Driving to amsterdam- help with ferry and driving

paja

I will be driving to almere which is 25miles NE of Amsterdam, in Mid Feb. I need help advice on a couple of things.
Firstly i have looked at PO ferry leaving mid day saturday and returning to UK early afternoon and this will be £70. similar times with eurotunnel is £100. are there any codes etc which will allow me to get them cheaper or another way to get them cheaper?

Secondly, how long will it take me to drive from Calais to amsterdam,. it is approx 200mile which on our roads would be around 3-4hours. how much time should i allow for this drive and is the fuel cheaper in france or holland compared to here.

If anyone has been to almere can you recomend anywher to stay/eat.

Also is it worth stopping at any hypermarkets on route :beer:

thanks for your help

cheekymole

Fuel i.e. petrol is not much cheaper anymore although diesel still is quite a lot cheaper over there

paja

thanks. what price is diesel over there? i pay between 89 and 91p/ltr

cheekymole

About 69-75p per litre when I was in France before xmas

black-saturn

You can have a 3 night break in Holland with travelscope for much cheaper than this. We only pad £99 each and we had a coach from our doorstep, ferry crossing and 3 nights b&b for that.

http://www.travelscope.co.uk/holland.html

cundall

EuroTunnel can be about 34 pounds. What you need is a french address and a uk address, book a same day return from the uk and use just one leg and then the same from french side. In July / august it cost 40 pounds one way and 40 euros on the way back where as if i had booked it for the days i wanted it would 180 pounds just one way.

How it works you use the uk address for leaving the uk and the french address for leaving france. I did it and it worked with no problems.

Bob_the_Builder_5

Once you get onto the Belgian motorway network, it hardly takes any time at all.

Have you considered going by P&O from Hull?

http://www.poferries.com/portal/page?_pageid=1613,277685&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&ph=www.poferries.com&p_menu_id=10&p_lang=GB&p_country=GB

TerryTowelling_2

https://www.speedferries.com are about the cheapest ferry around, Dover to Boulogne, and then it's a 4.5hr drive give or take to get you to Almere, though watch out for the grey speedcameras in Holland, especially around cities where the speedlimit is often 100km/h. To cut the drive down you can check out Norfolkline from Dover to Dunkerque in Belgium for prices. shortest drive is stenaline from harwich but soooo expensive.

If you take the Antwerp ringroad clockwise coming up from Gent then there's a 4euro toll, but not if you go anti-clockwise.

diesel in Holland is around 65p per litre, so stock up before heading back. It's a few pence more in France.

It's always worth buying some cheap wine before heading to the uk. In supermarkets in Holland stuff like Hardy's VR are normally only 4-5euros a bottle, similar to the Calais wine-markets.

billy_the_kid_2

Another word of warning. In towns be very vigalent for cyclists. They will come out of nowhere all the time and will not give way to cars. If you hit them it is always your fault in the Netherlands.

paulie558

Having driven through Dam Square in Amsterdam at 5o'clock on a friday night I can second that!
8 lines of cyclists one side of me,an unrelenting tram the other,my little 306 in the middle.
Eeek!Came out of it ok though.

billy_the_kid wrote:

Another word of warning. In towns be very vigalent for cyclists. They will come out of nowhere all the time and will not give way to cars. If you hit them it is always your fault in the Netherlands.

LB1985

TerryTowelling wrote:

https://www.speedferries.comcheck out Norfolkline from Dover to Dunkerque in Belgium

Just to be pedantic, Dunkerque is France, not Belgium.

Another option, which would probably minimise driving, is taking Stena Line from Harwich to Hook of Holland. The only thing is when we travelled on their HSS (High-Speed Sea Service) years back, it was quite expensive, although this was in peak summer.