Ireland / Europe by ferry - best route?

Stern

Hi all,

Need to make a trip to Germany with the car in late April and am considering the best route for it.

Two main routes in consideration at the moment:

Dublin > ferry Holyhead/Liverpool -> drive to Hull -> ferry Amsterdam/Rotterdam
Dublin > ferry Holyhead/Liverpool -> drive to Folkestone -> train Calais

The train route would be faster, but I have would have to sleep overnight somewhere in France probably before continuing.

The Hull route would take longer but I would be able to sleep on the ferry to Holland.

Anybody have any suggestions / comments that might be useful for deciding?

The cost seems about €400-ish, if you include an overnight stay on the train route.

Riskymove

for me I'd take train route and stay ovenright

better chance of a good sleep in hotel than on ferry and takes weather factor out of the equation.

I did this before and stayed ovenright at the Tunnel (on UK side) and went through early next morning

Stern

I was thinking that too... double risk of bad traffic and maybe some ferry delays both ways, whereas with the tunnel there's less risk.

Is there anywhere good on UK or France side to take a kip in the car? I don't mind that, so long as it's nowhere I'll be robbed...

veryangryman

Stern wrote: »

I was thinking that too... double risk of bad traffic and maybe some ferry delays both ways, whereas with the tunnel there's less risk.

Is there anywhere good on UK or France side to take a kip in the car? I don't mind that, so long as it's nowhere I'll be robbed...

Services car parks maybe? That's what I would chance.

Stern

Never heard of that... what is a services car park?

Plopli

I do/did both.

Train is faster and more flexible (if you're early, you can usually take the train earlier. If you're late they often allow you on the next train without or with low price increase).
With loading/unloading, it usually take ~1h (45m for the crossing itself) where you can sleep in the car.
When I do that, I usually take the ~midnight ferry to Holyhead and arrive it the east of Belgium the next day late evening.

Ferry from Hull (was to Ostende, not Amsterdam for me) was also a nice experience (we had a cabin - 4 of us travelling) and a nice diner on the boat. Sea was pretty rough but we did survive.
This was for Christmas 2010 (the one with the crazy snow where Dublin airport was closed) and I was looking at minimum driving time give the state of the road.

I slept a few hours on various highway service area in France/Belgium without problem. I'm not sure it's legally allowed but if you don't stay more than 3/4 hours, I'm sure you will have no problem.

Don't forget that depending the highway you take in France you will have to pay toll fee. This can significantly increase the cost.

Highway in Holland are free as far as I know.

My choice would also be influenced on where I'm going in Germany.
If it's the North, I'll probably go trough Hull - much less driving.

munchkin_utd

as some said before, it depends on where you are going and depends on who you have with you (i.e. dogs, kids, humans with weak bladders or whatever)
Germany is gigantic and its a good 12 hour drive from the northern tip to the bottom.

Firstly, the cost of 400 is way off the mark unless you areincluding fuel in that too. The landbridge deal is 115 for irish sea and channel ferry combined, tunnel a good shade more and then a random Formule 1 (or hotel F1 i think theyre now called) can be got for 25euro a night incl parking. Or in England similar deals with premier inn or travellodge.

Also, the ferry direct to France can be got for less than 100 euro incl driver (before cabin cost) and is really the handiest way of doing it. You can even get a ferry from Dublin which lands you in to France the next morning and then you can potter away across France landing to nearer parts of Germany in the early evening.
You arent trying to dodge traffic in england/ low countries and you are in Germany (Aachen) in 6 1/2 hours after arriving on French soil from Ireland. Tolls will add up to 40 or 50 euro, but for this you have roads free of local traffic so little to no chance of traffic jams outside of holiday season. Just stay away from Paris and its chronic traffic.

Still, whatever you do really depends on WHERE in the not insubstantial area of Germany you happen to be going as that would influence your stop strategy and possibly also the route or whether you'd bother with the extra cost of the Tunnel .

SeanW

Curious - are there ferries direct to France (think there are from Rosslare), and if so would they be a good idea?

Plopli

Ferries from Rosslare to at least Cherbourg.
Cork to Roscoff
I think they were also talking on going to Saint Nazaire either from Cork or Rosslare

I'm taking the Rosslare-Cherbourg next month to go to Spain.
Again, depending on where you are going and the balance you want to achieve between cost/driving time/sailing time/overall duration, this may be a possibility.

Stern

Thanks all for your helpful responses on this! I'm definitely going to go the Dublin > Holyhead > Channel Tunnel route now.

@munchkin quick question on what you said:

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Firstly, the cost of 400 is way off the mark unless you areincluding fuel in that too. The landbridge deal is 115 for irish sea and channel ferry combined, tunnel a good shade more and then a random Formule 1 (or hotel F1 i think theyre now called) can be got for 25euro a night incl parking. Or in England similar deals with premier inn or travellodge.

