London to Belfast: a story in a great many ferries

[juliet]

I have just returned from a lovely weekend with doop's family (very early Xmas dinner! there were roast potatoes) in Belfast. During our very smooth return voyage (Belfast-Stranraer-Glasgow-London), it occurred to me that we are now expert in the various ways to get from London to Belfast overland. From there it was but a step to the conclusion that I should document this experience. Executive summary is below the table.

London-Belfast

Route	Route detail	Price (single)	Time	Epicness	Other notes
Holyhead/Dublin (overnight)	Train to Holyhead, ferry then bus to Dublin, train to Belfast	£42 RailSail	13h30 (overnight)	High. Lots of waiting around in Holyhead. On way out: sleep on nice-ish sofas on ferry & fairly comfortable seats on second train. On way back: hideous 4 hours on Holyhead station floor. NEVER AGAIN.	Daytime route might feel less epic (no need to attempt sleep) but probably even more boring. There is a pub near the station at Holyhead which was open till 2am last Thursday & had a 50p pool table. It also had karaoke in the other bar & someone throwing up in the Ladies, so, yes. Holyhead not the classiest of locations.
Cairnryan/Larne*	Train to Stranraer, cycle to Cairnryan, ferry to Larne	~£60??	~13h30	Moderately epic. V v v early (0539) start from Euston when we did it outbound (cheap train issues). Unsure of timing inbound; possibly also quite epic. Fair amount of waiting around.	Not sure they take foot passengers (also, 6mi from Stranraer station). Nice bike ride to Cairnryan, also a v nice cafe in Stranraer for lunch which mitigates the waiting around part.
Stranraer/Belfast	Train to Stranraer (change at Glasgow), ferry to Belfast	£46 daytime RailSail**, >£50*** overnight	12h daytime, 16h overnight (but mostly on sleeper)****	0539 start from Euston daytime on way out; otherwise all matches up well, pretty non-epic. Overnight coming back beautifully smooth. Trains overnight going out appear not to match very well. Ferry actually quite nice, ditto Belfast Port.	Technically haven't actually done this one outbound either daytime or overnight; but Cairnryan route is the same trains. Nice Italian cafe in Glasgow station available for the hour wait there on the daytime option; or there is time to find a Boots to buy a replacement Mooncup (just for example). Came back on the sleeper this time, and it was lovely. Ferry & train matched up beautifully; sleeper train a genuinely pleasant experience involving whisky in the lounge car.
Troon/Larne*	Train to Troon (change at Glasgow), ferry to Larne	??	9h returning	Trains don't join up with ferry v well, and very early start. Otherwise civilised.	Haven't done this Troon-Larne, only Larne-Troon. Only runs in the summer. No foot passengers, I think?

Notes:
* Endpoint for these is Larne, not Belfast. Train from Larne to Belfast Central is I think about an hour; they're not wildly frequent.
** I am *sure* this was a lot more expensive about 9 months ago, the last time I looked at this route.
*** £25 Glasgow-Belfast (RailSail). Then you need to buy the London-Glasgow leg, which if taking the Caledonian Sleeper is more complicated. IN THEORY you can get £19 bargain berth overnight sleeper tickets; in practice it's nearly impossible, although if you can be flexible about the dates, you can get £39-£49 singles. From £53.50 for an advance sleeper (£88 standard non-advance); from £25 for advance seated sleeper (£51.50 standard non-advance).
**** Add an hour for the journey between central Belfast & the port. I confess we got a lift on this occasion, but I believe there's a bus which is free to Stena passengers.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: I think if neither time nor money were a factor, my preference would be to go via Stranraer both ways, in the daytime on the way there & overnight on the way back. If time is a factor & money is available, overnight out via Holyhead and back via Stranraer is a reasonable compromise between cost/comfort/waiting around (avoids taking a day of leave just to travel, avoids the hideous overnight return via Holyhead, saves money on the outbound less-hideous Holyhead trip especially given that outbound overnight via Stranraer is fairly epic). If cash-poor but time-rich, daytime both ways via Stranraer is only £4 each way more expensive than Holyhead and way, way nicer (the only real disadvantage being the very early start from Euston). The Larne option was OK but a bit faffy.

Comments

[nanaya]

Wow, this is excellent, thank you. A. & I are doing a lot more planning for overland journeys in the future, bcos obv we don't want to fly unless we absolutely *have* to.

We think we've figured out a way that we could do the Trans-Siberian railway and get back within 3 weeks of leave! Woo!

