Cardiff to Reading ferry
Ferries from Cardiff to Reading start at €13.54 and take 6h 22m at their fastest.
The Ferries from Cardiff to Reading starts at €13.54 and takes 6h 22m door to door, run by 1 operator over 161 km, with around 2 departures a day. Fares bottom out about 90 days before departure.
- 6h 22mDoor to door
- 4h 52mMoving
- €13.54From
- 18.5 kgCO2
The cheapest and the fastest on September 28, 2026
Two journeys we can sell today, with the service number each operator files them under.
No bookable itinerary on the day this page prices, so none is shown.
Ferry operators
Speed, flexibility and what is on board. Nothing here is a rating, because we have not earned one.
| Operator | From | Fastest | Typical speed | Flexibility | On board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brittany Ferries | €13.54 | 6h 22m | 33 km/h | Changeable | Bar, , Cabins, Cafe, Restaurant, Restrooms |
That is the traveling done. What happens after you walk out into Reading is not something we sell.
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When to book Cardiff to Reading
The same search run across the whole booking window, so the shape of the curve is visible rather than described.
- €10.0890 days
- €10.6360 days
- €10.0845 days
- €11.7330 days
- €10.6321 days
- €12.2814 days
- €15.037 days
- €16.683 days
- €25.091 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Fares bottom out around 90 days ahead, at €10.08.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and most expensive lead time is 149 percent. The most expensive point is €25.09, 1 days out.
- What that means
- Today sits inside the cheap window, which closes about 90 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.
- €16.68Sun
- €11.18Mon
- €13.38Tue
- €12.28Wed
- €15.58Thu
- €16.84Fri
- €15.03Sat
Where you leave from and where you arrive
The stations, airports and ports each mode on this corridor actually uses.
Cardiff
- Cardiff Sailing Centre Pontoons
- City Centre Water Bus Stop
Reading
- Thames RiverCruise
What the journey actually looks like
Direct or connecting, how far the route really runs, and what happens when a connection is missed.
- Direct or connecting
- 50% of the services we sell on this corridor run through without a change. The remaining 50% involve one connection.
- How far it really runs
- The route covers 161 km against 153 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 Bristol, Bath, Swindon, Didcot. The gap between arriving and leaving is 62 minutes, of which about 5 is walking.
- If the connection is missed
- The tightest connection we sell here has a 15 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 Cardiff at 06:42 and the last at 07:30, 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
The same corridor, door to door, with every mode that runs it.
| Mode | Door to door | Moving | At the ends | From | CO2 | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Train | 2h 2m | 1h 18m | 44m | €20.69 | 5.3 kg | 5 |
| Coach | 2h 56m | 2h 12m | 44m | €11.18 | 4.3 kg | 1 |
| Ferry | 6h 22m | 4h 52m | 1h 30m | €13.54 | 18.5 kg | 2 |
Questions about Cardiff to Reading
The questions people actually ask about this trip, 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 Cardiff to Reading take?
The Ferry from Cardiff to Reading takes 6h 22m door to door, of which 4h 52m is spent moving. The route runs 161 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 Cardiff to Reading cost?
The Ferry from Cardiff to Reading starts at €13.54 for one passenger, checked on September 28, 2026. A typical fare is €19.31. 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 Cardiff to Reading?
1 operators run the Ferry from Cardiff to Reading: 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 Cardiff to Reading use?
The Ferry from Cardiff to Reading leaves from Cardiff Sailing Centre Pontoons and arrives at Thames RiverCruise. 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 Cardiff to Reading?
Traveling from Cardiff to Reading by Coach costs €11.18 and takes 2h 56m door to door, against 6h 22m 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 Cardiff to Reading?
Fares for the Ferry from Cardiff to Reading bottom out around 90 days ahead, at €10.08. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive lead time across the window is 149 percent, measured on September 28, 2026. Booking inside the final week has consistently cost more.
How much CO2 does the Ferry from Cardiff to Reading produce?
The Ferry from Cardiff to Reading produces about 18.5 kg of CO2 per passenger over 161 km, which works out at roughly 115 grams per passenger kilometer. That figure is for the whole journey and for one traveler, not for the vehicle.
What is provided on board the Ferry from Cardiff to Reading?
Operators on the Ferry from Cardiff to Reading publish Bar, , Cabins, Cafe, Restaurant, Restrooms. That is what 1 carriers on this corridor state about their own fleets, across a journey of 6h 22m door to door. Where a carrier publishes nothing, this page lists nothing for it.
Where these numbers come from
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.
Schedules, seat counts and fares are generated by our own model until the supplier contracts are signed. Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance are real. We would rather say that on every page than let a modeled number pass for a filed one.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares, The booking window, Carbon
- On this page
- Every figure above was computed for Cardiff to Reading on September 9, 2026: 161 km of route against 153 km in a straight line, 2 services a day, 1 operators, a cheapest fare of €13.54, and 6h 22m door to door on the fastest mode. The return direction is computed separately and its numbers are not these numbers.
Related journeys
The ferry is the simple part. What you do once you are in Reading is somebody else's catalog.
Anything to book in Reading before you go?
The tickets worth having in advance, because the line at the door is usually the whole morning.
See Reading on GetYourGuideOr browse Viator
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