Harwich to the hook

[Ads86]

Hi all

Leaving the UK again this weekend, sailing from Harwich to the hook of Holland on Sunday. Has anybody done this trip recently with any advice?

Any place recommendations to stay would be great. Either side of the water. Heading towards Amsterdam and hamburg after the boat to see friends then down through Germany towards Austria and ending up in Italy for a couple of months. Then driving home for Christmas.

Cheers

 

[Leith Laddie]

We are booked on the 9am sailing on Sunday Harwich to Hook of Holland. Hoping for a smooth crossing following on from a rough crossing on the Bay of Biscay last year. If your on the same boat, we are travelling in our Elddis Autoquest 196 to the Baltic States. Bon voyage!

 

[Hils and Glenns]

If you're going on Stena it might be worth joining their club on line for good offers in their duty free shop.

Extra | Ferry Travel Loyalty Club | Stena Line

If you’re a regular traveller with Stena Line you can make big savings and enjoy exclusive member offers by joining our Extra Loyalty Club. Sign up now for free!

www.stenaline.co.uk

You can stay on the roadside in Harwich and there . We stayed here at the Hook https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/markerMobile.php?id=38136

 

[meanders]

Not been for I think 4 years. Give yourself plenty of time to get from the A12 at Colchester or Ipswich and Manningtree to Parkeston Quay, as the last few miles can be very slow. Crossing itself is usually very good. Usual services on the ferry and the food has varied from awful to excellent. Take care coming off the other side as it's easy to end up on the wrong side of the road until you pick up the A20 after which it's a doddle.

 

[Astranomicalblue]

Sailed from Harwich 3 weeks ago, stayed the night before onHarbour Cresent, near the redoubt fort, lovely peaceful night, no problems. Macy’s in the morning for breakfast then onto ferry. As somebody else said get yourself a Stenna loyalty card.

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[Ads86]

We are booked on the 9am sailing on Sunday Harwich to Hook of Holland. Hoping for a smooth crossing following on from a rough crossing on the Bay of Biscay last year. If your on the same boat, we are travelling in our Elddis Autoquest 196 to the Baltic States. Bon voyage!

That's the boat we are on. I'll come say hello if I see you. Here's hoping for a duck pond on the crossing!

 

[Ads86]

If you're going on Stena it might be worth joining their club on line for good offers in their duty free shop.

Extra | Ferry Travel Loyalty Club | Stena Line

If you’re a regular traveller with Stena Line you can make big savings and enjoy exclusive member offers by joining our Extra Loyalty Club. Sign up now for free!

www.stenaline.co.uk

You can stay on the roadside in Harwich and there . We stayed here at the Hook https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/markerMobile.php?id=38136

Just signed up, thanks for the recommendation

 

[Eddieb]

Done the crossing a year ago and paid a wee bit extra for the Captains cabin deal - well worth the money with separate bedroom, lounge and ensuite shower and toilet. Free wine and snacks made the crossing very comfortable.

 

[MisterB]

Harbour crescent is prob quieter than the ferry port itself and about ten minutes to the port. Mistley/Manningtree is about 30 mins away and you can park right alongside the river but there are lots of geese likely to ensure you wake up early lol!

 

[PB2019]

Hi all

Leaving the UK again this weekend, sailing from Harwich to the hook of Holland on Sunday. Has anybody done this trip recently with any advice?

Any place recommendations to stay would be great. Either side of the water. Heading towards Amsterdam and hamburg after the boat to see friends then down through Germany towards Austria and ending up in Italy for a couple of months. Then driving home for Christmas.

Cheers

We crossed on the 24th April day crossing stayed at the port the night before no issues there. When we landed in The Netherlands 17.15 local time in the rain which made navigating Rotterdam interesting.
We stayed at www.campingophoopvanzegen.nl/ approx 45 mins from the port. It’s on search 4 sites

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[Speve]

Hi all

Leaving the UK again this weekend, sailing from Harwich to the hook of Holland on Sunday. Has anybody done this trip recently with any advice?

