Grand Isle ferry: the Lake Champlain crossing that never closes for the night

Set the two Lake Champlain Ferries crossings side by side and the differences are not subtle. The Charlotte–Essex ferry further south takes about 25 minutes, runs from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and can be shut in winter by ice or a north wind. The Grand Isle crossing takes about 14 minutes, runs all year, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and on a weekday sends more than eighty boats each way. Same company, same fares, same lake; a very different service.

The reason is the road network. Lake Champlain Ferries calls this the most convenient link between Interstate 87 in New York and Interstate 89 in Vermont, and the two ramps sit a few miles off each: exit 39 on the New York side, exit 17 and a run through the Champlain Islands on the Vermont side. That makes it a commuter and freight route as much as a scenic one, and it explains why the company's rule for certain hazardous loads — overnight only, between midnight and 3 a.m. — can only be met here.

The New York end is listed as Plattsburgh, but the ramp is on the Cumberland Head peninsula north of the city, which is how federal ferry data and the company's own holiday timetables name it. Both ends have a commuter lot and an ATM, and neither takes reservations: vehicles board in the order they arrive.

Around the clock, with a Sunday that starts a little later

Posted by Lake Champlain Ferries as its Grand Isle–Plattsburgh schedule, with no dates on it, read on September 25, 2026; the operator says the timetable varies by season   Lake Champlain Ferries — Grand Isle, VT / Plattsburgh, NY Schedules · 2026-09-25

One fare card for two very different crossings

Both Lake Champlain Ferries crossings charge from one fare card, so the price of a 14-minute hop here is exactly what the half-hour ride further south costs. The car line includes whoever is driving; everyone else in the vehicle buys a passenger ticket, and all prices are for one direction.

Regular drivers are the ones who notice the difference. Buying a Commuter Card cuts the regular fare by 30%, with surcharges charged in full, but each load onto the card has to be at least $200, which only pays off for people crossing most days.

Each-way rates as published by Lake Champlain Ferries on September 25, 2026; a fuel surcharge may be added   Lake Champlain Ferries — Grand Isle, VT – Plattsburgh, NY Rates & Restrictions · 2026-09-25

Gordons Landing on the island, Cumberland Head on the New York side

Neither landing is in a town center. Both are road-end ramps with a booth, a commuter lot and an ATM, a few miles from the interstate that feeds them.

Two miles of open lake between the islands and Cumberland Head

From the southern tip of Grand Isle the boats head almost due west to Cumberland Head, across the broad main lake rather than a sheltered bay. It is the shortest link between the Vermont side of the Champlain Islands and New York's Interstate 87 corridor, which is the whole reason it runs through the night.

Driving onto a ferry at two in the morning

• Night boats about every 40 minutes

  After midnight and until 5 a.m. the gaps are wider than by day, so check the table before you leave the interstate at night.

• The overnight window for hazardous loads

  The company only carries hazardous materials that limit passenger numbers between 12:00 and 3:00 a.m., and every placarded vehicle needs a certification form.

• 40 tons and 13 ft 6 in

  Those are the limits for every boat on the current rate sheet. Longer and wider vehicles pay by the foot or at one and a half times the rate.

• Park on either side

  Unlike Charlotte–Essex, both ends have a commuter lot. Neither lets a car stay more than 72 hours.

• Cash machines on both docks

  Both booths take cards, and anyone who prefers cash will find an ATM at Grand Isle and another at Cumberland Head.

• Text alerts for delays

  Wind, maintenance and traffic can move departures; for notices by text message, send the word LCTFerries to 855-450-0444.

A fleet built for the ice on this crossing

Founded, by its own reckoning, in 1826, Lake Champlain Transportation ties several of its boats to this crossing in its fleet history. The Plattsburgh, built in Panama City, Florida, in 1984, was designed to work in the ice here, with a strengthened hull and stainless-steel propellers. The Evans Wadhams Wolcott of 1988, the Vermont of 1992 and the 216-foot Cumberland of 2000 followed, each built for winter conditions and each a take-apart boat: the upper decks were unbolted and lowered so the hull could pass under the 13-foot bridges of the Champlain Barge Canal, then reassembled in Burlington. A sister to the Cumberland, the Raymond C. Pecor, Jr., arrived in 2010.

The company does not publish which boats are assigned to which crossing on a given day, and its history page is not fully up to date, so treat that list as a record of what was built for the route rather than a roster. What the current rate sheet does say is simpler: every boat on it is rated for vehicles of up to 40 tons, and none may stand taller than 13 feet 6 inches. Elsewhere in the country, crossings of this kind are more often run out of a highway budget than a fare box: Washington's Keller Ferry on Lake Roosevelt charges nothing, and Illinois's river barge at Kampsville, like Grand Isle, does not stop for the night.

Five boats the company built with this crossing in mind

Grand Isle–Plattsburgh crossing questions, day and night