Southampton to Cardiff ferry
Ferries from Southampton to Cardiff start at €12.99 and take 6h 2m at their fastest.
Check dates and fares
Fares and seats move by the day. Price Southampton to Cardiff on the date you actually want, rather than on the date this page was built.
The Ferries from Southampton to Cardiff starts at €12.99 and takes 6h 2m door to door, run by 1 operator over 146 km, with around 2 departures a day. Fares bottom out about 60 days before departure.
- 6h 2mDoor to door
- 4h 32mMoving
- €12.99 to €22.34From
- 06:14 to 14:01First and last departure
- 2Per day
- 16.8 kgCO2
First and last are taken from the services we sell on 4 October 2026. The return direction keeps its own timetable and is not these times reversed.
€12.99 to €22.34 for one passenger across the 14 departure dates priced here. The low end is one day, not every day. Worked out from this corridor rather than held for anybody. The operator sets the price on the day.
Fares by date
What this journey usually costs, by departure date. It shows which days run dearer.
Typical fares
- about €22.34Mon14
- about €20.69Tue15
- about €20.14Wed16
- about €21.24Thu17
- about €16.84Fri18
- about €18.49Sat19
- about €19.04Sun20
- about €14.09Mon21
- about €14.09Tue22
- about €12.99Wed23
- about €15.19Thu24
- about €18.49Fri25
- about €15.74Sat26
- about €14.09Sun27
Based on what this route has cost recently. The operator sets the price on the day, and the live fare is confirmed when you book.
The cheapest and the fastest on 4 October 2026
No bookable itinerary on the day this page prices, so none is shown.
Ferry operators
| Operator | From | Fastest | Typical speed | Flexibility | On board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brittany Ferries | €11.88 | 5h 56m | 33 km/h | Changeable | Bar, , Cabins, Cafe, Restaurant, Toilets |
The ferry gets you into Cardiff. It does not get you a bed, and neither do we.
A room in Cardiff for the night the ferry gets in
Sort by distance from Cardiff Central and you can see which places are ten minutes on foot and which are not.
Search Cardiff on Booking.comOr compare on Expedia
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When to book Southampton to Cardiff
The same search run across the whole booking window, so the shape of the curve is visible rather than described.
- €11.1890 days
- €10.0760 days
- €10.0845 days
- €10.0730 days
- €10.0821 days
- €12.2814 days
- €15.587 days
- €17.233 days
- €19.431 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Fares bottom out around 60 days ahead, at €10.07.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time is 93 percent. The dearest point is €19.43, 1 days out.
- What that means
- Today sits inside the cheap window, which closes about 60 days before departure. Waiting from here has usually cost money on this corridor rather than saved it.
Which departure day costs least
Median cheapest fare for each weekday, taken across the next three weeks of real prices.
- €12.28Sun
- €11.18Mon
- €12.28Tue
- €11.73Wed
- €15.03Thu
- €13.93Fri
- €14.48Sat
Where you leave from and where you arrive
Southampton
- Hythe Pier
- SOUTHAMPTON
- Town Quay
Cardiff
- Cardiff Sailing Centre Pontoons
- City Centre Water Bus Stop
What the journey actually looks like
- Direct or connecting
- 71% of the services we sell on this corridor run through without a change. The remaining 29% involve one connection.
- How far it really runs
- The route covers 146 km against 139 km in a straight line, a detour of 5 percent. Track and road geometry account for the difference.
- Where the change is
- Connections are made at Weston-super-Mare, Mendip, Bath, Bristol. The gap between arriving and leaving is 61 minutes, of which about 14 is walking.
- If the connection is missed
- The tightest connection we sell here has a 16 percent chance of not being made on the timetable alone. Part of this journey is a self transfer between separate tickets, so leave more time than the minimum and expect to check in again.
- First and last departure
- The first service of the day leaves Southampton at 06:14 and the last at 14:01, across 2 departures The return direction keeps its own timetable, so the times back are not these times reversed.
Ferries against the other ways to make this journey
| Mode | Door to door | Moving | At the ends | From | CO2 | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Train | 1h 49m | 1h 5m | 44m | €20.14 | 4.8 kg | 10 |
| Coach | 2h 55m | 2h 11m | 44m | €11.18 | 3.9 kg | 2 |
| Ferry | 6h 2m | 4h 32m | 1h 30m | €12.99 | 16.8 kg | 2 |
Questions about Southampton to Cardiff
The questions people actually ask about this journey, answered from the same prices and times the page above is built on rather than written once and left to go stale.
How long does the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff take?
The Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff takes 6h 2m door to door, of which 4h 32m is spent moving. The route runs 146 km. The difference between the two times is reaching the terminal and leaving it at the far end, which every time on this page includes.
How much does the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff cost?
The Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff starts at €12.99 for one passenger, as of 13 September 2026. A typical fare is €12.99. Both are the total including taxes, supplier fees and our service fee, so the price here is the price at checkout.
Who runs the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff?
1 operators run the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff: Brittany Ferries. Between them they file around 2 departures a day. The operator table on this page compares them on fare, journey time, cruising speed, fare conditions and what is provided on board.
Which terminal does the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff use?
The Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff leaves from Hythe Pier and arrives at Cardiff Sailing Centre Pontoons. Allow about 1h 30m for reaching the departure terminal and leaving the arrival one. That time is already inside every door to door figure quoted on this page.
Is the Ferry the best way from Southampton to Cardiff?
Travelling from Southampton to Cardiff by Coach costs €11.18 and takes 2h 55m door to door, against 6h 2m by Ferry. Which is better depends on whether the money or the hours matter more on this trip. The comparison table on this page shows every mode side by side.
When should I book the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff?
Fares for the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff bottom out around 60 days ahead, at €10.07. The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time across the window is 93 percent, measured on 13 September 2026. Booking inside the final week has consistently cost more.
How much CO2 does the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff produce?
The Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff produces about 16.8 kg of CO2 per passenger over 146 km, which works out at roughly 115 grams per passenger kilometre. That figure is for the whole journey and for one traveller, not for the vehicle.
What is provided on board the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff?
Operators on the Ferry from Southampton to Cardiff publish Bar, , Cabins, Cafe, Restaurant, Toilets. That is what 1 carriers on this corridor state about their own fleets, across a journey of 6h 2m door to door. Where a carrier publishes nothing, this page lists nothing for it.
Where these numbers come from
Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance on this page are real and come from open data. Where a corridor has a filed timetable the departure times are real too, and ferry fares are the prices the operators publish themselves.
Derived from service area No carrier record names this exact pair. The operators listed publish a service area covering both places at a distance their mode plausibly carries people, which is evidence that the corridor is served and not evidence of a specific service. Pages state which, because presenting the two as the same thing would be dishonest.
Where no operator publishes a fare for a corridor, the price here is our own estimate, worked out from the real distance and the real operator through a fare curve that follows lead time, day of the week and season. It tells you roughly what the journey costs. It is not a seat anyone has agreed to sell, and the payment step will not take it.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares, The booking window, Carbon
- On this page
- Every figure above was computed for Southampton to Cardiff on 13 September 2026: 146 km of route against 139 km in a straight line, 2 services a day, 1 operator a cheapest fare of €12.99, and 6h 2m door to door on the fastest mode. The return direction is computed separately and its numbers are not these numbers.
Related journeys
Being on the water gives Cardiff a set of days out that do not start at a station. We do not sell those either.
Day trips out of Cardiff and across United Kingdom
Day trips that leave Cardiff in the morning and cover a good part of United Kingdom by evening.
See Cardiff on GetYourGuideOr browse Viator
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