Pre-Cruise Transfer with Dover Castle Visit

Combine your pre-cruise transfer from Heathrow or London to Dover with an optional visit to one of the world’s most impressive and dramatic landmarks, Dover Castle.

Duration: 6 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights

After completing the hotel pick-ups, we head east into Kent, often referred to as the ‘Garden of England’. This region is abundant with fresh produce, orchards, vineyards, market gardens, and hop fields. Our picturesque drive takes us to the southeastern corner of England, arriving at the Dover Cruise Terminals. Upon reaching Dover, we will stop for…

What's Included
  • Maximum of 2 items of hold luggage (23kg each) and 1 item of carry-on luggage (10kg) per person
  • Services of a tour manager
  • One-way shared transfer
  • Photo stop at the Battle of Britain memorial
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • Food and drinks
  • Entrance to Dover Castle is not included
Additional Information
  • Each person is allowed a maximum of 2 items of hold luggage (75x51x28 cm - 23kg each) and 1 item of carry-on luggage (55x40x20 cm - 10kg each). If you bring extra luggage it will not fit in the vehicle. In this instance you will be responsible for arranging separate transportation for your luggage to your cruise ship.
  • Should you wish to bring any…
Location
Battle of Britain Memorial
New Dover Road, Folkestone
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
3.9
(28 Ratings)
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1 star
Steve_b
Apr 19, 2025
Pre cruise to dover - Great experience. Our driver/guide was friendly and informative. The stop for the British memorial was good and the castle in Dover was fun
Review provided by Viator
Lisa_b
Aug 12, 2024
Very happy - Driver was great. Very informative, helpful, friendly and efficient. He’s very good at his job. Also very punctual
Review provided by Viator
Sharon_m
Aug 10, 2024
Great tour. - Loved this Tour. Pick up from the Hotel was great, took a tour from Victoria Station and this was was much better. There was a 2 hour delay in the pick-up due to protests and street closures but we were keep informed of what was going on. Bus was very clean and confortable.
Review provided by Viator
Stacey_h
Jul 11, 2024
Must do. - Convenient pickup from our airport hotel in London Heathrow. The bus was very clean and maintained, and had a functional, accessible, clean bathroom. Our tour guide, Michael, was excellent. Viator obtained our Dover Castle tickets for us which was also very nice. They got us to our cruise ship in good timing. No worries of being late. Thank you very much. 😊
Review provided by Viator
Daniel_n
Jul 4, 2025
U still need to pay... - U still need to pay ticket to enter Dove casltle. The term tour is misleading! Should be label as transportation only
Review provided by Viator
Sharon_m
Jul 23, 2024
Difficult - Did not pick us up at Hotel, bus couldn't get there so we walked 3 blocks with suit cases. I am in my 80's and have RA. Should of picked up with car. The walk up hill to castle is very steep. 30 minutes isn't enought time to do. Would take 3 hours or more. Just use if you are very fit and need to get to cruise
Review provided by Viator
Janice_b
Aug 14, 2025
The bus got stuck in... - The bus got stuck in Ferry Traffic we did not have tickets to get admission to Dover Castle so he dropped us off early at the cruise terminal, very disappointed in not being able to go and view the castle.
Review provided by Viator
Toowoombatourist
Jun 16, 2025
LONDON HOTEL TO DOVER CRUISE TERMINAL WITH OPTIONAL DOVER CASTLE - Unfortunately, our experience with this transfer was not the best and not what we had expected, especially the optional Dover Castle visit portion. We had been notified by the company two days earlier, after contacting them for a hotel pick-up time, that we would be collected between 8.45 - 9.15am. The morning of the actual transfer we were sent a message from the driver that he'd be arriving at 7.20am...we didn't even see this message until 7.10am but by some miracle we were actually fully packed and about to come downstairs for a relaxed breakfast before our transfer to Dover! The driver had no idea why we'd been told this later collection time. The vehicle was clean and well maintained and easily stored our luggage and that of the other couple who was using this service also. The driver drove very professionally on the entire two hour journey and arrived at the Dover Castle well before opening time. This is where our other issue arises. We were under the impression from the details of the service on the website, that we would have approximately 2 hours at the castle before being dropped at the cruise terminal. Maybe the trip from London was extra quick because it was a Saturday morning and traffic was lighter than expected, but we were dropped in the castle carpark 40 minutes before the opening time to the castle at 10am and was told he'd be back at 11am to collect us where we had been dropped off. This then gave us a maximum of one hour to explore the castle (included in this time is the actual walk up the quite substantial hill and then back down again because the ticket office is in the carpark not up at the castle). This was nowhere near enough time and very disappointing to say the least especially as there was no rush to be at the cruise terminal because the transfer company knew the ship's departure time was not until late in the afternoon. To us, it seemed like the driver was needing a quick return to London for some reason. In fact, we had previously also booked a return transfer from the port back to London after our cruise but this had been cancelled a few weeks before our departure date due to, we were told, a shortage of drivers. Perhaps this issue had some impact on the driver's apparent rush to need to return to collect us from the castle. If this is at all usual for this optional extra, I would not recommend it as value for money. We saw very little of the castle, and could easily see that the extra hour that we expected to have had would have made a big difference to the entire experience. Overall, I think we should have just used the car service to transfer to the port and then make our own way up to the castle after checking in for our cruise.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Philip_s
Jul 29, 2024
Sent such a big bus it didn’t fit. Pickups took far too long. - They sent a full size bus that was too big to fit on the streets of hotel pickups. If they have pickups at those hotels, they need to send smaller van. As a result, we were on the bus for 4 hours , and the bus driver had to take a mandatory half hour rest. The result was being 3 hours late to Dover Castle and having to race around, not seeing everything at this great attraction. While nice to be picked up at your hotel, it resulted in sitting far too long on the bus. This company needs to understand the vehicles required to fit into the roads hotels are on.
Review provided by Viator
Christina_l
Aug 2, 2025
Waste of money, Disappointing, Avoid! - Viator should be ashamed of itself with its “Pre-cruise Tour from London to Dover Port via Dover Castle”. After paying $543.67 for 2 adults and 1 child, we absolutely felt had due to Viator’s DELIBERATE, false advertising and deceptive language of “via” the Dover Castle. We realize the Castle ticket was not included, but there was absolutely nothing “via” about this tour. Yes, we could look up (WAY UP) in the distance to vaguely see the Castle, but Viator is straight misleading people with this offering. I urge you, do not waste your money on this. We could’ve paid less for a private transfer and been happier.
Review provided by Viator
From $181
up to 9 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).