Travel things [trip to North UK]

[Slammer]

Amma trying to plan a trip to the UK in September. The big plan is to take the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle then up to Aberdeen and the ferry to the Shetlands.
It´s a good plan.
The only problem is that the ferry from A to N is at around 600 E´s freakishly expensive.
Next one down is to Hull, but even that is around 500.
Quite a bit further down is Harwich and below that Dover. Affordable, but then with fuel and overnight costs you are back in to A to N prices.
So looks like it is not going to happen, because even if I did cough up I would be bitching about the cost until January.
So how do y´all get back to the UK by motor?

[Robinson100]

Not sure if you have seen this site:

https://www.dfds.com/en/passenger-ferri ... -newcastle

Maybe you should consider travelling at a different time of year or something?

[Auntie Helen]

We toured Scotland last year in June and booked early enough that the Newcastle ferry was a fair price.

I made the mistake of not booking the return ferry which then increased to £800ish so we took the Harwich to Hoek van Holland route which was about £300 for the overnight crossing (and an extra 5 hours of driving).

We use the Harwich crossing 4-5 times a year and find it good value for money.

[Slammer]

Not sure if you have seen this site:

https://www.dfds.com/en/passenger-ferri ... -newcastle

Maybe you should consider travelling at a different time of year or something?

Can´t, had to do the holiday thing a year in advance. Hate that by the way.

[hh-sailor]

Are you travelling in a van or a passenger car ?

A van could allow you to travel on a freight ship (max 12 passengers on the ship).

See https://www.freightlink.co.uk/

HTH

[kiplette]

We have also done rail/ferry and then hired a car. It was done out of desperation because the car bust and hiring a car to go across the water is difficult and expensive.

On selected days in September you could get a cabin for 180 quid (rob's link) and hire a Ford Focus for a week with unlimited mileage for about 120 from Newcastle (I looked on skyscanner), but some days the ferry is a lot more, and driving a hire car is not everyone's cup of tea.

Fly and hire might be your cheapest option.

The ferries are great for the south, and crap for the north. The routes are super but the prices are bonkers.

[Fietsrad]

Prices keep changing, I would take a chance and try booking a few days before travel, the price might be lower then, especially if you have a choice of routes

One imagines that the gigantic ferries are rarely near full, so late booking might be cheaper

[Slammer]

that is what I have done up until now. Just have to remain flexible.