If your planning on taking the Dover to Calais Ferry then you now only have one ferry operator to choose from, P&O ferries. The other operator SeaFrance went into administration at the end of 2011.
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Sailings per day
Car & 9 passengers
Day Trips
Foot Passengers
Sailing Time
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Alternative route – Have you considered the Dover to Dunkirk (Dunkerque) ferry as an alternative to the Dover Calais ferry. Dunkirk is approxametly 30 miles east of Calais and if you’re final destination is Belgium or anywhere east of Calais then the Dover Dunkirk ferry will get you closer to your destination.
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Sailings per day
Car & 4 passengers
Day Trips
Foot Passengers
Sailing Time
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Although the sailing time is 30 minutes more than the Dover to Calais crossing you may find that the cost of travelling is cheaper, especially if there is 4 or less people travelling. If there is a 5th person sailing with you, then you’ll pay £15 more, bringing a reurn sailing up to from £48, still £2 cheaper than the P&O and Seafrance.
Since the creation of the channel tunnel the number of ferry operators and the number of crossings between Dover and Calais have declined quite dramatically. Stena line merged their sailings with P&O, HoverSpeed, SNCF and SpeedFerries stop their ferry operations on the route completely.
The Channel Tunnel is operated by two companies EuroTunnel and Eurostar. These two are often confused, Eurostar run the passenger train service between London St Pancras International to Paris, Brussels, Lille etc. Eurotunnel on the other hand run the car and lorry train shuttles between Folkestone and Calais. Just like the Dover Calais ferry, you drive your car on in England and drive off in France – this shuttle service takes just 35 minutes. Folkstone is roughly 10 miles west of Dover.
If you are planning on travelling from Dover to Calais as a regular foot passenger (you won’t be taking any vehicle) then you will not be able to use the SeaFrance service. As of October 2009 SeaFrance will no longer take foot passengers on their services to Calais as the demand for this type of ticket was so low that it was no longer viable to run the buses needed to get the foot passengers to and from the ship.
This does not affect you if you are cycling to France, you will be welcome on both SeaFrance and P&O ferries from Dover – prices start at just £15 for a cyclist travelling to Calais.
