Go at a weekend: until Saturday 31 October the boat across the mouth of the Deben runs Saturdays and Sundays only, 10:00 to 17:00, and from November nothing crosses at all until spring. Take cash, and if you are waiting on the Bawdsey side, make yourself seen.
Season pattern as published by Felixstowe Town Council and The Suffolk Coast, read on 13 October 2026; neither page dates it, and the fares beside it are labelled 2025. No 2027 dates had been announced. Felixstowe Town Council — Getting here by boat: Felixstowe to Bawdsey · 2026-10-13
Check the day before anything else. This crossing over the mouth of the River Deben follows a fixed seasonal calendar rather than a timetable, and mid-October falls in its weekends-only stretch: Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00 to 17:00, until 31 October. On those days the boat simply shuttles back and forth as people turn up, weather permitting.
Next, sort out which Felixstowe you mean. Felixstowe Ferry is the hamlet at the town's northern edge, named after this very service, and is unrelated to the container port or with the Harwich Harbour Ferry from Felixstowe Dock. Drive or walk to the end of Ferry Road; the boat goes from beside the boatyard.
Finally, bring cash. Fares have been £3 single and £5 return on foot, £4 and £6 with a bike, and no card machine is carried. The boat itself belongs to Felixstowe Ferry Boat Yard and is licensed by East Suffolk Council for twelve passengers.
Bring notes and coins: every listing says the ferry takes cash only. On foot an adult pays £3 one way or £5 there and back, a child £2. Wheeling a bicycle on makes it £4 single or £6 return.
One caution: these are the most recent figures from an official source, and they are headed 2025. A local holiday park repeats the same numbers for 2026, which suggests they have not moved, but check on the quay.
| Adult single | £ 3 |
| Adult return | £ 5 |
| Child | £ 2 |
| Cyclist single | £ 4 |
| Cyclist return | £ 6 |
Prices labelled '2025' by Felixstowe Town Council, The Suffolk Coast and the National Landscape's 2025 leaflet, read on 13 October 2026; no 2026 list has been published by an official source Felixstowe Town Council — Felixstowe to Bawdsey ferry prices · 2026-10-13
The Deben estuary is twenty kilometres long and meets the North Sea through a mouth Natural England puts at roughly 200 metres wide, and the two landings stand on either side of it. The estuary holds more than 40 per cent of Suffolk's remaining saltmarsh, and its first bridge upstream is at Wilford, beyond Woodbridge. That is why the national coast path, which opened from Felixstowe Ferry to Bawdsey in September 2025, measures 26 miles: it goes all the way round. Natural England chose that line over the ferry precisely because the boat stops for the winter.
This is the small fishing hamlet at the northern tip of Felixstowe, where Ferry Road runs out at the river beside the boatyard, a café, a pub and a golf course. The landing is at the very end of the road, beside the boatyard that owns the ferry. Coast path walkers coming up from Felixstowe meet eight steps where the route crosses Ferry Road off the sea wall, which Natural England flags as awkward for anyone with limited mobility.
Bawdsey Quay is the north shore, the end of the long lane down the Bawdsey peninsula and the start of the next stretch of national trail towards Shingle Street and Orford. There is a café on the quay. To summon the boat from here, the National Landscape's leaflet says, you hail it by waving a giant paddle.
Card payment is not offered. A walker going over and back needs £5, a cyclist £6.
Waiting on Bawdsey Quay, you call the ferryman across by waving the oversized paddle, the method the National Landscape's leaflet describes.
Between 1 November and Good Friday the boat does not sail. A winter walk from Felixstowe to Bawdsey means the 26-mile estuary route or a drive.
Every published timetable is qualified by the weather, and on this exposed river mouth a strong wind can stop the boat even inside the season.
The Bawdsey Radar Museum in the old Transmitter Block opens Thursdays, Sundays and bank holiday Mondays until 1 November, 11:00 to 16:00; adults pay £8.
The Harwich Harbour Ferry leaves from View Point Road at Felixstowe Dock, seven kilometres south. This crossing starts at Felixstowe Ferry, at the opposite end of town.
The ferry's present owners have had it a long time. Felixstowe Ferry Boat Yard bought the ferry business of C.H. Fox & Son on 30 June 1965, when Trevor Moore was a director, and his son Andrew has run the yard since 2001. The National Landscape's leaflet notes that a century ago both this crossing and Walberswick's may have used chain ferries; today it is a motor launch that doubles as a water taxi for yacht owners on the river moorings. The website once used for the service, bawdseyferry.co.uk, is no longer registered, so the Town Council's page and the boatyard's phone line are where current information lives.
North of Bawdsey the Suffolk shore breaks into more estuaries, each with its own seasonal answer. The Butley River near Orford is crossed by a four-seat rowing boat crewed by volunteers, and the Blyth between Southwold and Walberswick by a family-run rowed ferry. Down the coast in Essex, Brightlingsea's harbour foot ferry joins three shores of the Colne with one small boat and likewise has no winter service.
In October it crosses at weekends only, 10:00 to 17:00, weather permitting, so 17–18, 24–25 and 31 October are the remaining days of 2026. The boatyard on 01394 282173 is the number to try if the weather looks doubtful.
No. The service stops at the end of October and does not restart until Good Friday; Natural England confirms there is no crossing from November to March. A booked winter service was tried in 2017/18 but not kept.
Only notes and coins work here. The Town Council, the tourism body and the National Landscape leaflet all say cash only. An adult pays £3 single or £5 return.
By hand signal. The National Landscape's leaflet says that at Bawdsey you hail the ferry with a giant paddle, so wave it where the ferryman can see it.
No. The Harwich Harbour Ferry sails to Harwich and Shotley from View Point Road at Felixstowe Dock. The Bawdsey boat crosses only the Deben, from Felixstowe Ferry, at the northern tip of town.
The England Coast Path from Felixstowe Ferry to Bawdsey goes round the whole estuary via Woodbridge and Wilford Bridge: 26 miles, against a crossing of about 200 metres.
Yes. Cyclists pay £4 single or £6 return, while dogs, according to the 2025 foot-ferry leaflet, go free.