I recently digitized some old family videos, including 20 minutes of watching hovercrafts "starting" and "landing" between Dover and Calais. Crazy machines.
I much preferred the boat even though it took several times as long. Plus, the boat had arcade machines.
Loved Calais, though. Don't know how it is now, but in the 80s it was a very quaint little French tourist town.
March 1976, I did the Calais-Dover hovercraft crossing on a night of bad weather in the Channel. I was fine and actually enjoyed the motion — until the hovercraft got to Dover and had to cross maybe 50 yards of beach to get to the terminal, and then I got queasy from the vibration off the sand.