Westerschelde Ferry Schedules 2026

On 14 March 2003 the Westerscheldetunnel opened and the car ferries across the Western Scheldt shut down. The crossing between Vlissingen and Breskens did not disappear with them. It kept running, minus the cars, and it now carries more than half a million people a year.

The tunnel did not replace this crossing — it went somewhere else

The tunnel is 6.6 kilometres long, drops to −60 metres, carries the N62 in two lanes each way, and charges cars €18.20. It also runs between Ellewoutsdijk and Terneuzen, roughly thirty kilometres east of here. A driver going from Walcheren to West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen now makes a long road detour and pays a toll. A cyclist still crosses the water directly in 23 minutes. That is the whole logic of what survived.

Foot passengers and bikes only, and that is the licence

The Westerschelde Ferry carries pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders. No cars. Westerschelde Ferry B.V. was set up by the Province of Zeeland in 2014 specifically to operate the bike-and-foot service; the concession originally ran to 2018 and has since been extended to 2027. Two ships do the work, the Prins Willem-Alexander and the Prinses Máxima, with 54 staff.

What the numbers say about which day you are looking at

The company reports 14,378 departures a year and 529,056 passengers in 2024 — an average of about 37 people per sailing. Our timetable holds 25 departures from Vlissingen and 26 from Breskens. Set against the annual figure, which works out at roughly twenty round trips a day, that means the pattern shown here is a fuller day than the yearly average. Winter service is thinner than what you see on this page.

Both terminals sit on top of onward transport

In Vlissingen the terminal is at Westerhavenweg 2a and the NS railway station is immediately next door. In Breskens it is Veerhaven 1. A bus stop is one to two minutes’ walk from each, and car parking within walking distance of both terminals is free — which makes sense for a service whose entire premise is that you leave the vehicle behind.

Details that only matter if you are on a bicycle

Both terminals keep a bicycle repair kit at the ticket desk, including puncture materials, and both have charging points for electric bikes. Payment at the desk and the machines is card only — no cash. Dogs travel free on a short lead. There is a below-deck area with a view for wheelchair users and pushchairs, accessible toilets and baby-changing on board and ashore, and free WiFi in the terminals. The whole operation, ships and terminals, is smoke-free. Disruptions go out on a public WhatsApp channel.

Twenty-three minutes each way, and no difference between them

Unusually for this site, the two directions are timed identically: Vlissingen to Breskens and Breskens to Vlissingen are both 23 minutes. On a short, sheltered, high-frequency shuttle with no vehicle deck to load, there is nothing to make one leg longer than the other.