| FERRIES TO SPAIN |
| SPAIN FERRY TICKETS, TIMETABLES AND TOURIST INFORMATION |
How to Book Online Booking your ferry ticket or just obtaining a price quote online is simple, safe and secure with Spain Ferry. To book securely online all you need do is select your outward and return routes using the menu below, enter the number of passengers and click 'Get Price'. To make a commercial vehicle, coach party or group booking please click here. Note: The lowest available fare for your selected journey is automatically selected when booking online. When booking your ferry online a booking reference will be sent to you by email. On arrival at the port of departure present the booking reference number together with a photo ID and you will be given your ferry tickets.
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First
The traditional cross-channel traveller had always been a footpassenger, arriving at the port by first horse-drawn stage-coach, then steam-train - andembarking on the ferry with all their luggage.
With the growing popularity of motoring, Captain Townsend bought and converted an oldminesweeper to cater for the new market of people who wanted to take their car with themon a Continental motoring holiday . Like other cross-channel travel, most of the demandwas from the UK side.
Cars were loaded onto the Dover-Calais car ferryby crane: 6,000 in the first year, rising to 31,000 in 1939 before the Second World Warinterupted services.
After the war, new "drive on" ferry terminals were built in Dover and Calais.Opened in 1953,they had moveable loading bridges, so cars could drive on whatever thestate of the tide.
Bilbao Ferries and
In 1936, the Southern Railway company and the new SNCF invested in new train ferry docksat Dover and Dunkerque. These ships had rails on the cargo deck to carry railway carriagesand wagons. At each end, the ship ran into a dockwhere the water level could be adjusted so that the trains could run off the ship onto thetracks. The famous "Golden Arrow" luxury express used this route betweenLondon and Paris.
Hovercraft
In 1959, a one-man hovercraft successfully crossed the channel, landing on the beachinside Dover harbour. Thisexperimental British invention promised to revolutionise cross-channel travel - offering aspeedy crossing without the huge initial investment in building a tunnel which would berequired for high-speed trains.
The craft were successfully scaled up so they could carry hundreds of passengers and cars- though they could not cope with rough weather. "Hoverpads" were built at
Unfortunately, they were made less economic by therise in fuel prices in the 1970's, because they used fuel heavily just to stay up aswell as to move. The last services were withdrawn in 2000.
The Channel Tunnel
Schemes were talked about as early as the 18th century, and serious construction workstarted on both sides in 1881 - only to be halted by political rather than engineeringdifficulties. Work re-commenced in earnest a century later in the 1980s, and the
Crossing the channel by sailing ship was at the mercy of tides and weather. Until the late19th century, landing was often a problem - ferry portsand harbours on both sides were rather shallow and not well protected againststorms.Ships often had to wait offshore at Dublinor Liverpool until the tide was high enough toenter the harbour - or else cross to the beach in a small rowing boat. Travel to the coastwas equally perilous. On an 18th century horse-drawn stagecoach, you could travel fromParis to Calais or Hook of Holland to
