Questions about Dover

[Giantfan13]

Our cruise departs from Dover. We will probably be taking the National Express Bus from London to Dover. My questions are:

 

Where does the bus drop you off??

If we want to stay a pre cruise night in Dover, where is the best place to stay?. Not specific hotels, but area??. We were looking at some inns, in and around Dover, but

how do you travel around Dover?. A couple of the places looked very reasonable, but were about 10 miles out of town. Does that make any sense?

If the bus leaves you in town, do you have to take a cab to where ever you are staying?. And from there, how would you travel around Dover to see some of the sights??

Are there tours you can go on right from Dover that would show you around??

And last, is the cruise terminal right in town, or do you have to take a cab to it??

[Globaliser]

Where does the bus drop you off??

...

If the bus leaves you in town, do you have to take a cab to where ever you are staying?. And from there, how would you travel around Dover to see some of the sights??

...

And last, is the cruise terminal right in town, or do you have to take a cab to it??

The coach stops in town, from where you would have to get a cab to the cruise terminal. But the cabs in Dover are well used to taking people to/from both the ferry port and the cruise terminals.

 

Whether you need a cab to your hotel (or indeed to your ship) depends on your appetite for walking and for dragging your luggage with you. From the centre of town to the cruise terminal is probably about half an hour's walk, if you choose to do that.

[handfordr]

Where does the bus drop you off??

 

There are two main bus stops in Dover for National Express, the ferry terminal and the town centre. The town centre bus stop is just to one side of the shopping centre, its a forlorn place. Unless you have a hotel within a few hundred yards off the town centre you're probably better off getting off at the ferry terminal for availability of taxi's.

 

If you are independent it really doesn't make sense to stay 10 miles from town, unless the place is near a rural train station.

You might also look at accommodation in Canterbury that has good links with Dover.

 

Dover town itself is pretty down at heel that has seen better times.

There are buses up to the hill to the Castle that also gives access to the top of the white cliffs, and during July/August and at weekends other times boat trips to see the white cliffs and a couple of places in Dover itself aimed at visitors. But apart from that unless you research thoroughly local bus and trains you're stuck with taxi's

[insidecabin]

One option to consider is one way car hire which will be around £70 for 24hr < £100 for 2 days(48hr). + fuel around £10 to get to Dover.

 

At least one of main companies(National) is near the cruise terminal on Snargate st.

 

This gives a lot more options of where to stay and for getting about there are some nice places between London and Dover.

 

One problem is if you cruise leaves on a Sat or Sun the car hire places are not open all day.

[RetiredFL]

We stayed in Canterbury for a couple of days before a Dover cruise to adjust to the time difference and also to make sure we did not miss the boat. We have also stayed in Dover for a night and I would vote for Canterbury.

Our B&B in Canterbury arranged cars directly to the Ferry terminal and they were not expensive, all things considered and for the convenience. I think they do it all the time. You can also take the train and a taxi to the ship from Dover Priory where most trains stop.

Unless Dover Castle is of particular interest to you there is not much else to see.

I would vote for seeing Canterbury and then a taxi to Dover in the morning.

[ubet13]

We booked a guest house for 2 days before our cruise. We don't leave until the summer but here is a good link:

After more research we wish we stayed in London for 1 day longer as most day trips are out of London as opposed to Dover, and I hear there isn't much to do there. Oh well for us I guess but here is the link:

http://www.stayindover.co.uk/hotels.html

[Giantfan13]

thanks so much for the informative replies. It gives us exactly what we were looking for. I'll just have to do a bit more research before we make our decision

[MrsTW]

We booked a guest house for 2 days before our cruise. We don't leave until the summer but here is a good link:

After more research we wish we stayed in London for 1 day longer as most day trips are out of London as opposed to Dover, and I hear there isn't much to do there. Oh well for us I guess but here is the link:

http://www.stayindover.co.uk/hotels.html

 

Don't be too down. Dover Castle is wonderful to visit with the castle itself, glorious views and the Wartime tunnels. There's also a good Museum in the centre of town with a Bronze Age boat to see. Canterbury is easy to get to by train ;)