Book two days ahead, go to the Southsea seafront rather than Portsmouth Harbour, and leave the car behind: the Ryde hovercraft carries people, bicycles and dogs, and puts them on the Isle of Wight shore ten minutes later whatever the tide is doing.
Summer timetable 6 April to 1 November 2026; winter timetable 2 November to 20 December 2026 and 2 January to 31 March 2027. Both read on hovertravel.co.uk on 24 September 2026, in the PDF sheets and in the timetable tables on the website. Hovertravel — summer and winter timetables · 2026-09-24
Get to Clarence Esplanade in Southsea, not to Portsmouth Harbour, and check in with a ticket bought at least two days before if you want the cheaper fare. That is most of what the Ryde hovercraft asks of you. What it gives back is a ten-minute flight over the Solent that ends on the Isle of Wight shore itself, beside Ryde's esplanade, its railway station and its buses, rather than at the end of a pier a third of a mile out to sea.
The service exists because of Ryde's tides. Hovertravel's own history explains it: at low water the sea retreats so far from the town that no ship can berth near its roads, and until 1965 passengers from Portsmouth walked or rode the length of the pier. A hovercraft travels on land as well as water, so it can come in at any state of the tide. The company has flown the route ever since and calls it the longest-running commercial hovercraft service in the world.
It carries passengers only. There is no car deck and no vehicle fare to look for; bicycles and pets go free, subject to space. In that respect it has more in common with the little Thames ferry at Shepperton than with the Solent's car ferries, if at rather higher speed.
Planning pays here more than on most crossings. An adult single bought at the terminal or online on the day is £25.00; booked 48 hours ahead it is £22.50, and the same ten per cent comes off every individual advance ticket. Two adults travelling with as many as three children between 5 and 15 can buy an advance family day return for £65.00.
Two cheaper routes suit particular trips: the Afternoon Flyer, £27.00 return for an adult travelling out after 13:00 and back by 20:00 the same day, and the free HoverBlue card, which gives residents of the island and of any mainland PO postcode up to 30 per cent off standard fares.
| Adult single | £ 22.50 |
| Adult day return | £ 30.60 |
| Adult period return | £ 41.40 |
| Child (5–15) single | £ 10.80 |
| Senior (60+) single | £ 17.10 |
| Student single | £ 18.90 |
| Family day return (2 adults, up to 3 children) | £ 65 |
| Family period return | £ 90 |
| Adult single | £ 25 |
| Adult day return | £ 34 |
| Adult period return | £ 46 |
| Child (5–15) single | £ 12 |
| Senior (60+) single | £ 19 |
| Afternoon Flyer adult return | £ 27 |
| Infant (0–4) | Free |
| Bicycle or pet | Free |
Fares valid from December 2025, as published on hovertravel.co.uk on 24 September 2026. Advance fares require booking at least 48 hours before travel. Hovertravel — Standard and Advance fares · 2026-09-24
The two hoverports are a little over seven kilometres apart in a straight line, measured between the Department for Transport's terminal coordinates. The craft covers it in ten minutes, and the last part of the trip at Ryde is over the flats exposed at low water, which no conventional ferry can cross. That is the reason for the whole service: boats that can only float, including Wightlink's FastCat from Portsmouth, a different operator on a different route, still have to use the end of Ryde's long pier. England's other island crossing on this site sits at the opposite extreme: the Scillonian out of Penzance spends most of a morning at sea.
The Southsea terminal is on Clarence Esplanade, on the seafront east of Old Portsmouth, and not at Portsmouth Harbour station, which is an easy mistake to make. Hovertravel's own H1 HoverBus runs a loop from outside the terminal to The Hard interchange (harbour station, Gunwharf Quays, the Gosport ferry) and to Commercial Road for Portsmouth & Southsea station, timed to meet the flights but not guaranteed to. It costs £2.10 single, and concessionary bus passes ride free.
