Our Ship will be docking at Dover in early May. We would like to spend the day in the English countryside and walk along the white cliffs. Will we need public transportation or will be able to walk from the dock to the cliffs? Can anyone give us a heads up?

It's possible to walk up to the National Trust entrance from the dock area. It's steep. Whether it seems long will be up to you; it's a bit over a mile I think. Absolutely worth it! (Although our second time we had a car and it was much more fun to get there, park, and spend our energy walking the cliffs, not up to them!) A taxi might be an option; we enjoyed the adventure of it but we did get pretty worn out (we actually walked from the train station to town to the dock area up to the cliffs, almost to the South Foreland Lighthouse, back to the castle, all around the castle, back to town for dinner, and to the train station--some tired muscles for sure! And we aren't spring chickens!)

Many may say Dover is dumpy, but the Cliffs aren't and the castle is an absolute marvel, so I'd highly recommend time in Dover, at least to these two places.

Um- the cliffs are - well - cliffs - so walking to the top of them would be quite a climb. And once you;re on top you don;t really see them - they are best viewed from the water. If you want something to do for the day visit Dover Caste - including Roman ruins - which is fascinating.

Where will you store your luggage to go hiking? The ship won't hold them.

Your best view of the Cliffs will be . . . from the ship before it docks.

If you want to go walking, and there are some great footpaths in the area, you'd really need to book a hotel or B&B, and leave the bags there -- or -- rent a car for the day and leave them in the boot (trunk)

OR -- did you mean Dover is just a port-of-call and you are back on the ship in the evening?

Thank you all for the information. We are in Cobh the 6th, Falmouth the 7th , Le Havre the the 8th, Rotterdam on the 9th, Dover the 10th , the 11th at sea, Oslo on the 12th, and end up in Copenhagen on the 13th. Dover is just a day stop over as are all the other ports. We are attempting to stay away from the typical cruise tours and find our own way around. You all have been a great help. Now I have to check out the other ports.

I went on a group walk along the tops of the cliffs from Dover once. Here are some photos to give you an idea of it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick...7594243905121/

and the next half-dozen or so for the first mile or two out from Dover (use the "Prev" button at the top - they're in reverse chronological order).