RCrumb67

Is it better to leave from Paris and take the Channel Tunnel or is it worth the ferry trip from Calais?

kerouac

It all depends on whether you want to see the English channel or not and if you have a lot of time to spare.

blightyboy

How quickly do you want to get here

flanneruk

The cost of a one-way car hire from Paris to (I assume)London plus the ferry charge for a car is preposterous (think not far short of £1000), so the only alternative for a foreign visitor is to get a train to Calais, a taxi to the ferry, then the slow train from Dover to London. You're adding about 6 hours to the 2.25 hours the train takes from November, and probably spending a little bit more compared to the lowest available Eurostar fare.

Advantages? Well, there are real advantages to driving slowly through Picardy and Kent. The amazing Flemish towns of northern France, as well as Dover Castle and Canterbury, are pretty heavily visited - but rarely by anyone other than the British, the Dutch and some Germans.

But the ferry itself? Well, apart from sea breezes, the only thing about it is you get to see the White Cliffs coming up at you. While they're hardly in the same league as the Grand Canyon or the Barrier Reef visually, they have a unique symbolism. Whether that makes the added time worthwhile is up to you.

For most of us, though, the argument for the ferry is usually that, in a long car journey, it makes for a more manageable break than the undergroubd car shuttle. You can eat a real meal and have a decent walk in the time the ferry takes.

hetismij

Speed Ferries are the Easyjet of cross channel ferries. If you want to cross cheaply look at them, they use the route to Boulogne from Western Docks Dover.