How To Get Cheap Ferry Travel To Isle of Wight Festival 2025

You've bought tickets to the Isle of Wight Festival...but don't pay through the nose for the ferry

Red Funnel and Wightlink have both released their 'early bird' ferry deals for the Isle of Wight Festival 2025.

If you are planning on coming to the Isle of Wight Festival in 2025, then you need to get on and book these deals - as they are a massive saving compared to standard fares (Ed: calm down, dear).

Personally, I would drop the kids off late at school or miss a friend's wedding if it was necessary to ensure that I got this deal.

You can book the Wightlink early bird deal here from Portsmouth or Lymington and the Red Funnel early bird deal here from Southampton.

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How much will I save with the early bird ferry deal for the ISle of Wight Festival 2025?

Probably about £150 - £200 if you plan to bring a car to the Isle of Wight Festival 2025.

Wightlink is offering a return with a car and up to seven passengers for about £100 if you book before 31st October 2024. They are also offering day returns for £50, but day tickets for the Isle of Wight Festival haven't been released yet, so that's a bit of a gamble.

Red Funnel's prices are similar but they range from about £70 - £115 depending on when you travel. We don't know when this offer expires but some of the peak time returns had already disappeared when I checked.

Standard return fares for a car and passengers to the Isle of Wight are based on demand. Peak prices for lunchtimes on weekends in summer can be more than £300, although they are cheaper if you travel at 1am on a Tuesday.

There are also early bird fares for foot passengers which give a more modest saving. Wightlink is offering period returns for the Isle of Wight Festival weekend for £18, which is about half price (book by 31st October 2024). Red Funnel is doing period returns for about £25, which is about a third off the standard fare. 

These are both good deals, but there are other ways to save money on foot passenger fares. See our guides to foot passenger travel with Wightlink and foot passenger travel with Red Funnel.

Get a move on, or you could £300ish rather than £100ish to get to the Isle of Wight Festival 2024

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What if I've missed the early bird deal for ferry travel to the Isle of Wight Festival 2025?

Don't panic. Sit down with a strong cup of tea. It's going to be OK.

There are other options available:

• Check our ferry discounts guide for other discount codes, as other deals turn up. For example, Red Funnel often does a deal for about 1/3rd off ferry travel during Black Friday.
  
  
• Book offsite accommodation, as many holiday parks, hotels and self catering places get a trade rate on the ferry. They can get you a discount of about 15 - 70% off, depending on who you book with (yes, I know that's a big range). One of the biggest discounts is offered by Away Resorts, which runs four holiday parks on the Isle of Wight but there are other cheap accommodation + ferry bundles. You'll avoid having to camp, and you'll save a chunk on the ferry.
  
  
• If you planned to travel with a car, then it might be worth switching to a foot passenger deal. The price for the Isle of Wight car ferry goes up and down like a yo-yo but the foot passenger fares a bit more predictable. You could - for example - park your car at Southampton Central railway station (currently only £11.70 for a long weekend), then catch the free shuttle bus to Town Quay and then travel across with Red Funnel. My hunch is that Red Funnel will do a deal for cheap foot passenger ferry travel to the Isle of Wight Festival nearer to the event.​ If not, check out our guide to cheap foot passenger fares with Wightlink and Red Funnel.

Some people stay off site to avoid camping (and to get a cheaper ferry deal). This is The Lakes, Rookley