ddssew

My husband and I are going to London July 19 (first timers). We stay one night in London and then are planning to take the channel train to Paris. We would like to return to Gatwick Airport on the 25th by crossing the channel other than the train (ferry etc.). Would this be too complicated to do? I'm guessing train from Paris to Calais and then ferry to Dover and then train to London and then train to Gatwick? Also, if this is the easist method, can we do it in a day?

Thank you for any suggestions.

PalQ

Yes can do in a day - you need not go to London but can transfer off the Dover-London train at Tonbridge which has frequent rail service to nearby Gatwick - saves a lot of time, perhaps changing stations in London or changing from station to station there and is cheaper. If you want to sail from Normandy, near the D-Day beaches you can take day hydrofoils from Cherbourg to Portsmouth - lots of fares at 29 euros last Sep when i went. Overnight services run between Oustreham and Portsmouth. From Dieppe you can sail to Newhaven, just south of Gatwick by train. Boats of course in rare circumstances could be scrubbed due to weather. Boating will cost you much more than RailEurope's $90 round trip London-Paris Eurostar service (Mon-thu 11am-3pm trains) In any case Eurostar tickets are cheaper in US dollars thru Raileurope than in Europe so buy here and also cheapest tickets are hard to book - can book here up to 6 months in advance. I buy mine thru BETS (800-441-9413), who doesn't charge RailEurope's $15 mailing fee and are the Eurostar experts - they'll actually be able to answer all your questions, unlike some Raileurope phone jocks. One way fares begin at $90 - same as $90 round-trip - consider booking round trip for same price then throwing away or giving away return if you want to take boat (cost about $130 Paris-Gatwick i would suspect).

PalQ

And if you buy the eurostar round-trips you can get for the same price as one-way discounted tickets, it presents some interesting scenarios:
Use the return ticket to travel from Paris to Lille, get off the Eurostar and rail to Calais - much cheaper than railing there from Paris as these trains go thru Lille too, so you save the Paris-Lille rail fare (but check schedules as this is a sideline) or even better get off the Eurostar at Calais-Frethun, a few miles from Calais' port (buses perhaps but taxi for certain; but not too many Paris-London trains stop at Calais so check on this before making the mandatory reservations on discounted tickets. Or if you decide to save $130 and about 18 hours travel time and decide to return to London by Eurostar, get off the Eurostar at Ashford International and then rail from there to Gatwick, much like you'd do on the Dover Priory-London train. An easy connection that saves lots of time - but when reserving your Eurostar make sure it stops in Ashford - many but not all do. though you must reserve a Lon-Par-Lon round trip at time of purchase on cheap fares there is nothing to preclude you from getting off in either Lille, Calais-Frethun (at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel) or Ashford. In any case buy your Eurostar ticket here before leaving to be guaranteed the cheapest fare and reserve it as early as you know because they can be hard to book. Respectively, Palenque Bob.

ddssew

Thanks for the reply. I'm so excited that this is possible! I just read somewhere that seeing the white cliffs of Dover is a must see. I don't know what he hydrofoils are but I'll do some searching. Thanks for the tip on the number to call for the train tickets.

You've been a big help and really made my day. Thank you!!

ddssew

PALQ,

You are a wealth of information. I thought we had to go back to London to get to Gatwick. Thanks for the further info. It is great to have options.

PalQ

Hovercraft take about 55 mins, Calais-
Dover while bigger ferry boats take 70-90 minutes. ferries may be cheaper and there's a lot more ferries than hovercraft - tons of ferries to accommodate cars that also welcome 'foot passengers' so you have more time to see those fabled Cliffs of Dover; i've taken these boats many times in pre-eurostar days and the sight of the cliffs are memorable. The Dover Priory train station is about a mile from the Eastern Docks where ferries arrive - the 'Hoverport' is about a half mile from the station. there are usually free buses provided by the ship companies. dover has at least hourly rail service to Ashford, Tonbridge and London.

daph

We found all the transferring between train and port very tedious. Because we didn't know where to go and had been sold a ticket in London for a type of vessel that no longer sailed, we missed one ferry. The whole trip took 11 1/2 hours! I'd rather take Eurostar and double back to Gatwick.

Robespierre

Here's an article saying the hovercraft are no more:

<b>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/951090.stm</b>

Too bad I didn't hear about the sale - I might have put in a bid.

PalQ

Daph: even if taking Eurostar, you're better getting off in Ashford and then going to Gatwick than going into Waterloo and then having to get to Gatwick by train, involving probably one change of trains and a bigger fare.

Surfergirl

I'd hate there not to be a hovercraft. The ferry is usually a barf bag of a ride, and the hydrofoil shoots across the top of the water.

daph

Yes, I agree-Eurostar does stop at Ashford, as I recall. The Hovercraft is what we bought tickets for. They sold them to us at Charring Cross Station and it hadn't been in service for two years!

Robespierre

Actually, the hovercraft was no picnic. It had a long-period plunging oscillation that was worse than the rolling of a steamer.

The catamarans are very wide, which renders them quite stable - and the hydrofoils ride up off the water and are almost roll-proof.

