches, you arrive on one. Ouistreham sits at the eastern end of Sword Beach, the easternmost of the five 1944 landing beaches, and Le Grand Bunker museum — a preserved German command post from the Atlantic Wall — is barely 900 metres from the ferry terminal.

Brittany Ferries has carried D-Day veterans across this route for the anniversary commemorations, and for anyone visiting Normandy's wartime sites it's the natural way in.

The Caen Memorial museum, the beaches from Sword west to Utah, Bayeux and its famous tapestry, and the war cemeteries are all within easy reach once you land. If you're here for the history, bringing a car is worth it — the sites are spread across the countryside and public transport between them is limited.

Caen's ferry port is at Ouistreham, 15km north of the city, with direct access onto the autoroute network — handy road links towards Paris, Brittany, the Loire and the south.

The terminal itself has a café-bar, free WiFi (including for cars queuing to board), a bureau de change and taxis waiting outside; expect roughly €30 into Caen by day, more in the evening.

There's no car hire at the port itself — the rental firms are all in Caen, next to the train station — so if you're arriving on foot and planning to hire a car, factor in the transfer.

A bus service runs between Ouistreham and Caen's train station roughly every 20 minutes, with tickets available at the port for a few euros, and from Caen there are TGV connections to Paris and beyond. One nice detail on that bus route: you pass Pegasus Bridge, captured by British glider troops in the opening hours of D-Day.