My friend and I decided to go via the train & ferry from London to Dublin earlier this month (April, 2025). I purchased the tickets through “Transport for Wales” a month prior from home. The ticket included train transportation from London Euston Station to Crewe, England, then from Crewe to Holyhead, Wales via train and finally from Holyhead via Stena Line Ferry to Dublin. It cost about £54 each. I got a great amount of useful information from The Man in Seat 61 website (seat61.com).
We left our hotel at about 7:00 a.m. (Holiday Inn Express London Earl’s Court) and took an Uber to the Euston Station. I retrieved the tickets using a reference code at the ticket machine for Avanti West Coast, which was the operator of the first train. Our first train ride was almost 2 ½ hours. We had about an hour transfer time in Crewe, then boarded the train to Holyhead (total about 2 ½ hours). We arrived there at about 1:40 p.m. and walked over to the ferry waiting room. Our tickets said that the ferry was supposed to depart at 2:45 p.m. but apparently that was wrong. The ferry waiting room (which is shared with Irish Ferries) didn’t have any signage showing what time the ferry was supposed to depart and there were no ferry personnel in the area. Due to a major storm in December, 2024, there has been some disruption in Holyhead due to damage to the deepwater berths. So, I attribute that to the delay in our departure. Finally, someone showed up and she said that they would start processing tickets at 3:00 p.m. Anything larger than a personal item had to be checked and retrieved in Dublin. Ultimately, the ferry (Stena Horizon) left around 4:30 p.m.
There was a cafeteria of sorts as well as a bar and fairly comfortable seating areas for foot passengers. My friend and I were both pretty hungry at this point and each purchased the fish and chips from the cafeteria. It wasn’t bad, and honestly there were very few choices of food so this looked like the best. The weather outside was clear but it was very windy. We only ventured outside a couple of times to take quick snapshots, as the deck was heavily used by smokers plus with the incredible wind, it just wasn’t pleasant. I was very impressed how smooth the journey was. I had taken the precaution of taking a Meclizine tablet before we left and didn’t have any issues with seasickness at all. The ferry ride lasted a little over three hours.
Once we arrived in Dublin, there was confusion as to when the foot passengers were supposed to disembark the ferry. We eventually made it off the ferry and to the baggage retrieval area, where we picked up our carry on roller bags.
There was a bus (Nolan Coaches, as part of their FerryLink Shuttle Service) waiting for passengers to go to central Dublin. It cost €3 per person and they took credit cards. It dropped us off near Connolly Station if I remember correctly. After taking an Uber, we ultimately arrived at our hotel (Holiday Inn Express Dublin City Centre, highly recommended).
Would I take the train/ferry combo again from London to Dublin? Absolutely not. I’m not upset that we did it this time, as we saw some nice scenery on the train as well as an amazing rainbow from the ferry. In all, our travels took us over twelve hours and obviously it would have been much faster to fly. But, it was a new experience and so I’m okay with having chosen this journey.