I am looking at taking a trip to the UK and Europe and I was wondering what information people had on ferrys between Scotland and Ireland, England and Ireland and Wales and Ireland?
Thank you and this will be my first solo trip as a female to Europe and the UK so I am excited.
Adrianna in addition to any advice you get here you should explore the internet. I've used ferries in Scotland to get to western isles. For longer, popular trips you may need reservations. For example, when we we went from Ullapool to Stornoway, on a small bus we absolutely needed a reservation and with a car you might. On the other hand I took the ferry from Oban to Mull in a car and didn't need one.
This is the first site that came up on google.http://www.directferries.co.uk/. Then I found this site.http://www.irishferries.com/ For scotland you can find most of them at http://www.calmac.co.uk/. Currently Calmac has the contract. Interestingly, the EU is forcing Scotland to break up the contract and open it up to other EU (Cal Mac is Scottish) companies. The concern is that smaller islands will lose service. With the combined contract the government forces CalMac to serve the smaller islands.
European politics get more interesting every year. ; )
Pam
Thank you Pam I went to that link and have now saved it. That is really a great site. I am now using the internet more and more on my trip.
This site is a great place to get information and I appreate all those who take the time to do so.
Adri
We've taken the Stena line high speed ferry from Stranraer in west Scotland to Belfast in Northern Ireland twice in the last two trips. It's fast, huge, and a lot of fun. If you catch the rails right, it's about 8 hours from London to Stranraer. First trip we missed a connection, and spent the night in Carlisle, which turned out to be an unexpected treat, as we were pretty worn out from travelling. Do a search for rail/sail or belfast to london train to find out additional details.
My $.02 (whats that with the current exchange?)
Glenn in Tucson, AZ 2 months till the next trip to the UK!
Thanks so much for the tip about the ferry from scotland to Ireland. I am really pumped. I want to take ferrys. I am spreading my time out to maximize for example right now im looking at spending six weeks exploring the UK and also Ireland and then a three week europe tour with RS Tours so I want to really take time and see the UK and Ireland as well not just rush around and Ferrys are one way to do it and see a lot of places that I might not get to see any other way.
Thanks,
Adri
