Ferry Cherbourg - Portsmouth (Brittany Ferries)

Cherbourg – Portsmouth with Brittany Ferries

This route links Cherbourg with Portsmouth, operated by Brittany Ferries. The two ferry terminals are about 135 kilometres (70 nautical miles) apart in a straight line. Use the search engine above for current timetables and fares, or use the Direct Ferries button at the top of the page to compare the sailings.

Brittany Ferries was created in 1972 by Breton farmers who wanted to sell their vegetables in Britain, and began operating from Roscoff in 1973. Based in Roscoff and Portsmouth, it links Brittany and Normandy with Plymouth and Portsmouth, and runs overnight crossings to Santander, Bilbao and Cork. Since September 2024 it has also been the majority owner of Condor Ferries, whose Channel Islands services are being brought under the Brittany Ferries name.

Cherbourg

Cherbourg is a port with a flair for the dramatic. In June 1864 spectators lined the breakwater and the shore to watch the American Civil War raider CSS Alabama fight the USS Kearsarge a few miles offshore; the Alabama sank, and Édouard Manet painted the scene. A century later, the town gave its name to one of the best-loved French films, Jacques Demy's 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and made a star of the young Catherine Deneuve. Both stories fit a harbour that has long looked outward. The ferry terminal is close to the centre, so with a few hours between sailings you can walk to the old harbour and its fish restaurants, and the souvenir umbrellas on sale around town nod to the film.

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the only island city in the United Kingdom: the old town sits on Portsea Island, joined to the mainland by bridges. It produced two famous sons within six years of each other. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Portsea in 1806 and Charles Dickens followed in 1812 at a modest house in Landport, now a museum furnished as it would have been in his day. Over in Southsea, a young doctor named Arthur Conan Doyle ran a practice in the 1880s and wrote the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, while waiting for patients. Ferries leave from the International Port on the harbour's eastern side for Normandy, Brittany, the Channel Islands and northern Spain, so many visitors arrive here with a long drive or an overnight sailing ahead of them.