Since 1 November there is a ferry from Portsmouth to Guernsey every night of the week, where until October there were six at most. The catch is on the way home: the ship only sails straight back on Mondays and Tuesdays. The rest of the week it goes back to Portsmouth by way of Cherbourg, and that changes more than the journey time.
Take a passport. If your sailing home from Guernsey runs via Cherbourg, the ship arrives in Portsmouth from France, so you need a valid passport to get back into the UK, even if you never leave the ship. That applies Wednesday to Sunday this winter. The outbound crossing and the direct Monday and Tuesday returns are not affected.
The new pattern
The ship is the Islander, run by Brittany Ferries and still widely known as Condor Islander. Out of Portsmouth it is an overnight crossing every evening, arriving in St Peter Port at 06:00. Coming back there are two shapes of journey, depending on the day.
| Direction | Days | Departs | Arrives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portsmouth to Guernsey | Monday, Tuesday | 19:15 | 06:00 next day |
| Portsmouth to Guernsey | Wednesday to Sunday | 20:30 | 06:00 next day |
| Guernsey to Portsmouth, direct | Monday, Tuesday | 07:00 | 16:30 |
| Guernsey to Portsmouth, via Cherbourg | Wednesday to Sunday | 06:30, Cherbourg 11:00 to 13:00 | 17:45, passport needed |
The regular winter pattern, in local time: UK time in Portsmouth and Guernsey, French time in Cherbourg. Taken from Condor’s own timetable on 2 November 2026.
What it means if you are travelling
Getting there is simpler. Any night of the week now works, Sunday included, and you arrive first thing in the morning with the day ahead of you. It is about nine and a half hours on most nights and closer to eleven on Mondays and Tuesdays, when the ship leaves earlier.
Coming home takes planning. On Mondays and Tuesdays the Islander leaves Guernsey at 07:00 and is in Portsmouth by 16:30. From Wednesday to Sunday it leaves at 06:30, spends two hours in Cherbourg and arrives in Portsmouth at 17:45. That is a longer day, a passport, and in practice a border check on arrival. If you have a choice of return date, Monday or Tuesday is the easy one.
There is a new link to France. The triangle also creates a passenger crossing from Guernsey to Cherbourg, about three and a half hours, Wednesday to Sunday. It works the other way round for France too: Portsmouth to Cherbourg is only a twice-weekly Brittany Ferries sailing this winter, and on other evenings the Islander will take you there via Guernsey, arriving at 11:00 the next day. Slow, but it fills the gaps. Our Cherbourg page has the detail.
Why it has changed
It is part of the reshuffle of Brittany Ferries’ Channel network that also ended Portsmouth to Le Havre in September and Poole to Cherbourg on 12 October. With Poole gone, the Islander’s call at Cherbourg keeps a link between the Channel Islands, France and Portsmouth, and Guernsey gets a daily service out of it.
Guernsey is the part of the network that is growing. Brittany Ferries took over the island’s sea links in 2025, and figures it gave the local press this month show sailings between Guernsey and the UK, via Poole and Portsmouth, up 13% on 2024, with Guernsey to Saint-Malo up more than 56%. Guernsey now accounts for 44% of Channel Islands sea passengers, up from 33%. Jersey, served from Portsmouth by DFDS rather than Brittany Ferries, is still below its 2024 numbers.
Booking
The Islander is booked through Condor, not the main Brittany Ferries site, including the Cherbourg legs. When you book, check which return you are on: the direct one or the one via Cherbourg. We have not sailed this route ourselves; everything here comes from the operator’s timetable and published figures. More on the crossing itself on our Portsmouth to Guernsey page, and every route from Portsmouth this winter is on the winter ferry times page.
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