Newhaven-Dieppe Ferry Crossing

[MarkT]

A bit of a random question but thought I'd ask. I'm planning a European trip later this year and I'm considering the Newhaven-Dieppe crossing. I usually do the Dover-Calais crossing but increasingly over the years it seems more and more like a lottery as to whether there will be some sort of problem to cause massive queues at Dover or Calais.
I just wondered if anyone here has used the Newhaven-Dieppe crossing and would be interested to hear their opinion of it.

Cheers,
Mark

[paulstuarto]

A bit of a random question but thought I'd ask. I'm planning a European trip later this year and I'm considering the Newhaven-Dieppe crossing. I usually do the Dover-Calais crossing but increasingly over the years it seems more and more like a lottery as to whether there will be some sort of problem to cause massive queues at Dover or Calais.
I just wondered if anyone here has used the Newhaven-Dieppe crossing and would be interested to hear their opinion of it.

Cheers,
Mark

I use it for the same reason you’re planning to do.  Bit less hassle for us coming from up north getting to Newhaven. Just seems a nicer experience every time,less queues, also very nice ship.  Used to go on the Hull P&O but will never sail with that shower of s—t again.

[Desdinova]

I too boycott P&O and will never use them again. As a resident of Dover for 27 years I have not used Newhaven-Dieppe in a long time. Been to the Newhaven terminal couple of years ago while working, and must admit I thought it very basic with not much in the way of facilities.

If travelling via Dover or the tunnel, just avoid (if you can admittedly) school half terms, Easter weekends or first weekend of summer holidays. As a fairly frequent crosser of the channel, I never use Calais - due entirely to the ridiculously long waits to get through our UK passport controls (and I say that as a retired Customs Officer). I always use either the tunnel or DFDS to Dunkerque, the UK passport queues at the latter being always non existent.

[MarkT]

Thanks @paulstuarto and @Desdinova for your replies, very useful and I share both of your views regarding P&O.

Not totally decided yet, it seems to be all a balance of frequency of crossings, time it takes to cross, avoiding queues and price, of course.  I'll have to mull it over but thanks for the comments so far.

[Desdinova]

Regarding the Dunkerque crossing, this is 2 hours whereas Calais is 90 mins. However if travelling towards Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland or Eastern France, with the 30 min drive from Calais towards Dunkerque, journey times are effectively the same.