Is The Solent The Most Expensive Ferry Crossing In The World?

​BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions came from Freshwater Memorial Hall recently. It was an enjoyable programme with an audience booing and cheering like they were at Shanklin Theatre watching Jack and the Beanstalk in mid-December.

The most interesting moment for me was the ferries discussion, in which someone repeated the old line about the Solent being the most expensive stretch of water in the world per mile (or at least one of the most expensive).

I’ve often wondered where this line came from originally. I suspect it may be similar to the claim about the entire population of the world fitting on the Isle of Wight. We reckon that one ceased to be true in about 1981. We looked into this one in this guide.

The most relevant research I’ve found on ferry prices between different locations was done in 2016 by NatureNet, but this looked at per-km foot passenger fares. It put the Isle of Wight ferries in the mid-table.

However, a lot has changed since 2016 and I wanted to know how car ferry costs compare, since most families still bring a car with them to the Island.

Unfortunately, making a comparison isn’t as simple as you might expect.

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A Fair Ferry Comparison?

​Many years ago, the Isle of Wight ferries offered more car journeys at fixed prices. I don’t recall the exact details but I seem to think that at the turn of the millennium there were two or three car ferry prices depending on when you travelled.

Nowadays, the Isle of Wight ferries operate much like airlines for most car ferry journeys (with a few exceptions, such as day return special deals and Multilink). Prices go up and down with demand so you can get a much lower price at 3am on a Thursday in February than you would get on 1pm on a Saturday in August.

There are other complications, as users of the same ferry will probably be paying different amounts.

For example, if you were to book a lunchtime return from a Saturday to Saturday with Wightlink in August 2022 then you might more than £250 for a car and passengers.

However, if a local resident uses the Wightlink Multilink deal then they might pay somewhere around £60.

If a holidaymaker stayed at a local hotel or holiday park then they might pay about £120-£200 depending on the ‘trade rate’ available. We’ve seen deals with Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park which are about half the standard fare.

Other canny travellers will have used £80 of Tesco Clubcard vouchers and others will have gained a discount through English Heritage or one of the many other discount providers.

See our ferry discounts guide for the full list of offers, which also includes Red Funnel’s latest deals and an ongoing 10% discount.

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Our Comparison Criteria

​For our comparison, we looked at two return different journeys - one off peak and one on peak. We figured that would give a fairer comparison of costs as some ferry companies use 'flexi' pricing (e.g. Wightlink and Red Funnel) and others use a simple fixed price model (e.g. Calmac in Scotland, at least as far as I can tell)

For the peak ferry we looked at the cost of:

• a return journey for a family of four, travelling from the UK mainland on a Saturday in mid-August 2022
• a standard sized car without a roofbox or trailer
• the fare closest to noon on each day

This produced a higher cost per mile/km than you'd get off peak, but it's when the most number of people want to travel so it is worth examining. We applied the same to other crossings so it should be comparable.

We didn’t include:

• discount codes or other offers, just the straightforward price for booking direct. It wouldn’t be fair on non-Isle of Wight ferry companies otherwise, as I’ve done zero research into their deals and loopholes.
• upgrades, such as priority boarding or easier cancellation.
• every single ferry crossing in the world. I need to pick the kids up from school in 20 minutes, so I'm afraid my research is limited to a selection of journeys from the UK.
  
  ​For some routes, there wasn’t a Saturday crossing, so we went for the nearest date available. 

For the off peak journey we looked at

• a return journey for a family of four, travelling from the UK mainland fpr a Monday to Friday midweek break in mid October, during term time
• a standard sized car without a roofbox or trailer.
• the crossing closest to 9am
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Again, we didn't look for discount codes or offers and we didn't include upgrades and extras.

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Our Results

​Here's our results, presented as a series of numbers and as a chart.

First, here's the peak time prices in order of price per kilometre. The Solent crossings are in bold.

And here's the same data on a bar chart. If you can't read them then you can make them a little bigger on a desktop by clicking on the image.

Next, here's the peak time figures with the Norfolk chain ferry excluded as it skews the figures a fair amount.

Next, here's the off-peak data table.

And here's the off peak data presented as a bar chart. Again, click to make it a little bigger on a desktop.

And finally, here's the graph without the Norfolk chain ferry to make it easier to see smaller differences.

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A Few Conclusions and Caveats

• The Solent isn't the most expensive ferry crossing per mile in the world. It's not even the most expensive in the UK. However, the chain ferry crossing from Norfolk is very short, so that skews things. 
• The Isle of Wight ferries are notably more expensive per mile/km than the crossings we looked at to the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Mull, Lewis, Dublin, Cherbourg and other European destinations. However, most of these crossings cover a greater distance. There's a good argument that it's cheaper to run a long distance ferry service than a short one as you waste less staff time on loading and unloading and other costs. 
• The Calmac crossings from Oban and Ullapool don't seem to apply flexible pricing in the same way as Wightlink and Red Funnel. So, the difference in price is less significant for an off-peak sailing than an on-peak sailing.
• Crossings from the Isle of Wight are far more regular than those from most others on that list. In some cases there were only two or three crossings a day, whereas the Isle of Wight ferries go back and forth like ants building a nest.
• The peak time Isle of Wight fares shown are a worst case scenario. In reality, you can get a much cheaper price with a bit of hunting around and jumping through hopes. For example, an Isle of Wight resident using a Wightlink Multilink pass would pay about £2.50 per km, which is about the same as Dover to Calais on peak. Similarly, I've seen Red Funnel offering day returns for £43 through their 'Friends and Family' vouchers which are posted to residents. That works out as £1.16 per km, which would be the sixth cheapest in our top 20.
• Out of curiosity we included a Cunard cruise return from Southampton to New York for four people in 2023. This didn’t include taking your car so isn't really comparable. 

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A Few Tips For Lowering The Price Per KM With Red Funnel And Wightlink

As I've said many times on this website, you really shouldn't be paying the full price for a ferry crossing to the Isle of Wight. Our discount ferries guide has lots of suggestions for money saving:

• There's a 10% discount code on our ferries discount page which is valid all year round for Red Funnel. Often, there are better discounts, such as around Black Friday when they've offered 25-50% reductions.
• Regular travellers or those with an Isle of Wight residence can save a lot by either getting a Red Funnel Travelcard or a Wightlink Multilink pass. The Red Funnel pass requires an initial investment for £1000 but it doesn't expire. Combine it with the Red Funnel Rewards car and you get about 23% off any crossing. The Wightlink deal requires you to travel five times a year, but it's probably worth getting if you have an Isle of Wight residence and use the ferry three or four times per year.
• Getting your accommodation provider to book for you is a big way to save money which a lot of people overlook. Some holiday parks will offer you a saving of as much as 50% on ferry+accommodation deals whilst a big hotel chain such as Warner Leisure do very good value fixed price deals (currently £60).
• You may be better to leave the car at home to save some money. This is most likely to be a saving if you are a) visiting at peak time when the car ferry prices are high but the foot passenger prices don't increase b) travelling alone or as a couple as foot passengers are charged as individuals whilst cars are charged the same whether you have one or seven passengers c) getting the train to Portsmouth, Southampton or Fishbourne so you aren't paying for mainland parking and d) have a free bus pass.

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Finally...

Big thanks to Matthew Chatfield, who made this research much quicker by publishing data on different crossings for foot passengers.