Notable ferry services:
The busiest seaway in the world, the English Channel, connects Great Britain and mainland Europe sailing mainly to French ports, such as Calais, Boulogne,Cherbourg-Octeville, Caen, St Malo and Le Havre. Ferries from Great Britain also sail to Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Ireland. Some ferries carry mainly tourist traffic, but most also carry freight, and some are exclusively for the use of freight lorries.

Large cruiseferries sail in the Baltic Sea between Finland, Sweden, Germany and Estonia, and from Italy to Albania and Greece. In many ways, these ferries are like cruise ships, but they can also carry hundreds of cars on car decks. In Britain, car-carrying ferries are sometimes referred to as RORO (roll-on, roll-off) for the ease by which vehicles can board and leave.

In Australia, two Spirit of Tasmania ferries carry passengers and vehicles 300 kilometres across Bass Strait, which separates Tasmania from the Australian mainland. These run overnight but also include day crossings in peak time. Both ferries are based in the northern Tasmanian port city of Devonport and sail to Melbourne, Victoria. In New Zealand, ferry services known as the Interislander and Bluebridge connect Wellington in the North Island with Picton in the South Island, across Cook Strait. Hong Kong has the Star Ferry and the First Ferry.

Ferries docking at the Gateway of India, MumbaiDue to the numbers of large freshwater lakes and length of shoreline in Canada, many provinces and territories have ferry services. BC Ferries, British Columbia, carries travellers between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland. It also services other islands including the Gulf Islands and the Queen Charlotte Islands. In Halifax, Nova Scotia a 12-minute harbour ferry service operated by Metro Transit is used by over 3000 commuters daily [1] to avoid gridlock on the Macdonald and Mackay bridges. In Ontario, a popular ferry service that transports passengers and freight is the Chi-Cheemaun. Toronto has a ferry service that shuttles beach-goers, tourists and aircraft passengers between downtown and Toronto Island beach and airport. The island province of Newfoundland is accessible only by air or by Marine Atlantic ferries; Prince Edward Island was connected to the mainland only by ferries until the opening of the Confederation Bridge in 1997.

Washington State Ferries operates the most extensive ferry system in the United States, with ten routes on Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca serving terminals in Washington and Vancouver Island. In fiscal year 1999, Washington State Ferries carried 11 million vehicles and 26 million passengers. The Staten Island Ferry in New York City, sailing between the boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island, is the nation's single busiest ferry route by passenger volume.

Until the completion of the Mackinac Bridge in the 1950s, ferries were used for vehicle transportation between the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, across the Straits of Mackinac in the United States. Ferry service for bicycles continues across the straits for transport to Mackinac Island, where motorized vehicles are almost completely prohibited.

A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship with a Ro-Ro ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while as others use the ships as means of transportation.[citation needed]

Cruiseferry traffic is mainly concentrated in the seas of Northern Europe, especially the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. However, similar ships traffic across the English Channel as well as the Irish Sea, Mediterranean and even on the North Atlantic. Cruiseferries also operate from China and Australia.