Portsmouth runs ferries to three different kinds of destination: Normandy and Brittany with Brittany Ferries, northern Spain with Brittany Ferries, and the Channel Islands with Brittany Ferries and DFDS. The map below puts every crossing side by side, and the cards after it take you to each route.
Every ferry from Portsmouth on one map
| Route | Operator | Leaves Portsmouth | Crossing | This winter | Our experience | Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portsmouth to Caen (Ouistreham) | Brittany Ferries | By day or overnight | approx. 6 hours | Every day, up to three sailings (no morning sailing on Fridays) | Researched | |
| Portsmouth to Cherbourg | Brittany Ferries | By day or overnight | approx. 5-10 hours | Sunday night and Tuesday by day, plus Tuesday to Saturday evenings on the Guernsey ship | Sailed by us | |
| Portsmouth to Saint-Malo | Brittany Ferries | Overnight | approx. 7.5-11 hours | Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights | Sailed the other way, Saint-Malo to Portsmouth | |
| Portsmouth to Santander | Brittany Ferries | Overnight | 2 nights aboard | One a week, Thursday night | Researched | |
| Portsmouth to Bilbao | Brittany Ferries | Overnight | 36 hours, 2 nights | One a week, Tuesday night | Booked for 2027 | |
| Portsmouth to Guernsey | Brittany Ferries (Condor) | Overnight | approx. 8 to 10 hours | Every night, landing at 06:00 | Researched | |
| Portsmouth to Jersey | DFDS | By day | approx. 9 hours | Monday to Saturday, by day | Researched | |
| Southsea to Ryde (Hovercraft) | Hovertravel | By day | about 10 minutes | Frequent sailings through the day | Researched | |
| Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier (FastCat) | Wightlink | By day | about 22 minutes | Frequent sailings through the day | Researched | |
| Gunwharf to Fishbourne (Car ferry) | Wightlink | By day | about 45 minutes | Frequent sailings through the day | Researched |
Tap a route or a port for the details. Lines show the shape of each crossing and are drawn to stay on the water, not the ships’ exact tracks. Sailings are the regular pattern for winter 2026/27 from the operators’ timetables, taken on 16 October 2026, so check your own date. Map data from OpenStreetMap.
What is changing. Portsmouth to Le Havre ended in September 2026, earlier than planned. From 1 November the Guernsey crossing moves to a revised schedule via Cherbourg, and Portsmouth to Cherbourg gains sailings as a result. See our full rundown. Everything else below is unaffected.
Route guides by destination
Three routes into Normandy and Brittany, all Brittany Ferries. Caen and Cherbourg are the shorter Normandy crossings, Saint-Malo runs further into Brittany. See the full Brittany Ferries overview or the Ferry to France guide.
Two direct routes across the Bay of Biscay, both Brittany Ferries, both closer to a mini-cruise than a quick crossing. See the Ferry to Spain guide for more on skipping the drive through France.
Both Channel Islands routes are direct from Portsmouth, but they are run by different companies and booked separately: Guernsey with Brittany Ferries under the Condor name, Jersey with DFDS since 2025. Shorter hops with a different rhythm to the France and Spain crossings. See the Condor Ferries overview or the Channel Islands guide.
Not sure which one? If Caen is fully booked, which happens often on the popular night sailings, Cherbourg is the easiest fallback. How much extra driving it adds depends on where you are heading, and the port picker on our Ferry to France guide shows it for your destination. We know the fallback works because that is what happened to us.
Also worth knowing
Every route here departs from the same terminal, see our Portsmouth port guide for check-in, parking and getting there, or our ships page for what’s actually on board. Looking for the Isle of Wight instead of France or Spain? See our Isle of Wight ferry guide, a completely different operator and crossing. And if a route you were expecting isn’t on this list at all, it might not actually exist, see our page on ferry routes that don’t.