I checked Irish Ferries and used a few fare compare sites and I could find nowhere as cheap as you mentioned. The Irish Ferries fare from Dublin to Holyhead alone is €99 (though I do have some Tesco tokens).

I called them too and they quoted me €354 for a return including channel tunnel (ie: landbridge).

Do you know who offers this at the prices you mentioned? I found a hotel in Calais for €30 so just need a good deal on the ferry.

Thanks!

munchkin_utd

Stern, you need to avoid the weekend and avoid the tunnel, then you get the best prices.
Here's the prices with stena
http://www.stenaline.ie/ferries-to-britain/europe-by-car
and here is irish ferry prices
http://www.irishferries.com/uk-en/offers/landbridge/

Carawaystick

Stern wrote: »

Thanks all for your helpful responses on this! I'm definitely going to go the Dublin > Holyhead > Channel Tunnel route now.

@munchkin quick question on what you said:



I checked Irish Ferries and used a few fare compare sites and I could find nowhere as cheap as you mentioned. The Irish Ferries fare from Dublin to Holyhead alone is €99 (though I do have some Tesco tokens).

I called them too and they quoted me €354 for a return including channel tunnel (ie: landbridge).

Do you know who offers this at the prices you mentioned? I found a hotel in Calais for €30 so just need a good deal on the ferry.

Thanks!

have a quick check of your insurance for cover abroad, and get a hi-viz vest, you need one for the driver, in the car cabin on Motorways in France.
mappy.fr will give you the exact tolls for the french motorways

Belgian Motorways are free, but poorly maintained, and get jammed at peak times around Brussels. The signs have the names of towns in the language of where the roadsign is, do if it's in a dutch speaking area, the dutch name for towns is used, while in french speaking areas they use the french name.

Dutch Motorways are Busy

Have a quick check of the speed rating of your tyres before hitting unrestricted autobahn.... You know you want to...
It's also worth having your tyres at the higher limit of pressure for sustained motorway driving.

Stern

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Stern, you need to avoid the weekend and avoid the tunnel, then you get the best prices.
Here's the prices with stena
http://www.stenaline.ie/ferries-to-britain/europe-by-car
and here is irish ferry prices
http://www.irishferries.com/uk-en/offers/landbridge/

Thanks a lot! I'm going and returning mid-week so was not looking at weekend peak rates.

I'm meaning to use my tesco vouchers on the 4x1 deal so I can't buy a landbridge ticket unfortunately, I called Irish Ferries and they don't accept them on those promotional routes (as it's with a partner company).

I will switch from channel tunnel to one of the ferries though as it about halves the price and as I'm staying overnight in France I won't be in a rush. Will do the rest of the trip the following day.

Thanks and also to Carawaystick for the general advice!

munchkin_utd

Stern wrote: »

Thanks all for your helpful responses on this! I'm definitely going to go the Dublin > Holyhead > Channel Tunnel route now.

@munchkin quick question on what you said:



I checked Irish Ferries and used a few fare compare sites and I could find nowhere as cheap as you mentioned. The Irish Ferries fare from Dublin to Holyhead alone is €99 (though I do have some Tesco tokens).

I called them too and they quoted me €354 for a return including channel tunnel (ie: landbridge).

Do you know who offers this at the prices you mentioned? I found a hotel in Calais for €30 so just need a good deal on the ferry.

Thanks!

just looking at the figures. Thats 177each way so corresponds to the stena price for midweek landbridge incl tunnel.
The equivalent price for the ferry to Dunkirk (so saving a few km on the road to Germany and a slightly longer break) is €123 euro.
For a return journey thats then €246 by ferry rather than €354 by tunnel.

BTW, the direct ferry to France from Rosslare is now going for €89 with irish ferries for car + 2 adults till May or so. The driving is all then on the empty (abeit tolled) motorways of France so you can do it in 1 go from Cherbourg without any need to be timing the run to cope with rushhours and whatnot.

L1011

Stern wrote: »

Never heard of that... what is a services car park?

Motorway service station. Lots of them in the UK. Near universally have pay parking after 2 hours though.

Carawaystick

have a look at formule 1 hotels or the like, I've booked rooms for 19 per night now it's basic, clean but small room & bed;

It's a much better snoooze than in a car in a carpark

I'd bring a co-pilot too, it's usually no extra expense, the ferry/transport usually charge the same for a passenger.

It's nice to have someone read the map and double check directions or have a chat, or even change cd's



re paperwork
you need your license
the logbook cert
the insurance cert nct cert if the vehicle is old enough