Any place recommendations to stay would be great. Either side of the water. Heading towards Amsterdam and hamburg after the boat to see friends then down through Germany towards Austria and ending up in Italy for a couple of months. Then driving home for Christmas.

Cheers

Hope you have a visa if you are staying that long as you are only allowed 90 days in Schengen area

 

[brynric]

We're crossing on the Saturday night and heading for Poland. We usually cross on the Tunnel so this is quite different. Hopefully with a cabin and meals it will feel a bit more like a cruise..... A 12 hour one.
We will look up the loyalty club but we've only travelled on Stena about 3 times in the last 5 years.

 

[Bailey58]

You've had all the advice on parking and the ship in general but as you're going to Amsterdam I would continue north and stay on the A7 and cross the Afsluitdijk before heading to Hamburg, very scenic and there's viewpoints and a halfway stop for coffee.

 

[Ads86]

You've had all the advice on parking and the ship in general but as you're going to Amsterdam I would continue north and stay on the A7 and cross the Afsluitdijk before heading to Hamburg, very scenic and there's viewpoints and a halfway stop for coffee.

View attachment 1056630

I like this idea. Do you know if it's mostly toll roads on the main routes in Holland? Or the Netherlands as a whole?

 

[Brains]

We are regulars on this crossing.
We usually take the night boat, so when you arrive at 8am, once you have cleared customs you can be well into Germany by lunchtime.

We usually stay first night &/or last night at Delfsehout campsite which is within half a mile walk of central Delft and 40mins from the ferry.
(You can also park motorhomes on the street outside the campsite if you are not staying the night.)

We also do do our first/last shopping at Albert Heijn which is 100m from the ferry terminal, car park will take motorhomes.

Getting on the ship, you queue in lanes. There is a reception with loo's, and a vending machine.
You will be told to switch off your gas.

I would also disable your alarm and tracker and immobiliser, as we have found it thinks the vehicle has been moved without the engine being on, and so activates. The problem is there is very little signal inside a ship, so it can take a while to deactivate the immobiliser whilst the people behind you are unable to move ....

Once you get off the ship, you will be directed into a queue, there are 4 lanes, those on the right are for EU passports and move faster.
We have found it best to be in the left hand lane, as you have a view over the port whilst you are waiting, which can take an hour or more.

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[brynric]

Once you get off the ship, you will be directed into a queue, there are 4 lanes, those on the right are for EU passports and move faster.

What about one of each?

 

[Brains]

Once you get off the ship, you will be directed into a queue, there are 4 lanes, those on the right are for EU passports and move faster.

What about one of each?

No idea!

Maybe best to have the driver as the one with the EU passport
And the non-driver walks through one of the other booths with the cyclists and motorcyclists.

I think the normal layout is

Lanes 1 (sea side) & lane 2 UK passports
Lane 3 Cyclists and motorcyclists
Lane 4 EU passports.

But I guess they simply reconfigure the booth depending on who is waiting.
Last time we went out there must have been well over 100 cycles and motorcycles.

 

[JnJ]

I like this idea. Do you know if it's mostly toll roads on the main routes in Holland? Or the Netherlands as a whole?

No toll roads in Netherlands other than the Westershelde tunnel( bottom western corner) heading down into Belgium.

 

[Brains]

No toll roads in Netherlands other than the Westershelde tunnel( bottom western corner) heading down into Belgium.

• Westershelde Tunnel
• The Kilt tunnel
• And the most relevant, A24 tunnel

Which is the first (westernmost) crossing of the Rhein,
from Hook of Holland is just down the road and the logical route if you are heading south.

 

[Bailey58]

I like this idea. Do you know if it's mostly toll roads on the main routes in Holland? Or the Netherlands as a whole?

