Best way to travel by bus or train from London trafagler square area to Dover to walk the cliff.

Tube to St Pancras then train from St Pancras to Dover (journey around 70 minutes).

A new Monday to Saturday bus service #66 starts operation on 8 December from Dover Railway Station to the Eastern Docks (Dover Ferry Port).
It runs hourly from 0720 to 1120 and 1420 to 1720, returning from the port at 9 minutes past the hour from 0709 to 1109 and 1409 to 1709.

The most economical way to do that would be to buy a Dover Plus Bus ticket with your rail ticket for £4.50 each or £2.95 each if you have a national railcard- https://www.plusbus.info/dover

There are National Express buses from London Victoria to Dover Pencester Road (where the 66 also stops) but they are a lot slower, and unlikely to be cheaper than Advance (train specific) train tickets.

Thanks for the info.

There are a couple of ways to achieve your goal.

One way is as above. That would be a short walk to Charing Cross and the Northern underground line to Leicester Square and a change onto the Piccadilly Line to Kings Cross / St Pancras, then upstairs and up again to the high speed Southeastern Javelin service to Dover Priory, now the only station remaining in Dover.

Another way is to catch a train to Dover Priory straight from Charing Cross to Dover Priory. That train moves a bit slower because it uses conventional tracks and trains, but cheaper and with no changes and no tube.

When you add the extra time to use the tube to St Pancras there isn't a great difference overall.

Figure 1:44 overall for tube and high speed (38 minutes for the tubes and 1:06 for the actual high speed train operation); versus 1:51 for the traditional train from Charing Cross. Picking random tickets for next Tuesday morning it is £59.50 for the high speed Off Peak Day Single, as low as £15.10 for traditional train Advance Single. A little later in the day there are Advance Singles as low as £18.10 for only the train from St Pancras - you'll still need to add the tube or bus.

I can understand wanting to go up on the cliffs, but I don't understand a wish to go to the port. It is full of thousands of heavy trucks and cars coming and going to and from France, and really not a good place for a pedestrian.

While it is the best view of the cliffs from the water, that's not easy. The ferries to France don't take foot passengers other than a very few P&O crossings. Is that your plan?

The cliffs are the other side of Dover Castle (English Heritage), so you can walk up the steep path to the Castle area and then get in front or behind towards the National Trust cliff walks and perhaps reach the lighthouse. It isn't an easy walk though.

Thanks for all the advice. Like the ideas of char ng cross right to Dover priority. Just was not sure how easy it was to get from there to walk along and see the cliffs etc. Also did anyone go to the ww2 tunnels while there. Just trying to make a day trip. I will not go to docks then. I thought you would need to also take a boat to see cliff from water. But in December probably not a good idea.

here is the website for Dover Castle which includes the tunnels and their experience

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/dover-castle/

and this page https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/dover-castle/plan-your-visit/directions/ tells how to walk the one mile uphill from the station to the Castle, and the number of the bus, number 81, which goes up if you don't want to walk..

The White Cliffs are National Trust - this is the webpage https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/kent/the-white-cliffs-of-dover Click on "Getting Here" for loads of information, maps and directions for the 2 mile walk from the station, and for using taxis.

Hope that helps...

I don't know of any tourist boats going out into the Channel for views - the Port of Dover is a very busy one with not only frequent huge ferries (carrying up to 1,000 vehicles) but other large ships under the control of Port Control which works like a major airport air traffic control.

Another way to see the cliffs from the sea has been a company called Dover Sea Safari, who have run trips on RIB boats to see the cliffs and on along the coast to Deal, also trips to see the seals in the River Stour. However that would not be the best of experiences in December (even if there were trips) and the company may have ceased trading at the end of the summer season.

The easy and cheapest way by ferry is to take Flixbus from London to Lille (most services go by ferry), then come back on the Eurostar train (or vv). Very often Flixbus is cheaper from London to Lille than just the ferry ticket, and often the ferry company provides a meal voucher as well.

That can be done as a day trip.

Flixbus use all three ferry companies between Dover and Calais so it would not always be P and O- they tell you at the time of booking if it is P and O, Irish Ferries or DFDS (or even Eurotunnel).

if you decide to take the day travelling to LIlle and back and skip Dover entirely, I'd suggest to be very sure that weather will cooperate for the 10 to 15 minute experience of the cliffs from deckside. I'd suggest going to Lille first by Eurostar, then Flixbus back by ferry, then the cliffs will be growing on you rather than disappearing.

Bear in mind that at the shortest days of the year, when you will be there, sunrise in Dover will be at about 8am, and sunset will be at 10 to 4 (3:50) although it will be darker before that. You probably don't need to be told that as I see you have been here at Christmas before.

Be sure to get a ferry that returns well before sunset, and that you pick a day with good weather.

Inside Dover Castle the weather won't matter much. Walking on the cliffs in windy rainy weather may not be safe.

Thanks for all the advice.

Last night I was watching a video of someone who is cycling around Britain, and his latest episode passed Dover. The cycle way actually goes along the base of the cliffs, where you can touch them. That is above the port- high enough to see both the Eastern Docks car ferry port and the half hidden freight port beyond the ferry port. If lucky you will see a container ship or a reefer in port. Dover is one of the main banana and other Caribbean fruit landing ports.
Overlaying that onto to Google Street View shows, as I thought, that if you get off the bus 66 at the port entrance you can then exit the port by marked footways, and that brings you to point 11 on this map- https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/binaries/content/assets/website/national/regions/kent/places/the-white-cliffs-of-dover/pdf/walking-to-the-white-cliffs-of-dover---railway-station-version-final.pdf/
Then turn right onto what is known as Dame Vera Lynn way and voila there you are, essentially joining the walk you would have started from the Town Centre. That is the route I remembered. A gentle enough gradient to be a cycleway.