Guide contents · Chapter 7 of 14
Getting there
Dover to Calais or the Tunnel
The short straits are the workhorse route, and for most vans the choice comes down to gas and dogs. Ferries take about 90 minutes port to port, with P&O, DFDS and Irish Ferries all competing on the route. Motorhome fares are priced by length and height: in August expect roughly £85 to £180 each way for a typical 6 to 7 metre van, more for larger rigs. Prices move daily, so check when booking.
Eurotunnel (LeShuttle) is 35 minutes platform to platform and you stay in the van. It costs more, typically £150 to £300 each way for a motorhome in peak August, but the speed and frequency are hard to argue with when you have a long first-day drive planned.
- Pets: on the Dover–Calais ferries your dog stays in the van on the vehicle deck, and you cannot check on it mid-crossing. On the Tunnel it sits next to you the whole way. The longer western sailings play by different rules: pet-friendly cabins on the Caen and St Malo routes, kennels and supervised visits on some Brittany Ferries ships (see The western routes). Pet fees run around £15 to £30 each way on ferries and from about £24 on the Tunnel.
- LPG: vehicles that run on LPG as fuel, even as a secondary fuel, are banned from the Tunnel outright. Habitation gas is fine: up to 47kg per cylinder and 50kg total per vehicle, fixed tanks no more than 80% full, everything switched off before boarding. Ferries carry LPG-fuelled vehicles and habitation bottles, but each operator sets its own cylinder limits, so declare your gas at booking.
The western routes
If you are heading for Brittany, the Atlantic coast, the Dordogne or the southwest, a longer sailing often beats the Calais slog. The maths is simple: hours at sea are cheaper than hours behind the wheel once you count fuel, French tolls and an extra overnight stop.
- Newhaven to Dieppe (DFDS, about 4 hours) is the budget western option. It lands you in Normandy and saves a solid half day of driving versus Calais if you are bound for the Loire or points west. Motorhome fares are usually well below the Portsmouth routes.
- Portsmouth to Caen or Cherbourg (Brittany Ferries; roughly 6 hours to Caen, around 3 to Cherbourg on the fast craft) puts you within easy reach of Brittany and the west without a long UK-side drive if you live in the south.
- Portsmouth to St Malo is the overnight play. You sleep in a cabin, wake up in Brittany and skip around 500km of French driving. Motorhome plus cabin in peak season can run £300 to £500+ each way, so it only wins when the destination is genuinely west or south.
Travelling with a dog, the western routes have another card: pet-friendly cabins on the Caen and St Malo sailings. Numbers are limited and they sell out first, so book them before anything else.
Booking for August
August is the crunch month. Motorhome deck space is capped on every sailing, and the tall-vehicle allocation goes long before the car deck fills. Book 12 weeks or more ahead for the ferries; three to six months ahead for pet cabins on the western routes. Midweek and early-morning departures are consistently cheaper than Friday and Saturday sailings in both directions. If your dates are soft, pay the small premium for a flexible ticket. Changing a fixed August booking usually costs more than the flex fare did.
Arrival day: park up, don't push on
Do not bank 400km on day one. You have already done the UK leg, queued at the port and crossed. Wrong-side driving on tired eyes is how trips start badly. Every arrival port has aires within minutes of the ramp.
- Calais: the well-known aire by the beach is ten minutes from both the port and the Tunnel terminal.
- Dieppe: there is an aire right by the harbour; you can be levelled with a drink in hand 15 minutes after docking.
- Caen (Ouistreham): aires in Ouistreham itself, or push 40 minutes to Honfleur, whose big aire sits a short walk from one of Normandy's prettiest old harbours.
- St Malo: aires close to the walled town; worth a lap of the ramparts before you head south.
Start fresh the next morning: you will cover the distance faster and more safely than you would have the night before.
UK paperwork recap
One tight list. Sort it the week you book, not the week you leave.
- Passport: issued less than 10 years before your entry date and valid at least 3 months beyond your planned exit from the Schengen area.
- GHIC: free from the NHS site; replaces the old EHIC for emergency treatment in the EU. It is not travel insurance, so carry that too.
- Insurance: green cards have not been required for EU travel since 2021. Carry your certificate of motor insurance and confirm your policy covers the full number of EU days you will be away.
- Headlamp deflectors: fit beam deflectors (or adjust the headlamps) so dipped beams do not dazzle oncoming traffic. Required, and checked.
- UK sticker: a UK sticker or a UK-identifier number plate is mandatory. Old GB stickers are no longer valid.
- V5C and licence: take the logbook and your photocard licence. If towing, check your licence categories cover the combined weight.
Prices and rules above were correct at the time of writing; they shift with the season and the operator, so verify each when booking.