Save money bring your car on the ferry

alias no.9

Just booked a return trip from Dublin to Holyhead on www.stenaline.co.uk and saved about €50 compared to www.stenaline.ie, £227 v's €310. Irish Ferries automatically defaults to € with bookings from Dublin and costs were comparable to euro but the cheaper £ fare can be got on the return leg by booking as two singles.

daveharnett

alias no.9 wrote: »

Just booked a return trip from Dublin to Holyhead on www.stenaline.co.uk and saved about €50 compared to www.stenaline.ie, £227 v's €310. Irish Ferries automatically defaults to € with bookings from Dublin and costs were comparable to euro but the cheaper £ fare can be got on the return leg by booking as two singles.

Cheers for that. You just saved us E70 on the trip to edinburgh in May:D

alias no.9

Just checked my online statement for my credit card and it came to €249, that makes the .ie 25% more expensive :mad:

alias no.9

daveharnett wrote: »

Cheers for that. You just saved us E70 on the trip to edinburgh in May:D

You can buy me a pint over there.

homer90

book .co.uk get a free tank of fuel

In fact a ............. nice one.:D

daveharnett

Edit:duplicate

crosstownk

Apart from the savings (which are good) I find the ferry a much more hassle free option than flying. Just drive on, park the car, stroll around the ferry, have a bite to eat, watch a movie, etc, etc. Then walk down the stairs and drive off. No queueing, no baggage collection, minimal security, bring what you like and best of all - your own car for the onward journey. OK, it's not practical for a weekend in Paris but for a regular holiday it's great. Plenty for the kids to do on the ferry rather than them being in the confines of an aeroplane and the boredom factor of the endless hassle and queues.

On several occasions I've taken the ferry to Holyhead and drove to Hull for another overnight ferry to Rotterdam. The overnight is great - a decent enough meal, a few beers and a bit of light entertainment, a decent sleep and I wake up at my destination and just drive on.......

Sorry if the post is slightly off topic but I felt the urge...........

CJhaughey

crosstownk wrote: »

On several occasions I've taken the ferry to Holyhead and drove to Hull for another overnight ferry to Rotterdam. The overnight is great - a decent enough meal, a few beers and a bit of light entertainment, a decent sleep and I wake up at my destination and just drive on.......

OT as well, how long is the Holyhead to Hull route?

crosstownk

CJhaughey wrote: »

OT as well, how long is the Holyhead to Hull route?

If memory serves me correctly it's around 3.5 hours. The M62 is a great road - apparently it's the highest motorway in the UK. Keeping within the 70MPH limit is hard work - most don't.........

L1011

The drive on the ground would be about 4 hours max; no idea what the ferry is...

In terms of practicality the ferry wins hands down for me all the time - I'm too young to rent a car easily - or get anything bigger than a Micra (which is too small for me to even drive safely). Driving to Utrecht in March; boat and tunnel + allowing some for fuel is working out much the same price as fly+hire; and for my last trip to the UK I'd probably have gone over the mileage limits on a hire car!

maclek

Fantastic savings idea, thanks for it. Here's my experience, booking April 11th to 19th, car + 5 people:

www.stenaline.ie €453.26
www.stenaline.co.uk, with v780 code £318.51 / €340
http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/book-now/gb-sportadr-event £240 / €255

:eek:

It certainly pays to shop around.

Alun

crosstownk wrote: »

On several occasions I've taken the ferry to Holyhead and drove to Hull for another overnight ferry to Rotterdam. The overnight is great - a decent enough meal, a few beers and a bit of light entertainment, a decent sleep and I wake up at my destination and just drive on.......

That Hull-Rotterdam route can be pretty dire in bad weather though, be warned! Forget any notions of a decent sleep if it is

the lady

I can't seem to figure out how to book a return leaving from Dublin on the .co.uk website, they want me to start my journey in England. Am I missing something?

alias no.9

the lady wrote: »

I can't seem to figure out how to book a return leaving from Dublin on the .co.uk website, they want me to start my journey in England. Am I missing something?

Works fine on the www.stenaline.co.uk but if you're looking at Irish Ferries, you have to book the outbound and return trips seperately, paying euros for outbound and sterling for the return.

the lady

Ah, I'm looking at the rail&sail not the ferry on it's own, that part won't let me book the return starting from Dublin. Nevermind, apparantly if I ring the English number and book by phone they'll post the tickets over although the phonebill may negate the savings ;-)

Cionád

Irish ferries have a sale at the minute for those of you travelling over before April 2nd. Prices are one way and include car and two passengers.

Irish Ferries wrote:

from €69 - Travel midweek (Mon-Thurs) on Cruise Ferry Services to Britain from 31 Jan - 2 Apr '09
Route:
Dublin- Holyhead
Pembroke- Rosslare
Cruise Ferries

Midweek:
Mon- Thu €69

Weekend:
Fri-Sun €119




Route:
Dublin - Holyhead
Swift

Midweek:
Mon- Thu €86

Weekend:
Fri-Sun €102

Must be booked by 4 Feb and 7 days in advance of travel.

http://www.irishferries.com/fares-offers-britain-from-ireland.asp

.

RoundyMooney

Ha, I was just coming here to post the same thing. I see you got the email too.

We're taking a road trip this year for want of something different, and to sound out the possibility of camping in future years. Needless to say, we'll be going with Irish Ferries.

RandomAccess

Might be an idea to post this on the Bargain Alerts sub-forum, though I'm not sure what the rules are for duplicate/cross-posting.

L1011

Like the way they put stuff on sale AFTER I've booked it, grrr... paid £139 for a mid week cruise ferry sailing in that time period!

towel401

i'd rather take the ferry than to be anally probed by some underpaid power-trippin' security staff at Gatwick

daveharnett

MYOB wrote: »

Like the way they put stuff on sale AFTER I've booked it, grrr... paid £139 for a mid week cruise ferry sailing in that time period!

Did you book non-refundable tickets?

drumaneen

I have used the following 2 codes : a158b code and the v780 code;
Both gave me 15% off standard ferry fares dub-holyhead both on .co.uk and .ie stena sites. There may still be an slight currency advantage of using the Uk site

Cionád

Anoyone going to/from France before 14th May can get a sailing for 2 adults + car + free cabin for 99 euro each way now. Helluva deal

€99 One way online fare is subject to availability, must be booked between 14 Feb and 3 March 2009 and 7 days in advance of travel date. The fare quoted is valid for new bookings on Rosslare – Cherbourg route for travel from 21 Feb to 14 May ’09 and only. Free cabin is a 2 Star 2 berth cabin. Supplement applies to upgrade cabin.