What does the ferry to France really cost? Family-of-four prices from the UK and Ireland

At Ferrygogo, we carry out several pieces of research each year, including a detailed look at the cost of ferry crossings to various European destinations. We recently published our full ferry price study. A large share of our readers is specifically interested in ferries to France from England and Ireland. Those prices were already part of the more exhaustive research, but we’ve pulled them out into a separate overview so you can clearly see what each crossing costs – and whether a night sailing or a daytime crossing to France makes more sense for your family.

Of course, the best choice depends on where you live and whether you’d otherwise need a hotel night, but this breakdown gives a useful indication of what a typical family can expect to pay when sailing between Ireland or the UK and France. We’ve also included the costs of ferries to Jersey and Guernsey. Strictly speaking, they aren’t France, but they combine very nicely with a crossing to or from the French coast.

Below you’ll find the price data for crossings to France from the UK and Ireland. These are not fixed fares, but guide prices based on checks we carried out in November and December – a period when ferry prices are often still reasonable for the following summer.

They provide a good idea of what you might pay for a ferry to France as a family, including the cost of the car, with or without an overnight crossing, and how that breaks down per mile and per person. There are plenty of sailings from Portsmouth to France, for example, but there are also many alternative routes worth considering.

From this price sample, a few things stand out:

• In late June, a typical night ferry from the UK or Ireland to France with an inside cabin for a family of four and a car costs around £850 return, rising to just over £900 in early August.
• Daytime ferries from England to France without a cabin typically cost around £315 in late June and approximately £410 in early August for a family of four with a car.
• Per mile, most UK–France crossings sit in the £1.50-£2.50 per mile range, but the very shortest hop, Dover-Calais, is the most expensive in this sample at over £4 per mile.
• Routes such as Newhaven–Dieppe and Portsmouth-Caen often offer better value per mile than the shorter Dover sailings, even if the total ticket price is slightly higher.
• Irish routes, such as Cork–Roscoff and Rosslare–Dunkirk, are more expensive overall – often around £1,250 in June for a family and car – but are broadly comparable per mile to many UK-France crossings.
• On both day and night sailings, the cost per person per mile clusters at around £0.60; the real difference is whether you get a cabin and effectively swap a hotel night for a night at sea.

Day ferry crossing costs to France

Cost of a night crossing to France