[juliet]

[ counts on fingers ]

40 hrs each way London-Moscow. How far on the Trans-Sib were you thinking of going? 5 days each way to Beijing IIRC... could definitely work!

[nanaya]

We've considered a few options from Moscow. Via Ulan Batur is tempting.

How far? Well, all the way to Vladivostock of course!

[nanaya]

Oh, and A. has said no to Dushanbe. Which is disheartening because, for some reason, I've *always* wanted to go there.

[juliet]

That would be a v long way around, no? (Especially with only 3 weeks.)

Ulan Batur was cool! Although probably the best bit (for me) was going out to the national park a bit north & staying in a yurt, and you likely might not have time for that. I enjoyed Irkutsk & Lake Baikal (visitable in the 36 hrs between the Baikal train arriving & the next Ulan Bator train departing), as well.

No idea about Vladivostock, as I was off to Beijing instead. But if I went again, I would definitely go the Vladivostock route, and also try to take the branch line up to Siberia proper. That would be pretty time-consuming as well, though, and for that I really would need to get my Russian a bit further on.

eta: Mongolia, Siberia, Moscow.

[nanaya]

Ooh, very tempting - we were definitely thinking of breaking at Irkutsk as well.

Sadly, we've been having no luck in finding any easy way from Sakhalin to Hokkaido; it's a bit politically sensitive, and A. thinks any businesses which do cross the straits may not have web presence, so we're thinking of contacting the relevant consulates.

All for the future, of course.

[nanaya]

We think we could technically get to Vladivostock & back in about 20 days, although that would be almost entirely train-bound. But if we can't get more than 3 weeks off, it'd still be possible, which is nice.

[phoenix]

It sounds like we nearly crossed paths! I was in Stranraer for the week, took the train back to Glasgow yesterday (with a change at Ayr) and flew home to Dublin from there. (Will be writing about this and the related excitement soon.)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Endpoint for these is Larne, not Belfast

Datapoint - Larne is an absolute dump, though some of the surrounding countryside is quite nice. My ex-husband's family come from Larne.

[juliet]

Yeah; d's family live on Islandmagee (and his gran lives in Larne), so it's convenient for our purposes. Especially if we have the bikes & can cycle the remaining 12mi (easier than riding from Belfast).

If actually heading for Belfast it's probably not worth the faff.

[uon.livejournal.com]

Larne is actually much, much nicer than it was a decade or so ago. There's been a lot of new development and it seems quite thriving. Carrickfergus, on the other hand, is apparently a wasteland these days..

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

YOU HAVE EARWORMED ME WITH A BAD SONG!

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, it was probably about a decade ago that I was last there!

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Dublin -> Holyhead is *much* more civilised during the day. You can get a cat instead of a big ferry, so it's a <2hr crossing, and the trains at the other end are pretty sensible. Also, depending on where you're coming from, you can get a ferry from Dún Laoghaire, which is small and civilised and truck-free. I hate the cycle ride into Dublin ferryport.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

They give you a cat!?

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the cat is a LYNX!

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

TELL ME MOAR

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

THIS LYNX

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

It's good, but it'd be better if it had some pointy 'ears' on top of the prow, or something.

[juliet]

I think the faff-factor definitely depends on where you're headed to/from in the end. For Belfast, the train options are v limited (3 a day, or something?) which lengthens the whole journey. But useful to know that trains are better behaved on the UK-mainland-side in that direction.

We haven't had the bikes with when we've gone via Holyhead, either time.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Some of us wish to reduce our carbon hoofprint.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Almost nothing's carbon-neutral, especially when it comes to travel. But I love trains anyway, so being on long train journeys is an idea I welcome.

If you genuinely believe climate change is a hoax, there's probably not much point in us discussing it; that's an idiocy red flag for me so I don't bother, I'm pretty sure we would be unable to communicate in language that we would both make sense of, so it's probably best that we don't annoy each other by doing so. The last thing I'm interested in doing is confirming you in your beliefs.

So, on a different topic, nice goats. Goats are awesome.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Well, sheep are good too. I'm not sure which I prefer, they're both lovely.

Look! A goat AND a sheep, together in perfect harmony.

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

This is fascinatng and useful (given that for various friend/work and lover-related reasons I've been investigating rail/sail options. ) Thankyou!

[juliet]

The whole rail/sail ticket thing is really amazingly good value.

Glad to be of assistance!