The Irish crossings to Cherbourg are the civilised way to bring a car to France: you sail in the afternoon from Dublin (Irish Ferries, around nineteen hours) or Rosslare (Brittany Ferries, sixteen to eighteen), sleep in a cabin, and dock late the next morning with the whole of France in front of you. There is no Channel-tunnel scramble, no drive across England. There is just one question: what do you do with a first day that starts at lunchtime, in a car, after a night at sea?
For a great many Irish families the answer is to drive straight through to the Loire, the Vendée or the Dordogne — six to nine hours — and arrive exhausted. The alternative is thirty-five minutes down the N13: a château where you can unload, swim, walk the grounds, eat well in Valognes and sleep in a real bed. The next morning you start your real journey fresh, having already had a day of France. If you are heading south, our Loire and Dordogne page does the arithmetic; if it is Disneyland, we have that covered too.
It also makes the Cotentin itself a destination rather than a blur. Utah Beach and Sainte-Mère-Église are half an hour from us. The Val de Saire — Barfleur, Saint-Vaast, the oyster beds — is an afternoon. Cherbourg’s Cité de la Mer, with the Titanic exhibition and the submarine, is the perfect thing to do on the day you sail home. Many of our Irish guests give the Cotentin three nights at one end of their holiday and never regret it.
Two practical notes. Because you are travelling within the EU, your dog needs only its EU pet passport, no health certificate — and both operators carry pets (kennels on the W.B. Yeats, pet cabins on some other ships; check-in with a pet is two hours before departure). More on travelling with your dog. And on the way home, an afternoon sailing means a morning to fill: our last night before the ferry itinerary is written for exactly that.
Where to sleep
Bed and breakfast from one night for the transit; cottages from three nights if you want the Cotentin to be part of the holiday. Either way, we are thirty-five minutes from the ship. Back to the ferry stopover guide.
Practical
- Dublin ? Cherbourg: ? 19 h overnight (Irish Ferries)
- Rosslare ? Cherbourg: 16–18 h overnight (Brittany Ferries)
- Docking late morning · terminal ? château 35 min
- Dogs: EU pet passport only · pet check-in 2 h before sailing