Ferry travel options

Here are all the different ways of travelling out of or onto our island without flying (or sailing yourself of course)……

DFDS ferry routes

The shortest ferry routes are between Belfast or Larne and Cairnryan. The most frequent and best connected ferry route for onward travel, in either direction, is Dublin to Holyhead. The ferries to Britain tend to operate several times per day, and the ferries to Spain and France a few times a week.

From	To (place)	To (country)	Companies	Frequency in each direction *	Journey time
Belfast	Cairnryan	Britain	Stena	6 times per day	< 3 hours
Belfast	Liverpool	Britain	Stena	Twice a day	8 hours – day and night options
Larne	Cairnryan	Britain	P&O Ferries	6 times per day	2 hours
Dublin	Holyhead	Britain	Irish Ferries and Stena	8 times per day	< 4 hours. Swift ferry < 3 hours.
Rosslare	Pembroke	Britain	Irish Ferries	Twice a day	4 hours
Rosslare	Fishguard	Britain	Stena	Twice a day	< 4 hours
Dublin	Cherbourg	France	Irish Ferries	Every second day	18-20 hours
Rosslare	Cherbourg	France	Brittany Ferries *	Every day	17-18 hours
Rosslare	Dunkirk	France	DFDS	Five times a week – Foot passengers not allowed, but pedal cyclists are	24 hours (overnight)
Cork	Roscoff	France	Brittany Ferries	Twice per week	12-14 hours (overnight)
Rosslare	Bilbao	Spain	Brittany Ferries	Twice per week	27-32 hours (day-night-day, or night-day-night)
Rosslare	Santander	Spain	Brittany Ferries	Not in summer, once a week in winter only	28 hours (day-night-day)

* https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2025/08/05/brittany-ferries-boosts-rosslare-cherbourg-sailings/

There are also irregular ferries from Dublin and Belfast to Isle of Man, and regular ferries from Isle of Man on to Heysham or Liverpool, so going to Britain via Isle of Man may be possible at some times of year. These ferries are run by www.steam-packet.com.

The frequencies in the above table were worked out mostly for June/July 2025 from the various websites, assuming the passenger is a foot passenger or cyclist, except for the Rosslare-Dunkirk route, which very strangely allows pedal cyclists (and motorised vehicles) but not foot passengers (so you’d have to find a bike to bring??). People travelling by motorised transport sometimes have more and better timetable options and price offer options from the ferry companies than foot passengers or cyclists (not less, as you might expect) – see the campaigns page for more on changing this!

Booking a ferry

You can book on the ferry company website directly. Here are the websites of the ferry companies:

From Darach: There are also third party booking platforms such as directferries.com – handy for figuring out ferry routes around Europe and the companies that serve them. Sometimes you get a cheaper ticket by booking with them.

Booking earlier or later on ferries generally doesn’t make it cheaper or more expensive, but they can get booked out, so book early for best choice of timetable.

For longer or overnight ferry trips, you may like to book a cabin or a reclining seat. Some cabins have sea views and some do not.

Before you book the ferry consider whether you would like to combine the ferry with train or bus travel.

Next: Rail and Sail