You forgot the nutter drivers on wrong side of the hairpin bends and motorbikes defying the laws of gravity 
You can find it on UK. Gov and also from there it takes you to French site.
Yes I travelled the Newhaven-Dieppe route a couple of weeks ago with DFDS and it was fine - no customs examinations at either end (just passports) and a pleasant 4 hour crossing. It was also a bit cheaper than the Dover-Calais option I think (and definitely much cheaper than Eurotunnel).
Admittedly I was travelling on a motorbike so there wouldnāt have been much space for smuggling!
The onboard restaurant was good enough, not five-star cuisine but perfectly adequate.
Depending on where you live and are going to itās certainly a viable option. Also itās a cheaper and shorter crossing than Brittany Ferriesā Portsmouth-Caen route.
I took daytime crossings, but if you want to do the overnight one they do have cabins.
Because the ports (and the ships) are smaller getting on and off is quicker than with other routes. There was just one bloke checking passports when I came back to Newhaven at 9.30pm and nobody in the customs shed.
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Donāt forget the 20% off, only on that particular route, if the lead passenger is over 55 y.o. Might have become 60 now. By phone only and no funnies about the pricing -itās a straight 20% off.
They are also very good if you need to change the ticket - a very modest charge and not always levied.
Itās been our main way to cross for something like 30 yrs
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Thatās annoying - I booked on the DFDS website and there was no mention of an over-55 discountā¦
Oh well - obviously I didnāt notice that informationā¦
Very interesting discussion. Has anyone had experience of travelling with pets on the ferry?
DFDS Dieppe - Newhaven , 4 hour crossing or BF Caen - Portsmouth 5 hour daytime crossing (but they do have pet friendly cabins on some crossings), dog stays in the car . All been good so farš. Sometimes the BF check in staffat Caen can be a bit ādenseā when it comes to pet check in, but as long as your pet passport (or whatever the current UK equivalent might be) it should be ok. Iāve been sent to the inside check in a couple of times as the woman in the car check in cabin didnt have a clue
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Had a very good experience at Plymouth. Took Nibbles the chinchilla, the supervisor came and explained everything even what would happen if Roscoff wouldnāt accept the paperwork.
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Yes the ferry to/from Corsica is part of the holiday when we go to āle continentā!! We tend to use Corsica Ferries and the proper restaurant is really quite good.
Iāve travelled to the uk from calais at least 3 times in the last year using up my season tickets on P&O.
The last trip being in June for the Queens platinum jubilee celebrations.
After check-in and then customs they open your boot and ask if you packed your case yourself and then peer inside the car. We had birthday presents in a bag with homemade shortbread, french cheese and wine we took for the celebrations. They were not interested and were obviously more interested in any terrorist signs.
On returning back to france from dover, on one of our travels we were sent through the security check area where they scanned underneath the car opened the boot and looked inside the car. We had a bag full of bacon, cheese in the back and as I did a āclick and collectā from tesco the car was full of cereals, tins, jars of curry sauce, corned beef, custard powder etc etc. They simply looked and didnāt bother going through the bags. This has happened every time for us.
If your really unlucky then yes the bacon, cheese etc would be confiscated. Though Iāve not heard of anyone its happened to since that initial news release about the sandwich. I honestly donāt think there is a problem unless you eat a sandwich under their nose or leave your bacon and cheese out for them to see. Happy travels
We travelled in May, checks were done at Calais, but it appeared specific vehicles were stopped not the average car. We were on 19h00 crossing, no restaurant facilitiesat all! As to ferry we were using our voucher from 2020 so PO it was 
. In the past DFDS were adequate but i think with all the changes they have improved their services. Our Oct voyage will determine what! Returning on PO 10h00 we were directed into the āshedā french plates perhaps? Car interior not searched but swabbed & mirror check done. Happy sailing!
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Thanks for this Jane - just want to take a few things over that I canāt get in France as we will be ther for several weeks. Obviously, cheese (even cheddar) will not be in our boot as we are absolute French Cheese Monsters . Also, vegetarian so no need to worry about bacon - although the French look at us as if we are mad when we say we are vegetarians, it is now much easier as even they are coming round to the idea of a few Veggie meals 
. Have a great summer and thanks for responding 
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Not just the french! 
Donāt worry about sandwiches and chocolates when leaving France through Calais - the frontier controls are Ā« juxtaposed Ā« . The risk (if any) is in returning to France as la Douane has to justify their staffing levels somehow.
If your vehicle is searched on the way to the UK it will be for illegal immigrants who usually have their own sandwiches!
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