Paris to Calias by train, Calias to Dover by ferry in Sept.

I should note that we are not committed to taking the ferry. We had kicked around just taking the train from Paris to London and then making a day of it from London to Dover. But my wife and I thought it would be really cool to take the ferry across and see the famous cliffs from the ferry perspective.

Taxi. You can see the route, distance, and est time on Google Maps. I think P&O is the only ferry that takes foot passengers in Calais. If you want to wander around Dover for the day, you'll likely want to look for a place to store your luggage after you disembark.

Unless you are going into and under the castle you may find that after 10 minutes your desire to wander Dover for a day diminishes.

There are several stories here in the archives of peoples' adventures of getting to the ferry on foot. Short story - taxi from station to port, walk to passenger reception. Border Controls. Wait in small portable building for bus. Board bus which drives, eventually, onto ferry. Make your way to a chair. Ride across (about 90 minutes). If the weather is good maybe a nice view of the cliffs and look back to France. Wait until most cars and trucks have left and assemble to bus and ride to the Border Controls. Then you are on your own to try to find a taxi.

I don't know what luggage facilities there are at the castle.

You can get fabulous views of the cliffs down the coast at the Seven Sisters near Eastbourne.

We had considered what to do about luggage. We figured worst case scenario we would just pack it since we are only taking what we can carry in a backpack.

I did the ferry between Calais and Dover a couple of times and I did once the train from Brussels to London. No doubt the ferry is much better experience if you're not in a hurry.

Here are the details: https://www.seat61.com/London-Paris-ferry.htm

In Aug. 1987 I crossed the Channel by taking the ferry...nice experience...from Folkestone to Boulogne, except I didn't calculate getting into Paris at Gare du Nord just before 11 pm without a hotel reservation.

I've only done the ferry once- from Dover to Calais about 15 years ago. I've never been so sea sick in my life. I hope the OP has a better run. It's been the Eurostar for us ever since.

Thank you all for the replies, we are now sure that we will take the ferry. Our Air-b and b will be waiting for us whenever we get to London. We are staying in a place with self checkin, so we will take the ferry to Dover and see the sights before heading to London in the evening. Any more suggestions for this leg of the trip will be helpful. Thank you all.

I wish you a good crossing. In the unfortunate event of bad weather there are plenty of discount hotels in Calais which can put you up for a night or two until it clears.

September often has better weather than August, at least at the beginning. There are storms from time to time though.

Please come back and relate how everything went. We sometimes get questions here from folks thinking about the ferry, but not too many return to relate how the experience went to benefit folks following their footsteps.

donk290, I see from your recent post that you've returned from this trip.

Can you let us know how it went please? Especially, how was the experience of the ferry as foot passengers? Other people may want to follow in your footsteps...