Calais Ferry

I believe that DFDS Seaways and P&O Ferries are the only two options.

DFDS didn't use to take foot passengers. It used to be that P&O were the only folks who would accept foot passengers.

It would be worth checking for the current situation.

If you search here on the Forum you will find that many people who go as foot passengers find that the process is fairly complicated (including buses or taxis at both ends because the stations and facilities are quite remote from the boats) and involves a fair amount of walking.

It can be done.

Oh, and as for where they go from and to, there is one ferry port in Calais and one in Dover.

You can also go to and from Dunkerque down the coast, a post mostly used by trucks. It goes to the same place in Dover.

Foot passengers do not make much money for the ferries, and they do not spend much effort on accommodating them. As previous posters have said, this will involve buses and walks to get to the correct part of the docks, and the same again to get to the station at Dover.

I don't know where you are coming from or where you ae visiting prior to Calais, but assuming you are heading for London it would be a lot easier to drop the car off in Lille, and get one of the regular Eurostar trains from there to London.

What are you going to do when you get to Dover? Train or hire another car?

As of my trip earlier this year, P&O was the only company that took foot passengers. And as others have said, they really don't make the trip convenient for you at all. You need to be at the ferry terminal (on the outskirts of town) a full hour before your scheduled sailing, so they can board you on a bus and drive you all over the place to do the passport checks and then to the boat itself. There is a lot of walking, and you need to be in possession of all your luggage the whole time. It is fairly strenuous if you're not in good shape. Then in Dover, they really don't make it easy for you to connect from the ferry terminal to anywhere else, either.

We took the ferry because we wanted to get the traditional view of the White Cliffs of Dover. The view was nice (even though the weather was not), but in retrospect, probably not so nice to be worth the hassle. If your travel plans don't specifically involve anything in either Calais or Dover, I echo the others' recommendation to take the Eurostar instead.

Thank you for your responses. It was an insight into the difficulties of what we thought would be a fairly simple ferry ride.
Again, thanks.