Parking is the council seafront car park beside the hoverport, payable by coins, card or RingGo (location 1389): £2.00 for an hour, £13.30 for 24 hours. Inside there is a waiting area with Wi-Fi, coffee and snack machines, accessible toilets once your ticket is scanned and a Changing Places room opened with a key from staff.
The craft lands on a pad beside Ryde's beach and esplanade, next to Ryde Esplanade station on Island Line, whose electric trains run down the east coast to Shanklin and connect with the Isle of Wight Steam Railway at Smallbrook Junction. Bus stops for the rest of the island are alongside, and the Ryde staff are trained to sell rail tickets.
The Isle of Wight Council car park on Quay Road takes coins only at the meter, or PayByPhone at 30p extra: £2.05 for up to an hour, £12.50 for six to twenty-four hours, and £2.00 overnight between 6pm and 8am.
Hovertravel usually carries up to four bicycles a flight, first come first served, and asks you to check space at the terminal before you buy. Four morning and midday departures from Southsea refuse bikes altogether.
Pets travel at no charge in an RSPCA-approved carrier or on a lead and harness, on the floor rather than the seats. Both terminals have a water station for dogs.
The luggage hold is at the front of the craft and the crew will help with heavy bags. More than 30 kg per passenger can be charged, and outsize items may have to go as freight.
The hovercraft is for foot passengers. If you need your car on the island you want a vehicle ferry from another operator; this page does not cover those.
National Rail sells through tickets to Isle of Wight stations routed 'via Ryde Hoverport', railcard discounts included. Hovertravel asks rail-ticket holders to reserve a seat on their flight at least 48 hours ahead through its own form.
Your hovercraft ticket is accepted on whichever Wightlink or Red Funnel sailing Hovertravel names, during its normal hours only; warnings for bad weather go out at 14:00 the day before. On the island you make your own way to Ryde Pier Head.
Two craft, Island Flyer and Solent Flyer, share the timetable. Hovertravel reports that more than 30 million people have crossed with it, and that it also runs urgent transfers for the NHS, which is why its performance figures for July 2026 put 2.29 per cent of flights down to NHS transfers. That month it operated 96.12 per cent of the timetabled flights.
The company presents itself as environmentally minded: it recycles worn skirt material, returns shingle that builds up at Southsea to the sea defences and gives seaweed cleared at Ryde to local growers. It is also working with the builder Griffon Hoverwork on alternative fuels, though no change of fuel has been announced.
Not quite. The hovercraft is Hovertravel's, leaves from Southsea seafront and lands next to Ryde Esplanade. The catamaran is Wightlink's, leaves from Portsmouth Harbour and docks at Ryde Pier Head. Tickets are not interchangeable except when Hovertravel cancels and names a Wightlink sailing as the alternative.
No. It is a passenger craft with no vehicle deck. Bicycles and pets are carried free, and heavy luggage goes in the hold at the front.
Until 1 November on weekdays, 06:30 from Ryde and 06:50 from Southsea, with the last at 19:15 and 19:30. From 2 November the last weekday flights are 18:30 from Ryde and 18:45 from Southsea.
Yes, if you can commit to a date two days out. Individual advance fares are ten per cent below standard — £22.50 instead of £25.00 for an adult single — and a family day return drops from £70.00 to £65.00.
No. Bikes are refused on the 06:50, 13:30 and 14:30 from Southsea on weekdays and on the 08:00 from Southsea on Saturdays. On other flights up to four are usually carried, first come first served.
Hovertravel issues a status message at 14:00 the day before if it expects weather cancellations, and on the day it names a Wightlink or Red Funnel crossing where your ticket is accepted. The recorded line is 01983 717717.
In the council car park on the esplanade next to the hoverport. It takes coins, cards and RingGo; a day costs £13.30 and two hours £3.40.
Not yet. The winter sheet stops on 20 December and restarts on 2 January, and nothing was published for the days between when this page was checked.