I miss the GEM, but only for the sake of nostalgia. I remember one crossing that couldn't make it into Calais because of winds, so we diverted to Boulogne. A couple of weeks before, one had made a crash docking, so it was interesting, to say the least.

PalQ

I'd take the ferry boats. Not only are these larger and thus less liable to be rough, like rides i'd had on several hovercrafts or cats, but they are bigger. You can go outside on the top deck and laze back in lounge chairs - not sure about catamarans but on hovercrafts you were strapped in your seats inside and saw nothing of the Cliffs of Dover until you were right under them. Also car ferries, which take foot passengers at usually cheaper rate than hovercraft/catamarans have lots of amenities, such as restaurants and plenty more room to spread out. Car ferries go very frequently.
ddssew: when i told you to consider using return Eurostar ticket to go to Calais or Lille to save rail fare en route to Calais i forget to warn you to ask about this before boarding in paris as security concerns may prohibit people getting off the Eurostar train at these two stops - you should at least have a story made up about one of you not being able to go thru the tunnel again and having to bail out at Calais or Lille because of fear, etc. Technically not supposed to get off i'm afraid.

ddssew

Thanks for the warning. I guess the main thing we wanted to see were the cliffs of Dover. Would there be another way to see them other than crossing the channel this way? I'm afraid I am a terrible story teller. My face gives everything away.

flanneruk

You don't need to lie. SNCF sell tickets om Eurostar from Paris to Calais-Frethun, and there's no security issue (though they don't seem to sell Eurostar tickets to Lille-Europe). Calais businesspeople regularly use the Eurostar to commute to Paris.

Whether there's a problem for non-Europeans, non-Europeans who've done this might advise, since presumably non-Europeans' passports get stamped at Paris as exiting Schengen, and you might have a bit of explaining to do at the police checkpoint at Frethun (if they have one) or at the Calais ferry terminal (if they bother examining passports: they just glance at the colour of the cover of British ones). But the checkers will be French police, to whom the truth (we want to get a boast to England to see the White Cliffs and to spend a few minutes in your beautiful Calais) will be just fine, though even they might find the second half of the explanation a bit bizarre.

The only way of seeing the White Cliffs from the sea, except from a ferry, is to get to Dover by land, and take a White Cliffs boat trip.

The Eurostar won't just save you money, by using your return half: it's a great deal faster than the very dilatory subsonic trains that go to Calais-Ville from Paris or Lille. Given that it's 90 minutes across the Channel, 2-2.5 hours by train from Dover to Gatwick, a while for checkin on the ferry and on the Eurostar, and an awful lot of time getting between the stations and the ports, you won't see much change out of 9 hours between arriving at the Gare du Nord and arriving at Gatwick.

Channel ferries (as opposed to catamarans) are virtually never cancelled. But they're not that punctual. I wouldn't plan this journey around a tight connection at Gatwick.

GeoffHamer

I've done the journey via Calais and Dover several times. There are one or two TGVs a day from Paris to Calais, otherwise you take a TGV to Lille or Hazebrouck and change to a local train. From Calais Ville station, there are buses to the ferry terminal where you can buy a ticket for the ferries which run at least every hour (www.poferries.com and www.seafrance.co.uk); whichever company you choose, they have bars, restaurants and open deck space. There are no hovercraft, and the fast catamarans which still run in summer are similarly uncomfortable and unreliable (confusingly, the company running these is still called Hoverspeed). You are taken by bus from the ferry terminal to the ship. At Dover, there are also buses from the ship to the ferry terminal, where you pick up any luggage you handed in at Calais. There is another bus from Dover ferry terminal to Dover Priory station, which has trains to Canterbury, London, etc. It's a complicated journey, and not recommended if you have lots of luggage. It takes most of a day, so you'll need to have lunch somewhere: Lille is a good stopping point, otherwise try somewhere in Calais or travel with SeaFrance as they're French ships.

mamc

The journey on the hovercraft/catamaran known as the &quot;Hoverspeed&quot; from Dover to Calais (or vice versa) is fast and not too complicated. The white cliffs of Dover are worth seeing and crossing the Channel is probably the best way to see them. You can easily travel from Paris to London Gatwick in a day. Of course, an easier and cheaper way to get from Paris to Gatwick is to fly but you won't see much of anything on the way.

doodles195

If you want to cross from Calais to Dover by sea then I recommend that you take the Hoverspeed sea cat service as the ferry companies (especially Sea France) are planning a long summer of industrial strike action due to the French government messing about with the maritime laws. The most recent strike involved Sea France refusing to let passengers off a berthed ship for six hours. Also, the juxtaposing of immigration controls means that you could face extra delays as every passport is being scrutinised. I work in both ports and the Hoverspeed runs frequently and reliably and is quite a lot cheaper than the ferries. Hope this helps.

m_kingdom2

Why not simply fly there? I'm sure one of the budget carriers offers a service directly from Gatwick.

Messing about on boats is madness. For your return journey perhaps take the Eurostar one way, but personally I'd rather fly, it's quicker, and in my opinion easier. I was very disappointed with the Eurostar, the food was no better than economy on a plane (I went first class), and the service was very off.