Harwich to Hook of Holland on Stena Line

Waiting to get through passport control

Our method of getting into Europe barely features on this blog, but on this trip we've traveled into Europe via an alternate ferry crossing which is new to us - Harwich to Hook of Holland. We often wish we lived further South, since the 280 mile drive to Calais seems to drag on for eternity. Our usual routine would be to drive down after work for a late evening crossing and then sleep overnight at the ticket office in Calais on the docks or on occasion, the Calais aire. We're not a big fan of this method, nor of the drive out of industrial Calais, but its a means to an end - a gateway to mainland Europe.

The drive to Harwich was over an hour and 60 miles less than our usual trip to Dover, we decided to ignore advice to take the M11; we instead took the A14 which was a wonderfully scenic route and dual carriageway all the way. Arriving at the port in good time no sooner had we seen Hollandica arrive we were waved through passport control at roughly 7:30. I say waved through, a couple in their 20's in a motorhome can't look right and so it was no suprise when we were pulled in for the obligatory search. This is so routine for us now we must pass the attitude test because the customs officer only looked in the wardrobe and we were waved on our way.

Harwich port is much smaller than Dover, with a passenger train line running straight through the middle of it. It's a little strange having your ascent onto the ferry halted by a train but I suspect this is the norm for those who travel this route often. Hollandica was launched in 2010 along with her sister ship Britannica and is one of the worlds largest super ferries, carrying upto 230 cars, 300 freight vehicles and 1200 passengers. It has 1,376 beds on board in 538 cabins and is comparable in size to P&O's Spirit of Britain / France but I have to say far more luxurious.

Climbing the stairs to deck 10 where our room was located, there wasn't any of the usual stampede, lots of helpful crew were present assisting people to find their destinations. Our room, number 111, was a Comfort Class Cabin air-conditioned room with a window. This is an upgrade over the standard £39.00 cabin coming in at £90.00 each way. The room consists of a double and single bed, large walk in shower room and the pièce de résistance... a free (ok, included in the price) Mini Bar! Two Heineken, two small Blossom Hill red and two of white, plus orange and water. I'm pleased to say the wine didn't exit the room in our hand luggage, but the beer did exit the room in me! There was also a TV which linked to cameras on the ship so you could see outside as well as a channel dedicated to the pet quarters so you could keep an eye on your pampered pooch.

 

By the time we had boarded, checked in and visited our room it was nearly 10pm so we made a bee-line for the restaurant where we had reservations in The Metropolitan Restaurant which can be booked online at the time of your crossing. There is plenty on offer in terms of eating, including the Taste buffet restaurant, Barista Bar and Riva Bar. The atmosphere throughout seemed very relaxed and orderly.


There were a number of menu's to choose from and we could mix and

match between them. Some dishes were at a premium (charged in Euros) to the pre-booked price of £29.00 per persion which also includes breakfast. We opted for Salmon and Crab with rye bread and Antipasti followed by an amazing Rib Eye steak each. For pudding I went for Creme Brule, Sophie was getting a little full by this point so opted for the simple Strawberry's and Ice Cream. The meal and the service was excellent and all of this was taking place while the ship was still docked in Harwich, so even if the sea had been rough (it wasn't, it was like a mill pond) this wouldn't have spoilt the enjoyment. We opted for a bottle of wine and as we didn't manage to finish it we were encouraged to take it back to our room.

What surprised us most about the ship was the amount of outside space available to use, which includes an enclosed basketball pitch and a Sundeck Bar area. There was also a dedicated quiet zone at the other end of the ship which seemed very chilled out, great if you just want to relax for the evening. If you are looking for entertainment however, there is a cinema on board with all the latest movies on offer.

Before we realised it, it was midnight - which means it was in fact 1am local time! With a wake up call due at 6:30am that didn't leave much time for any shut eye and so we got our heads down in a comfortable bed soon after that.



I challenge anyone to sleep through the wake up call tannoy at 6:30am, but it certainly did its job in stiring (and perhaps shaking us) awake and into the buffet breakfast queue. There was plenty of food on offer including full cooked English or Continental breakfast, fresh coffee and juices and what appeared to be unlimited refills. Perhaps the highlight of the trip for us was sitting bow of the boat, eating our breakfast as we arrived at the Hook of Holland.

Departure is at 7:45 local time and after grabbing our luggage from the room and resisting temptation to raid the mini bar we were off the ramp and through passport control.

Departing into a leafy suburb, it couldn't be more detached from Calais. We worked out that this route shaved off 125 miles off our journey and probably 2.5-3 hours given that we avoided the M25 at rush hour. Topping up with Diesel at 1.39 (about 1.29 a litre) and getting our Euros from a cash point we hit the motorway and headed for our first stop, Munich.

Sunrise from our cabin

Our two week mini tour, we're so not ready!

For two weeks only, EuropeByCamper will be back on the road. Destination still to be confirmed, but our method of getting to Europe on this trip won’t be the conventional one for motorhomers.

Dover? Tunnel? Nope. We’re going Harwich to the Hook of Holland!

One of the perks of having a travel blog is that on occasions you get approached by third parties who offer their products or services in exchange for a (hopefully favourable) write up. We were approached by Stenna Line earlier in the year who asked us if we’d like to travel on the Harwich to Hook of Holland crossing. This is something we hadn't considered previously, but given our northern location it has clear benefits. Usually, by the time we’ve driven almost 300 miles to Dover, the thought of then driving through France for a further 1-200 miles doesn't really appeal and so we end up sleeping near the terminal in Calais. 

What we think we’ll like about Stenna Line is that we rock up in Harwich at 9pm, hopefully board fairly quickly and then make our way straight to the restaurant. Relax on-board for a few hours, before retiring to our cabin where I am told there is a good chance of there being a Mini Bar, which may or may not add bias to our review! Departing fresh into The Netherlands means we should be ready to tackle 4-500 miles of Germanys finest Autobahns and hopefully arrive at our destination in early evening. It’s all sounding good so far.

We’ll be taking with us lots of new things to try, one of those is a collapsible table Argos have sent  us to review from their new camping section and also our Cadac Safari Chef. Phil at Rhino Installs was too busy to fit us a Gas BBQ point before we left (although, I did only ask him on Saturday!) and so we’ll be using little gas bottles until we get back. Somehow we've managed to find time to fit our laptop based dashboard dock into the new van and we'll be using a combination of Autoroute 2013 and Garmin nRoute using OpenMaps offline downloads to navigate, plus a GPS tracker for those who worry too much back home. I must do a video about this soon!

We'll also be posting lots of updates via Instagram, which coupled with its new 15 second video recording could make for some interesting sneek previews between blog posts but you can also catch up with us on Facebook.

The remainder of equipment on test will be some of our own products from Motorhome WiFi which are in their final testing stages and will be ready to launch upon our return. If we can’t stay connected, nobody can!

Going on holiday when you run your own non-digital business is certainly daunting. We’ve set two dispatch dates on our website and promised ourselves we won’t be glued to our e-mails, but instead ‘check-in’ to them every day or so. Only time will tell how customers react to this but hopefully they’ll understand that we all need a break sometimes.

We get back and then head straight off to the Malvern Motorhome Show which is promising to be a good one if last year is anything to go by. If you've not been to such an event before, I’d recommend going as this one is by far the most fun and there is bound to be lots of motorhome accessories and parts on offer. 

Its all a bit of a blur at the moment and I don't mind saying that we're not really looking forward to it at the moment, but I'm sure once we hit the road everything will fall into place. Watch this space!