Ferry Advice to Ireland

[goorwich]

Advice please on ferry to Ireland .
I live in London,looked on internet and found Pembroke to Rosslare ,car +2 passengers £299 , 21 July return 26 July.
Is that price about right for these dates ?
Then driving to Kinsale.
Anybody done similar trip ?

[ChrisBMW]

That sounds about right, trouble is the company who provide this service have a monopoly on this route, we get equally screwed travelling from here to England or Scotland.

[goorwich]

ChrisBMW said:

That sounds about right, trouble is the company who provide this service have a monopoly on this route, we get equally screwed travelling from here to England or Scotland.

Thanks for the advice.
Well they've lost my business. Return flights to Cork for two are £90.
I can't justify the ferry price.

[stu67]

My parents live in Co Wexford so do the journey quite a bit, the ferry prices are a right con, it's only really pays to go by ferry if for a couple of weeks. To be honest I don't know how the 2 ferry companies get away with it, in that they are always within a couple of pounds of one another. The airlines are a lot cheaper

[goorwich]

I must say that I have always wanted to visit Ireland.
I was looking forward to driving my car thru the beautiful countryside.
Still there's still the craic,the Guiness and the food ,what's not to like.

[plasticpig]

ChrisBMW said:

That sounds about right, trouble is the company who provide this service have a monopoly on this route, we get equally screwed travelling from here to England or Scotland.

No they don't. Stena go from Fishguard to Rosslare.

[acd80]

The end of July is probably the most expensive time to travel over on the ferry with a car. Being from Southern Ireland but living in Swansea, I've done the trip around 2/3 times a year for the past 12 years or so and have traveled from both South and North Wales ferryports. I've only traveled with Irish Ferries once-every other time has been with Stena. Make of that what you want....

I've just come back from a week in Ireland visiting family and friends (Westmeath & Galway). I traveled from Fishguard with the missus and upgraded to Premier (fully recommend it and I do it everytime now) and it cost me £216-I could've got it for about £150 in total without the Premier lounge (priority embarkation, lounge including free drinks, snacks, papers and wifi, and most importantly, priority disembarkation so I can get the feck out of Rosslare on the single lane roads before everyone else!). Top tip-watch out for the cops in South West Wales though as they are utter arseholes for pulling you over for going slightly over the limit.

Yes it is more expensive than flying (which I do every 2 months or so) but by the time you add up luggage costs, car-parking in the airport, hire-cars etc, it soon balances itself out if you're traveling for more than a couple of nights plus I get to load the car up with chef sauce, taytos, barry teabags and clonakility black & white pudding!

This may be of use to the OP/anyone else.... http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/book-now/30-perce...

[Kinky]

acd80 said:

This may be of use to the OP/anyone else.... http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/book-now/30-perce...

That's worthy of PH post of the week

[goorwich]

Thank you acd80.
That's a very helpful and comprehensive post.

[acd80]

goorwich said:

Thank you acd80.
That's a very helpful and comprehensive post.

No worries-I've had tons of helpful tips on here. Spookily enough, I've just had another email from Stena offering me the 30% off deal!

[oldmanbm]

Me too thank goodness! Nearly gave £110 more last night!

[jfbrin]

acd80 said:

The end of July is probably the most expensive time to travel over on the ferry with a car. Being from Southern Ireland but living in Swansea, I've done the trip around 2/3 times a year for the past 12 years or so and have traveled from both South and North Wales ferryports. I've only traveled with Irish Ferries once-every other time has been with Stena. Make of that what you want....

I've just come back from a week in Ireland visiting family and friends (Westmeath & Galway). I traveled from Fishguard with the missus and upgraded to Premier (fully recommend it and I do it everytime now) and it cost me £216-I could've got it for about £150 in total without the Premier lounge (priority embarkation, lounge including free drinks, snacks, papers and wifi, and most importantly, priority disembarkation so I can get the feck out of Rosslare on the single lane roads before everyone else!). Top tip-watch out for the cops in South West Wales though as they are utter arseholes for pulling you over for going slightly over the limit.

Yes it is more expensive than flying (which I do every 2 months or so) but by the time you add up luggage costs, car-parking in the airport, hire-cars etc, it soon balances itself out if you're traveling for more than a couple of nights plus I get to load the car up with chef sauce, taytos, barry teabags and clonakility black & white pudding!

This may be of use to the OP/anyone else.... http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferry/book-now/30-perce...

I can second this entirely.
Only speeding fine I have had was for 80mph on dual carriageway at end of M4 heading for ferry.
Stena is simply better than Irish Ferries.
There is a price matching/fixing policy between the two as confirmed to me by a Stena staff member.
Premium definitely worth it every time.
The boot contents mentioned above are exactly my standard order plus Irish Potatoes and Dairy Milk chocolate which my kids maintain tastes different over there.
Roads are seriously quiet over there now with the recession - especially the motorways which have tolls.
Ryanair Flights to Knock and £20 per day for a decent hire car makes for a great value break. Stay in Wesport with better selection of restaurants than Kinsale. I recommend The Helm, great food, guinness and craic. No connection , just my experience.
http://www.thehelm.ie/westport-bar-and-restaurant
Hth.