Prices & Tickets
Current fares for the Dover - Calais crossing with P&O Ferries, DFDS and Irish Ferries - what drives the price, which ticket fits which trip, and the live quote for your date.
Fares on the Dover - Calais route
Table of Contents
A Dover - Calais ticket is priced per vehicle, and the spread is wide: the same car can cross for well under half of what a peak Saturday quote shows. Four inputs do the work - the vehicle category, the travel date, the fare type and how early you book. This page gives you the current reference fares and the logic; the binding number for your date always comes from the live search, which compares all three operators at once.
Lowest current fares by vehicle type
Lowest fares currently published for this route, either direction, in euros. Status: August 2026. These are starting points, not quotes: your date, your vehicle's length and height and the fare type decide the actual price, and the checkout shows your market currency.
| Vehicle type | P&O Ferries | DFDS | Irish Ferries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car (incl. passengers) | from €95.50 | from €98.00 | from €80.00 |
| Motorhome / camper | from €116.92 | from €113.78 | from €100.00 |
| Van | from €103.60 | from €123.55 | from €102.00 |
| Minibus | from €109.74 | from €110.00 | from €116.48 |
| Motorcycle | from €51.00 | from €52.05 | from €55.05 |
| Bicycle | from €26.50 | from €21.00 | - |
| Foot passenger | from €31.50 | not carried | - |
Two structural notes hide in that table. Foot-passenger tickets are essentially a P&O product with fixed daily sailings; DFDS carries vehicles only, and Irish Ferries shows a foot or cycling option only on selected sailings (see foot passengers). And the three operators price close enough together that the sailing time you want should usually decide, not a ten-euro gap in the headline fare.
What moves the price
The vehicle category is the base. The deck is sold by length and height: a car, a van, a motorhome and a car with a caravan sit in different bands, and a roof box or bike rack can push you over a threshold. Measure the whole rig before booking - the categories are explained on the vehicles page.
The date sets the multiplier. UK school holidays, summer Saturdays and the days around Christmas carry the peak fares; a Tuesday in November sails for a fraction of that. Within a single day, dawn and late-evening sailings are routinely cheaper than the convenient mid-morning ones.
Flexibility is the third dial. Each operator sells a ladder from restricted to flexible: the cheapest fare is tied to the booked sailing, the flexible one moves with your plans. Whether that surcharge is worth it depends on how firm your day is - a missed restricted sailing can cost more than the flexibility would have.
Lead time beats everything else. The cheap allocations sell out; they are not repriced back in. Booking weeks ahead on a fixed date is the single most reliable saving on this route.
How to pay less, legitimately
- Compare all three operators for your exact date - the live search does this in one pass, and the winner changes by day and hour.
- Shift the departure a few hours towards the edges of the day before you shift the date.
- Book the return in one booking and check the day-return prices if your trip is short - Irish Ferries prices these aggressively.
- Enter the vehicle honestly. A wrongly declared length is not a saving; it surfaces at check-in as a surcharge at port prices.
Fare types and cancellations
Each operator sells a ladder from restricted to flexible, and the middle rungs are more forgiving on this route than most travellers expect:
- P&O Ferries sells Standard (travel up to 4 hours either side of your booked sailing, amendments against a fee, no refund), Standard Flexi (same 4-hour window, amendments free, refundable) and Fully Flexi (any departure on your terms, refundable).
- DFDS sells Economy (travel up to 4 hours either side of your sailing, amendments against a fee, no refund) and Premium (travel up to 72 hours before or after, free amendments, refundable up to 48 hours before departure).
- Irish Ferries sells Economy (amendments against a fee, no refund), Flexi (free amendments, refundable) and Flexi+ (adds Club Class). If you miss your sailing, Irish Ferries moves you to its next available crossing against an amendment fee plus any fare difference.
The conditions shown in the booking step are the binding version; the comparison across operators is on the operators page.
Foot passengers, bicycles, special vehicles
Foot-passenger travel exists only with P&O and only booked online in advance; bicycles ride with P&O and DFDS for a small fare. Motorcycles have their own tariff with all three. For anything longer, higher or towed - motorhomes, caravans, trailers - the measurements decide the band; the practical guide is on the vehicles page, and the crossing-by-tunnel price logic for comparison is on ferry vs Eurotunnel.
FAQ
Frequent questions about prices
Is the car fare per vehicle or per person?+
Per vehicle on this route - a standard car fare includes the passengers. What moves the price is the vehicle category and length, the date and the fare type, not the headcount in the car.
When is the crossing cheapest?+
Outside the school holidays, midweek, and on the sailings nobody wants - early morning and late evening. Booking early matters more than being spontaneous, because the cheap allocations sell out rather than get repriced.
Are return tickets cheaper than two singles?+
Often, and Irish Ferries prices short day returns particularly sharply. Price the return booking in one go before you buy two singles, and compare all three operators - the live quote does that in one search.
Do I pay in pounds or euros?+
The booking checkout shows your market currency; the reference fares on this page are quoted in euros. The amount is fixed at booking - on board you can pay in both currencies, cards preferred.
What happens to my ticket if I miss the ferry?+
That depends on the fare type. Flexible tickets move to a later sailing; restricted ones are tied to the booked departure, and operators differ in how strictly they apply this. The operator's conditions shown at booking are binding.
Check your date
Fares move with the calendar - get the live price for your crossing.