Portsmouth to St. Malo – Brittany Ferries – the most expensive but shortest driving distance approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. Only one ferry per day in each direction. http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk

 

Portsmouth to Caen – Brittany Ferries – again quite expensive – driving time approximately 2 hours 30 minutes.

 

Portsmouth to Cherbourg – Brittany Ferries – this has the additional option of the Fast Cat ferry which is cheaper than the cruise ferries, 2 crossings per day each way (3hrs on Ferry)  - driving time approximately 3 hours. (This is the ferry option we choose most frequently for ourselves).

 

Portsmouth to Le Havre – LD Lines – much cheaper overnight ferry than Brittany Ferries – driving time approximately 4 hours with some toll roads - approx 9 Euros for tolls. http://www.ldlines.com

 

Dover to Calais – P&O Ferries and Sea France – by far the cheapest ferry option – crossing takes about 1 hour 30 minutes and I believe they run just about every hour, 24 hours a day – distance to the lake is 328 miles taking around 5 hours with approx 33 Euros in tolls.  http://www.poferries.com/tourist       http://www.seafrance.com/seafrance/opencms/uk/en/passenger

 

Other options include Brittany Ferries Poole to Cherbourg (more reasonably priced) and Weymouth to Cherbourg (handy if you are travelling from the West Country). Condor Ferries  http://www.condorferries.co.uk  also do fast cat crossings to St Malo but you have to change in the Channel Islands or LD Lines Newhaven to Dieppe. 

 

A good website to check out all the alternatives is http://www.aferry.to choose the option to compare prices, decide if you want to use a particular port or just get from the UK to France, enter the dates and approximate times you would like to travel and click search. It then compares all the ferry companies for you and you can choose to book whichever you want or continue searching.

 

Best of luck with the search!