 Poster: A snowHead
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.....provided you share the driving.
I am driving to Austria next year, leaving Paisley in Scotland on Friday 8th January 2010 and returning from Zell am See on Saturday 30th January.
Until now my plan was to use the Hull-Rotterdam ferry but I am now wondering about using the chunnel both ways.
Via Hull and the ferry is about 500 km less driving although the ferry costs more than the chunnel so it is roughly cost neutral. Obviously the ferry would give me a good break and the chunnel will be more driving and therefore more tiring. If I use it I don't really want to have to stop for a night but wonder if it is safe or advisable to sleep for a few hours in a service station car park?
Other factors are that using the Chunnel might get me there earlier as there is no way, even with five hours more driving I will stop for the 14 hours the ferry takes. On the way back I dont really want to have to race for the ferry on the Saturday 30th and would probably stop around the Dutch Border on the Saturday night, spend a day in Holland and get the Sunday night ferry. That said I would probably rather get home on the Sunday and the Chunnel with its 2 hours either way of booked departure leeway appeals from that point of view.
As it stands I am driving alone both ways as only I am there for the three weeks the others in the party are flying there and back via Munich, if anyone wants a lift and is prepared to share the driving let me know.
Any thoughts?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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newcastle-amsterdam - bit less driving on UK side, bit more on mainland EU
rosyth-zeebrugge - fair bit less driving on both sides, but only sails 3x per week, usually on the wrong day
it's a lot of driving if you go via dover-calais, but if you get one of the overnighters, you kill 2 birds by staying overnight on the mode of transport.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Quote: |
you kill 2 birds by staying overnight on the mode of transport.
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but only if you manage to sleep, which isn't always easy.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| pam w wrote: |
| Quote: |
you kill 2 birds by staying overnight on the mode of transport.
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but only if you manage to sleep, which isn't always easy. |
Ferries are not that bad, I was on the Europort-Harwich ferry on 15/10/87 and slept fine.
I don't think I would want to be driving on an autobahn having not slept much. All the times I have driven out to Austria I have stopped at one of the chain hotels in northern France then driven across Germany the next day.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The Norfolkline Ferries from Dover to Dunkirk might be worth looking at... It takes a couple of hours to cross which means you can have a useful amount of rest on the ferry. At least, more than you'd get if you went through the Tunnel. The crossings in the middle of the night are usually very cheap. Get a ferry around midnight and you have the advantage of driving through the UK in the evening and getting past Belgium in the early morning before the roads get busy.
Probably not advisable to sleep in a service station carpark... I've often done it and had no trouble but its not a smart thing to do 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I am so glad my relations all live about 25min from Dover...
Due to this we have never had to think about the hassles of driving in the UK and how much it adds to the journey...
All I can add is that it is all doable in one hit once your are on the continent. As long as you a re fresh faced and ready to go!
So if I were you I would look into the sleeper ferry options.
Good luck! And let me know when you get here so we can meet up for a bit....!!
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rjs, must have been a fun night on that boat... while I was hiding under the duvet waiting for the oak tree outside to come thru the bedroom window.
pam w, might not sleep on the way out, but I'd certainly be sleeping on the way back after a week's skiing and a 12hour drive.
For scotland, I used to go via Rosyth, when it was 6 daily services per week each way. Then they swapped to 3 every other day, which never met my schedules. Then they binned it, then Norfolk Line? brought it back. Now I usually go via Newcastle, which is not bad at all, but this year the prices were extortion, so trying Europoort-Hull. Anyone know how it compares with the others?
Fortunately, half of my ferry trips are only to Kent, so hardly any driving on the UK side.
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