Going to Holland at end of April by ferry - advice please.

AMO

Hi all,

I want to take the wife to go to Holland to see the tulip flowers in Holland.

Has anyone been - just looking for any advice people may have.

We're looking to go by ferry (any advantages on which port to go from in the UK and should we go straight to Amsterdam at the Holland side - we would be leaving our car here so we expect to take public transport).

Should we go by day and take advantage of the cheap ferries during daytime hours, or is that not worth it as there isn't much to do on the ferry and the sea gets boring after a while and the cost of the hotel on the other side when you arrive the more important factor.

Is the best place to see tulips in Amsterdam - flower shows etc? Or should we be planning to go to specific places?

We were thinking of around end of April - don't want to go too early as it's cold but leaving it until end of May will be when they are past their best?

Want to avoid any Easter / school holidays in Holland and UK.

Any feedback regarding parking in the UK, best ferry companies to travel with, best area to stay in in Amsterdam, what type of regular deals are good (Groupon hotels?). Anything we need to know about public transport and whether to book in advance?

Any days being in Holland not a good idea? For example, when we went to Prague, we found out that few spoke English at the time, that there was a concept of shared taxis called shuttle busses and that I think the tubes cost was by time rather than distance (although I may have gotten mixed up with another country).

Thanks,

AMO

Grumpelstiltskin

For flowers you need to go here.


http://www.keukenhof.nl/


Everyone speaks English, you need to check exactly where ferry lands, you will need to get into Amsterdam.

dzug1

Where are you starting from? You don't want to travel miles out of your way to get the ferry.


Taking your car might well be easiest.

AMO

dzug1 wrote: »

Where are you starting from? You don't want to travel miles out of your way to get the ferry.


Taking your car might well be easiest.

Thanks. We're from Leicester, so we can go in any direction to catch the ferry. Not comfortable driving in a foreign land so want to either drive to UK port and leave car there or take train to get there.

Any suggestions as to which port to go from / best for parking / best ferry company would be appreciated!

totallybored

AMO wrote: »

Thanks. We're from Leicester, so we can go in any direction to catch the ferry. Not comfortable driving in a foreign land so want to either drive to UK port and leave car there or take train to get there.

Any suggestions as to which port to go from / best for parking / best ferry company would be appreciated!

I'd give it a go driving. I'm also thinking do driving to Holland at Easter and I'm a bit unsure of where to go.

I've just done my first drive in Europeland this week, I drove up to Bruges from Calais and it was so easy. I wish I'd done it sooner. My sat nav didn't have my street location but I managed with a couple of google map print outs. Roads are all clearly located and I found it less stressful than driving in an unknown city in the UK.

A bonus of having your car is that you can buy as much as you want to bring back. I bought loads of Belgian beer :beer:

Alan_Bowen

If you do not want to drive, then stay in Amsterdam and take the train to Leiden and the connecting bus 854 to the Keukenhof Gardens, they are truly spectacular but like a lot of the Netherlands, when the wind blows, it is absolutely freezing. We went around the first week in May and although we had very little rain, we were frozen and the gardens were past their peak. Easter is very late this year so you might want to think of going before Easter, as I suspect with the level of rain we have had this year, the season may be earlier than normal


From Leicester you can buy a rail/sail combination via Harwich with a train connection to Amsterdam or compare the price of flying from east Midlands or Birmingham airports, barely an hour as opposed to a very long day via ferry. Having said that the ferries from Harwich are brand new and you find videos of the facilities either on the Stena Line website or youtube

pompeyrich

totallybored wrote: »

I'd give it a go driving. I'm also thinking do driving to Holland at Easter and I'm a bit unsure of where to go.

I've just done my first drive in Europeland this week, I drove up to Bruges from Calais and it was so easy. I wish I'd done it sooner. My sat nav didn't have my street location but I managed with a couple of google map print outs. Roads are all clearly located and I found it less stressful than driving in an unknown city in the UK.

A bonus of having your car is that you can buy as much as you want to bring back. I bought loads of Belgian beer :beer:

Sorry to semi-hijack the thread but glad to see you had a good trip, remembered you from the Dover-Calais thread.

It is a bit daunting the first time but once done it does become a bit addictive.

sjg666

Me and my other half go to Holland every year (Sun Holiday to Duinrell which is fantastic!)... we usually drive as it is very straightforward and easy to get around once there. We get a DFDS ferry (lovely ships and very reasonably priced) and take the Dover to Dunkirk route - going to Dunkirk rather than Dover just puts you slightly further round the coastline if you did decide to drive.

We drove into Amsterdam once and parked by the Heineken Museum (so we knew how to find the car again!) which was pretty expensive, but I had read that it would be so was prepared for that. I think they use trams in Amsterdam which would most probably be easier and cheaper than driving in that particular city.

The first year we did the trip I booked an LD Lines ferry which went direct to Hook of Holland and it was really very expensive and the ship was horrid, not even the truckers using it (which was most of the passengers) looked happy!

Tarry

pompeyrich wrote: »

Sorry to semi-hijack the thread but glad to see you had a good trip, remembered you from the Dover-Calais thread.

It is a bit daunting the first time but once done it does become a bit addictive.

Very true.

martindow

Seat 61 is a good site for info on ferry and international rail travel. This page has details of the Dutch Flyer tickets which include rail journeys from anywhere in the Greater Anglia system to any station in Holland.

http://www.seat61.com/Netherlands.htm

FluffyFiFi

We did the DFDS ferry to Hook of Holland and it was great, did it overnight and the cabin was really comfortable. It wasn't that expensive and it really would be better to take the car if you can. The roads are very easy and people are friendly.