Tips for taking a ferry from France (Calais) to the UK (Dover) without advance booking?

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Cross channel ferry traffic peaks in the summer months, and some crossings can certainly be full. Given how many crossings there are it is likely that there will be space on some crossing or other during a given day. However if several are full you might end up waiting for quite a few hours at Calais ferry port. You might also end up on a very inconvenient sailing, like the 0135 departure.

As CMaster says, one solution is to attempt to book ahead by phone when you get close enough to Calais to know when you want to travel. That will at least let you know when you can sail and if you can't get a space immediately it allows you to do your waiting somewhere more attractive than Calais ferry port.

A slightly safer alternative is to make a flexible booking, like the "Flexi Ticket" that P&O sells. You can book a guaranteed spot on a convenient ferry towards the end of the time you might arrive, but if it looks like you are going to arrive early you can try to move the booking to an earlier sailing if space is available. This restricts you to only one company, but does mean you are guaranteed a place.

Which option you choose may depend on how much you want to pay and how prepared you are to either sail on an unpopular crossing time or wait for a long time at the terminal

Upvote:1

I do think the ferry is much better than the tunnel, good plan.

I've always booked ahead for the ferry, for a time based on best-estimation of the driving time + leeway for surprises. In the (frequent) cases where I turned up early, the staff have almost always just let me on an earlier crossing. So there's no sacrifice by booking ahead, because if you get there early you can probably cross early too.

Upvote:4

You should consider the alternative crossing from Dunkirk to Dover in the 'peak' season. In Dunkirk, there are better organized (simply less traffic, easier to plan ahead) passport controls, and the queues are much shorter.

You can pre-book a Flex ticket which is 50% more expensive. Which is in my eyes way to much and also doesn't answer the core of your question:

Flexibility to amend your booking on arrival at port to travel up to 72 hours either side of your booked crossing time for free, subject to availability. £10pp (€12,50 p.p) supplement will be charged for each extra passenger when more than 4 in a vehicle. Charge does not apply to infants between 0-3 years old. No administration fees – only pay the difference in the fare to travel more than 72 hours on either side of your booked crossing. Full refund up to 48 hours before travel.

Buying your tickets at the ferry terminals in Calais or Dunkirk (a few minutes away) is just 'another lane' you have to go to and wait for. It would take about 30 minutes to a few hours extra. (peak-season) And the price will be €5 (DFDS) to €6 (P&O Ferries) more.

When booking by phone or in person, you must pay a service fee of; £5 / 5€ on the Dover-Dunkirk and Calais routes.

Another option is to book a ticket and then 'modify' it, this is +/- €12 to 15 per crossing. (DFDS for example) You'll be 100% sure of a crossing, though.

If you want to avoid queues for 100%, try the Newhaven-Dieppe connection or further away: Le Havre to Portsmouth. I found these connections on this map with all the routes.

I have traveled to Dover a lot, and my personal decision on what crossing to make would base on the time I would travel (peak season, super peak season with queues, or normal season). A queue of 3 hours is way worse than €5 to €12 extra costs! Dunkirk is in that case, the best move for now. (Until everyone starts doing that..)

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