We've travelled to Denmark via The Hook many a time and never seen a toll road in the Netherlands. We usually avoid Hamburg because of the roadworks, ongoing from time immemorial but supposedly finished in 25/26. The new tunnel under the Elbe is an improvement and lorries are banned on a Sunday apparently but we always crossed the Elbe further north at Wischafen. That won't bother you if heading for Hamburg anyway so ignore all I said after the first sentence!

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[Buddy1012]

Hi all

Leaving the UK again this weekend, sailing from Harwich to the hook of Holland on Sunday. Has anybody done this trip recently with any advice?

Any place recommendations to stay would be great. Either side of the water. Heading towards Amsterdam and hamburg after the boat to see friends then down through Germany towards Austria and ending up in Italy for a couple of months. Then driving home for Christmas.

Cheers

Done this at least once a year in both directions - a great overnight stay (or longer possibly) just before the German border near Venlo so about 100 mile or so from the port is a place called Grubbenvorst (Camperplaats Kompass) It’s a working farm with a really tidy, well kept set up for motorhomes with EHU, water & waste - Free eggs as I recall and a short walk to a lovely village with shops, pubs & a couple of restaurants. Great start or finish to a road trip.

 

[NobodySpecial]

We do Harwich to Hook of Holland every year. We take the night sailing at 11pm from Harwich.
I produce a 24 page travel itinerary for our holiday (A little wandering bird saw at a show earlier this year and said "You are the most organised person I have ever seen. I think I need to hire you !").

We travel to Leipzig every year.

Anyway, without further ado.

You'll be arriving at HoH at 8 am GMT, 9am local time
We drive to Hanover : 285 miles. At 55mph that's 5 hrs 10 mins no stops. I add 3 hrs float for traffic and rest breaks, making it 8hrs 10 mins. ETA 17.30 pm. Last year we arrived at 17.28pm and stay at Campingplatz Birkensee. There was a great dine in Mexican restaurant called Mexcal Laatzen down the road and the food last year was excellent.

The following day we head to Leipzig from Hanover. 180 miles. 3hr 16m @ 55 mph no stops. +2 hours float = 5hr 16 mins. ETA 12.15pm. We arrived 12.30pm. We go to a special event where we join a queue and get to park in an exhibition centre. We do book a campsite too as a fall back in case the queue is too full to get in to the exhibition centre. We use Knaus Campingpark Leipzig who are very well provisioned.

Last year on our return we went from Leipzig to the Netherlands and stayed at Huttopia De Veluwe in Kootwijk. Journey was 374 miles from Leipzig. 6hrs 48m no stops, but added 3hrs 30 mins for float so a total of 10 hrs, 18 mins. ETA 17.30 pm. We arrived at 17.15 pm.

Day after that was 86 miles to HOH and we were there in 2 hrs.

Previous years we would go Calais, then in to Belgium, and then the A67 in to Germany which becomes the 40 at Venlo. We've stayed at the Blaue Lagune in Venlo many times and it's a great site. We then hookup with the 44 from West to East Germany and usually stay outside Kassel at a place called Guxhagen @ Camping Fuldaschleife. It's a peaceful and quiet site with a little restaurant and excellent beer.

But in recent years, we'd found Essen and Dortmund to be really traffic heavy and now we avoid that route as much as possible.

We've found taking the northern west to east route, coming in from HoH, the going east to Hanover then down to Magdeburg then Leipzig, less intense for traffic. Plus as others have wisely said, with a nighttime sailing you get to HoH at 8am/9am, fresh from a sleep (if you can manage it on the boat), raring and ready to go. You can then motor a whole day ahead and really get quite far.

We're doing the route again in a few weeks time, and fingers crossed, our first camper, after hiring moho's for over 10 years ! In theory our camper arrives tomorrow to the dealer

This year we're not going to try and do so much milage every day. In a hired vehicle you might push the envelope (because daily hire), but now we can take a leisurely drive across Germany (200miles a day limit). See more campsites, See more attractions, See more Germany. There's a group of alternative artists who run a womo park we'd like to catch up with this year