Ferry or LeShuttle to France? Which Is Better When Driving from the UK?

We’ve been driving our own car to France for family holidays for around ten years, and for most of that time we haven’t given much thought to how we’d cross the Channel.

We live within easy reach of Folkestone, so LeShuttle has always been the obvious choice. It’s quick, crossings are frequent and, in our experience, even the standard tickets have given us enough flexibility that we’ve never felt the need to pay for Flexiplus.

But there’s one thing that’s changed quite dramatically over those ten years: the price.

In August 2022, our return LeShuttle crossing cost £270. For almost exactly the same journey in August 2026, we paid £420.

So this summer, for the first time, we seriously considered ditching the tunnel and taking the Dover to Calais ferry instead.

We’ve now travelled across the Channel both ways as a family, so is LeShuttle actually worth paying more for?

Ferry vs LeShuttle at a glance

For us, the biggest difference comes down to money versus time.

LeShuttle’s scheduled journey from Folkestone to Calais takes around 35 minutes and can run up to four times an hour. Irish Ferries advertises a 90-minute Dover-Calais crossing, while P&O also operates the short Dover-Calais route.

Prices vary enormously depending on your dates, times and vehicle, so our £420 versus £260 comparison shouldn’t be taken as what you’ll necessarily pay. Those were the prices we were quoted for our family and our August 2026 travel dates.

But a £160 saving was enough to make us stop and think.

Is the ferry cheaper than LeShuttle?

For our summer 2026 holiday, considerably.

We paid £420 return for LeShuttle. For the same dates, P&O was coming out at around £260 return, a saving of £160.

That’s around 38% less than the price we paid for LeShuttle.

We didn’t price Irish Ferries for that particular trip, although we’ve used them on another family journey. During May half term 2026, we paid around £150 return with Irish Ferries when travelling over to watch Crystal Palace in the Conference League final in Leipzig.

So why did we still choose the £420 LeShuttle crossing for our summer holiday?

Because Calais wasn’t our destination.

How much quicker is LeShuttle than the ferry?

On paper, the difference is 55 minutes.

LeShuttle takes around 35 minutes from Folkestone to Calais, while the Dover-Calais ferry crossing takes around 90 minutes. LeShuttle

But I think the easiest way to understand why that mattered to us is to put it into an actual family road trip.

Let’s say you book a 9am crossing from the UK.

A 9am LeShuttle gets you to Calais at around 9.35am UK time, or 10.35am French time.

A 9am ferry with a 90-minute crossing gets you to Calais at around 11.30am French time.

By the time the ferry arrives, the family travelling on LeShuttle could already have been driving through France for almost an hour.

For a short journey after Calais, that wouldn’t bother me much at all.

But on our summer trip we had around eight hours of driving still ahead of us. Arriving at 10.35am meant we could get a decent couple of hours of French motorway behind us before stopping for lunch.

Suddenly that £160 wasn’t just buying us a shorter Channel crossing. It was buying us nearly an extra hour at the other end of an already very long travel day.

We decided it was worth it.

LeShuttle crossings are much more frequent

This is probably the other big reason we keep returning to LeShuttle.

There can be up to four LeShuttle departures an hour, whereas ferry departures are much more spread out. LeShuttle

That matters when you’re planning your journey, but it also matters when things don’t go to plan.

Both the ferry and LeShuttle offer some flexibility around your booked departure, depending on your ticket and availability. But there’s another type of flexibility that’s arguably more important when you’re travelling with children: how long you actually have to wait for the next crossing.

P&O’s current Standard ticket, for example, allows travel within four hours either side of your booked time, subject to availability. P&O Ferries

That’s pretty flexible on paper.

The difference is that ferries simply don’t run as frequently as LeShuttle.

With LeShuttle, missing your planned train doesn’t necessarily mean adding hours to your journey. Standard tickets currently allow travel up to an hour after the booked time at no extra charge, subject to availability. LeShuttle

We’ve also arrived early in the past and been offered an earlier crossing, which can get the holiday off to a surprisingly satisfying start. On the way home, it’s even better. When everyone is tired and you just want to get home, being waved onto an earlier train feels like a massive win.

With the ferry, being allowed to take another sailing is useful, but if the next available ferry isn’t for some time, you’re still waiting.

If you’ve hit traffic on the M25 or M20 and arrive too late for your planned crossing, the fact that your ticket allows you onto another one doesn’t necessarily help with the extra time you’ve now added to your journey.

