Information about Ferries to France
Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 12-06-2011
The current route from the UK ferry to France route was created back in 1841. It was done as a way of having a sustainable link between the trains in France and those here in the UK so that travellers would have an easy means of linking the two parts of their train journeys.
Today, most people who use the ferry from England to France do so because they want to join together their car journeys as travelling by car is useful for carrying kids and luggage as well as making it easier if we want to bring back booze or fags on our return.
Crossing the channel from England to France can take between 1 hour 10 minutes, and 8 hours depending on the route you take. There are five major ports here in the UK where you can travel from, and their main routes are:
Dover – Travelling to Calais and Dunkirk.
Newhaven – Travelling to Dieppe.
Portsmouth – Traveling to Caen, Le Harve, Cherbourg and St Malo.
Poole – Traveling to Cherbourg.
Plymouth – Travelling to Roscoff.
Eight main ferry providers travel these routes, and run services which ferry people from the UK to France (as well as to the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and the Channel Islands).
When you travel to France like on the Dover to Calais ferry, you need to make sure you have passports not just for yourself, but also for each child travelling with you too as they can no longer go on your passport, but need their own. If you’re taking the car (or a motorbike), you must also make sure that you have not just your drivers licence with you, but also your insurance documents and proof of ownership of the vehicle as in France drivers must be able to prove they own the car or they could be pulled in for possibly driving a stolen vehicle.
It used to be that you couldn’t take a pet with you when you went away, but today the rules have changed and as long as your pet meets certain criteria, is microchipped, has been vaccinated against rabies and has been blood tested by an approved lab, you can generally take it with you should you wish to do so.
Ferries from the UK to France also carry foot passengers as well as car passengers, and they even have space for bicycles which often don’t cost any extra to take with you making biking around France a popular choice for some people.