Dover's Ferry Services

Dover's Ferries

A simple guide to the scheduled
ferry services from Dover to
Calais

Weather information

Dover has been a port for many centuries, primarily military up until the 19th Century when we (almost) gave up fighting the French. There has been a regular ferry service between Dover and Calais for some 60 years and the primary 'invaders' now are tourists and shoppers.

The ferries now include Catamarans. The traditional ferries cross to Calais in 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 30 mins, the Catamaran takes 45-55 mins (the Hovercraft used to do it in 35 mins). The usual adage applies, you get what you pay for!

All the companies that operate the Dover to Calais route insist that you are at their check-in at least 30 mins before the scheduled departure time. Don't forget your passport or you might be disappointed!

The companies that offer Dover-Calais services (in no particular order) are:

Their pages should give details of fares and timetables, but a rough guide is that P&O will operate an hourly service or better and Sea France operate a one to two-hourly service. Hoverspeed ceased trading in November 2005.

For information about Calais (in english!) you could try the Day Tripper site. For the French tourist site try www.calais.fr

There is additional information about the ferry services from Dover on the Seaview Pages site, which also includes a cross-channel shopping guide.

There are currently no services directly to Belgium, P&O having ended the Zeebrugge link and Hoverspeed stating they will not restart the Ostend service after its winter break. Passengers for Ostend are bussed from Calais Hoverport.

Norfolk Line run to Dunkerque, north of Calais on the Belgian border.

Speedferries started a car-only catamaran service to Boulogne on 19 May 2004. They hope add a second craft during the 2007 season.

	Dover's Eastern Arm & the famous White Cliffs. A Norfolk Line ship is berthed on the Arm, in Berth No. 1 before sailing to Dunkerque. The Coastguard Agency at Langdon Cliffs is just visible directly above the ship.
	The Seafrance vessel Cezanne, previously known as 'Fiesta'. She is sailing north towards Calais along the French coast.
	One of Hoverspeed's Seacats captured mid-Channel on route to Calais.
	Speedferry's seacat Speed One on the cat berth between berths 6 & 7 in Dover Harbour. Speedferries normally use Berth 1 however (shared with Norfolk Line)

The weather can affect Dover-Calais services badly. If the forecast says "South Westerly force 8" then don't attempt to take a ferry without contacting the relevant company first (the catamarans would have stopped a few hours before that!). Always phone the companies for an update if it's windy (any wind above force 5/6 will disrupt services) or check the local radio information if you're in Kent - especially the local KMFM Radio on 106.8MHz.. The Met Office are offering a weather service on the Web, try it! The local BBC forecast is also available