Ferry Portsmouth - Ryde

Portsmouth – Ryde with Wightlink

This route links Portsmouth with Ryde, operated by Wightlink. The two ferry terminals are about 9 kilometres (5 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.

Descended from Solent services that began in the early nineteenth century, Wightlink has traded under that name since 1990. It runs a fast catamaran from Portsmouth to Ryde (about 22 minutes) and car ferries from Portsmouth to Fishbourne (about 45 minutes) and from Lymington to Yarmouth (about 40 minutes).

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.

Ryde

Ryde Pier, opened in 1814, is often described as the oldest seaside pleasure pier in the world. It was built because the beach at Ryde is so shallow that boats could not otherwise reach the shore at low tide, and for generations it has been the main way onto the island from Portsmouth. From the pier head, a hovercraft crosses to Southsea in about ten minutes, while the fast catamaran from Portsmouth Harbour arrives at the end of the pier itself. Ryde is the Isle of Wight's largest town, and its seafront has miles of sand that are exposed at low tide, backed by a promenade that has kept much of its Victorian character.