That’s particularly worth considering with young children in the car. An unexpected wait of 15, 30 or even 45 minutes is one thing. Potentially having considerably longer added to an already long travel day is another.

So for us, LeShuttle’s flexibility isn’t just about the ticket terms. It’s the frequency of the crossings that makes the biggest difference.

What about check-in times?

This is another area where I’d look at the instructions for your particular booking rather than assuming all operators are the same.

Irish Ferries currently asks motorists travelling Dover-Calais to check in at least one hour before departure. Irish Ferries

You’ll also need to allow time for border controls, whichever way you cross.

In practice, I don’t think the check-in difference alone is enough to sway us one way or the other. It’s what happens after check-in that makes the bigger difference, particularly when you have a long drive ahead.

The ferry is arguably more fun with children

There is one area where the ferry wins quite easily in our family: the children enjoy it more.

LeShuttle is brilliantly efficient, but the actual journey isn’t particularly exciting. You drive onto the train, stay with your car and, 35 minutes later, drive off again.

That’s precisely why I like it.

The ferry feels much more like part of the holiday.

You get out of the car, head upstairs, buy a drink or snack, walk around and get some fresh air. After several hours strapped into a car, giving everyone the chance to stretch their legs is a genuine advantage.

Our children enjoyed the Irish Ferries crossing to Europe this year, and if you’re not facing a huge onward drive, I can absolutely see the appeal of making the Channel crossing a proper break in the journey rather than simply trying to get it over with as quickly as possible.

There’s also one slightly less rational factor in my preference for LeShuttle: I get seasick.

We’ve been lucky and haven’t had a rough Channel crossing yet, but the possibility is always in the back of my mind when we’re booking a ferry.

Obviously, that’s not something you need to think about when you’re travelling underneath the Channel instead.

Can you use Tesco Clubcard vouchers for LeShuttle and the ferry?

Yes, and this is worth checking before you decide which is cheaper.

Tesco Clubcard vouchers can currently be exchanged with Reward Partners at twice their face value. Homepage

LeShuttle, P&O and Irish Ferries have all participated in the Clubcard Reward Partner scheme, although the booking rules and maximum amounts you can use can differ between operators, so check the current terms before converting your vouchers.

This used to make an even bigger difference to our Channel crossings.

Until 2023, Tesco Reward Partner vouchers were worth three times their face value, rather than the twice their value available now.

We’ve paid for a significant chunk of our LeShuttle crossing with Clubcard vouchers in the past. More recently, though, we’ve found that we simply haven’t accumulated enough points to make such a big dent in the cost of a summer crossing.

If I open my Clubcard account and discover I’ve got enough vouchers to cover most of LeShuttle? It’s LeShuttle all the way.

But if I’m paying most of the fare myself, I’m now much more likely to compare the ferry price too.

Do you need Flexiplus on LeShuttle?

We’ve never felt the need for it.

We’ve generally booked the cheaper LeShuttle fares and found them flexible enough for our family holidays.

Current Standard tickets allow you to change the date or time of your booking, although an administration fee and any increase in fare may apply. Standard also currently allows travel on a different crossing up to an hour after your booked time at no extra charge, subject to availability. LeShuttle

Flexiplus offers considerably more flexibility and additional benefits, but for the way we travel, we’ve never felt that we needed to pay the premium.

Obviously, that’s a personal calculation. If knowing you can turn up and travel with maximum flexibility is important to you, you may value it much more than we do.

Ferry or LeShuttle: which would we choose?

After ten years of driving to France, LeShuttle is still our preference.

But the gap has narrowed considerably.

When our return crossing cost £270 in 2022, we didn’t seriously consider the alternatives. At £420 in 2026, we did.

If we were travelling somewhere relatively close to Calais, or we weren’t particularly concerned about shaving an hour off the journey, I’d be very tempted to save the money and take the ferry.

The children enjoy it. You get a proper break from the car. You can have something to eat and drink, walk around and start the holiday with a trip across the Channel rather than underneath it.

And if the saving is £160, as it was when we compared prices this summer, that’s a decent chunk of the holiday budget.

But when we’ve got another eight hours of driving waiting for us in France, I see things differently.

A 35-minute crossing, up to four departures an hour and the possibility of getting onto an earlier train if we arrive ahead of schedule are all things I’m willing to pay more for, within reason.

And if I’ve got enough Tesco Clubcard vouchers to take most of the sting out of the LeShuttle price, there’s really no contest for me.

For our family, it comes down to this:

If time matters more, we choose LeShuttle. If money matters more and we aren’t facing a huge onward drive, we’d happily take the ferry.