Cars, Cabins, and Calm Seas: The Joy of Travelling by Ferry with Kids

We’ve been on three European holidays where we’ve travelled by ferry: twice we’ve landed at Calais. The first time we spent three weeks driving around France, on a fantastic road trip, and the second time we drove to Belgium and stayed in an Airbnb with friends. 

Our most recent ferry trip was to Dieppe - from Newhaven - where we drove to a French Centre Parcs for a week and had a week by the beach.

Travelling by ferry is like a breath of fresh air - compared to flying - here are all the reasons why we love setting sail.

Budget-Friendly Travel for Five

For us, as a family of five, the price of a return ferry route is a lot more manageable than the cost of five return seats on a plane, especially because our kids are all in school so we go during peak times, which makes everything more expensive.

Now some ferry routes are expensive if there are five or more of you - we’ve never travelled overnight to St Malo, although we would have liked to, because we’d need to book two cabins to fit us all in.

We’ve travelled from Dover to Calais twice for around… and our most recent trip from Newhaven to Dieppe came in at £… for the 5 of us, plus a cabin and our car!

The Ultimate Perk: Taking Your Car on Holiday

As mentioned, your car can come with you on the ferry! For us, this is the biggest bonus of going by boat.

Firstly, it adds to the affordability, meaning we don’t have to factor in the cost of car hire or airport transfers, public transport or taxis, which would be enough of a perk on its own.

But add to this the fact that you can queue in your car, and the whole journey just feels easier. Walking around an airport with young kids and having to queue and go through security feels stressful and is massively time-consuming. 

Travelling by ferry, you queue to go through customs in the car - ok, so not massively enjoyable for the driver, but for the rest of us it’s great.

This means the kids can carry on watching iPads/playing Nintendo/drawing/playing/eating, (you get the idea) and no one has to move - except to glance at the passport control officer - gather their stuff, be carried, get bored and fractious in a long queue, etc. 

Also, having your car makes packing so much easier - there’s no removing toiletries, you can have your water bottles with you, a book and pencil case by each seat, blankets, you name it.

The journey is fun…or at least less stressful

As mentioned, queueing does not feel the same when you’re all in your own space in the car.

Also on a ferry, you can walk around - you can go to the shop, the cafe, the bar or on deck. It feels nice to move rather than being strapped in for takeoff or landing. For our most recent trip, we paid extra for a cabin, which had two sets of bunk beds, a table and chair and a toilet.

Having our own little room was great, we could play cards, read, lie on the bunk beds and listen to music and eat in the room. It was also nice to wander around and then come back to the cabin.

Departing was low-stress too, yes, there’s a queue to drive off (but you’re in your car!) and you don’t have to wait to get your suitcases.

Missed the Boat? Here’s Why It’s Not the End of the World

So…this one is definitely not recommended, but good to know.

On the info, it said to arrive an hour before departure. Unfortunately, due to being a bit too relaxed and the drive to the port taking longer than we’d thought, we arrived 20 minutes before departure to see locked gates ahead.

Turns out the system was locked down 30 minutes before, which we hadn’t realised, and we and another passenger missed it.

Luckily, there was space on the next ferry, and we only had to pay an additional fee of £50.

We ended up with 5 hours to kill in Dieppe (which we did by walking round looking at the market and shops and eating)  and arriving home at 1 am rather than that afternoon, but all in all it was fine and a good story!

Stress-Free Travel That Starts Before You Arrive

Travelling by ferry is cheaper and feels like an adventure; we don’t feel like we’ve lost holiday time travelling, nor do we feel tired/drained afterwards, which we often do after flying.

There’s far less waiting around, and it feels like our holiday starts as soon as the ferry sets sail. Overall, we just find ferries easier and less stressful all around, and so do the kids.