Traveling abroad by Ferry or Taking your caravan by Ferry
Whether you are traveling to a static caravan park or taking your caravan with you, you will still need to take your car. So your best option is to take a ferry. As an island England is most suited to ferry travel, and as such you can travel to most countries by Ferry.
It will just depend where you are looking to travel to, and then deciding whether to take the cheapest and quickest route, but perhaps more driving required once you get to the other side!
Traveling by Ferry?
If you are nervous about the experience, here is what to expect?
It is considerably easier to take a caravan on a ferry than you would think. After all the ferry ports are used to loading coaches, trucks and freight of all sizes and so a car/caravan combination is not as much of a challenge.
The ferry terminals all have ample parking and space on arrival and once you are into to the arrival queues life is very straightforward with plenty of room to manoeuvre a caravan.
Getting on to the ferry is no different from driving over a bridge, slightly uphill but again plenty of room. Ferries are largely designed for drive on/drive off and so it really is a case of driving in to your lane turning your engine off and getting out. It's as easy as that!
How do I book Tickets?
We found that with so many operators it was best to compare the prices from one website. Ferryonline.co.uk compare the lowest web fares in real time from every ferry operator and sometimes have exclusive deals that offer lower prices than going direct. Their website is really easy to use, also a bonus these days! We would suggest booking in advance, especially on some of the Western channel routes and all ferries to Spain as these get booked up very quickly. To help plan your journey we have listed below all the ferry routes from England to France and Spain. There are of course many more; perhaps you will cross the Irish Sea to Ireland or Northern Ireland or perhaps touring Scandinavia. So with so many routes and options we would suggest that you visit Ferryonline.
Ferries to France
The shortest and most competitive routes to France depart from Dover to Calais and Dunkerque.
- Dover to Calais - 1 ½ hours duration - DFDS (formerly Norfolkine), MyFerryLink & P&O Ferries
- Dover to Dunkerque - 1 ½ hours duration - DFDS (formerly Norfolkine)
For those traveling Non Dover routes the destinations offered are far greater taking you all over along the West Channel to France. All times quoted below are the quickest times available. Traveling on fastcraft will be considerably faster than conventional ferries although they often do not take caravans so you need to check.
- Plymouth to Roscoff – 6 hours – Brittany Ferries
- Poole to Cherbourg – 2 hours 15 minutes – Brittany Ferries
- Poole to St Malo – 4 hours 35 minutes – Condor Ferries
- Portsmouth to Caen – 6 hours – Brittany Ferries
- Portsmouth to Cherbourg – 3 hours Brittany Ferries & Condor
- Portsmouth to Le Havre - 5 hours 30 minutes – LD Lines
- Portsmouth to St Malo – 9 hours – Brittany Ferries
- Weymouth to St Malo – 8 hours 15 minutes – Condor Ferries
Ferries to Spain
- Plymouth to Santander – 20 hours – Brittany Ferries
- Portsmouth to Bilbao – 29 hours – Brittany Ferries
- Portsmouth to Santander – 24 hours – Brittany Ferries