Why this site exists

Getting from the UK to France by ferry should be simple, but the choice is bigger than most people realise: the quick Dover hop, the longer crossings into Normandy and Brittany, even the long haul to Spain for the south. We kept noticing the same problem – the options are scattered across operators and booking sites, and nobody simply explains, in plain terms, which crossing makes sense from where you are starting.

So we built englandtofrance.co.uk to do exactly that. For every starting point in the UK and every destination in France, we set out the sensible routes, with real crossing times, what each one costs, whether foot passengers and bikes are carried, and the practical details that actually matter once you are on the road.

What sets the advice apart is that we have made these crossings ourselves. We have sailed Dover to Calais with every operator on the route to see how they compare, crossed from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, and come back from Saint-Malo to Portsmouth. So when we tell you what a crossing is genuinely like – the boarding, the cabins, the drive at the far end – it comes from experience, not a brochure.

We keep the advice honest about money, too. Where we link you straight to a ferry operator, we earn nothing – it is simply the most direct way to book. Some links, such as our price-comparison tool, may earn us a small commission, but it never changes what we recommend. If a longer crossing or a different operator is the better choice for your trip, that is what we will say.

Ready to plan? Start by finding your route on the homepage, or browse all the crossings we cover.