Travelling to Belfast from London...

[youngestisapsycho]

Fly and hire car, or drive own car and take ferry? We like driving and could probably visit somewhere else along the way.. Me, DH and a 17 &13 yr old?

The drive to Hollyhead is quite long but if you can stop off for a visit in North Wales it will give you a break before the ferry. The drive from Dublin to Belfast is easy, I’ve done it up and back in a day to take the DC to the Titanic exhibition. I recommend stopping of at Carlingford for a night or two, either on the way up or the way back, it’s really pretty.

If you just want to get to Belfast then flying is the way, but if you want the journey to be part of your holiday then there’s plenty of interest on the road trip there and back.

We live in London and have family in NI, so so various trips every year

We only drive back at Christmas when we have a car full of presents, and it’s much more expensive and time-consuming that flying
We usually do London to Chester in around 4 hours, then visit family there
Then drive on to Holyhead (2 hours) and either cross straight away or stay in the Travelodge next to the port

Crossing to Dublin takes around 4-5 hours once you factor in the time getting on and off the boat, and then it’s around 1.5hrs to Belfast

The return ferry crossing is about £175 with a basic cabin
The Travelodge is about £40 so can be worth it to break up the journey

Flying is a lot cheaper and a LOT quicker
Car hire is around £80 for a week from either of the Belfast Airports

We're definitely going to drive... thanks for all the replies

@Trooperslaneagain the first time I was on a train I was 18, this horrified many people. It was 25 miles to the nearest station!

Just a reminder that if Brexit happens before your holiday you will probably need extra car insurance documentation to drive through RoI. Or something. Nobody really knows, one of the many, many things that nobody really knows about Brexit.

Looks as though we wont be doing the trip till next year anyway... hopefully Brexit will have been sorted out by then, but who knows!

Oh by next year Brexit will definitely be all sorted out, probably, maybe ... or, you know, not.

We do the trip fairly regularly. If a weekend we fly. If longer we ferry overnight from Liverpool to Belfast. There is a big retail outlet park just outside Liverpool so we stop there, do some shopping, have tea, then go to the ferry, go to bed.
We have also done a bit of a tour and did the ferry from Liverpool or holyhead to Dublin one way and come back Belfast to Liverpool.
With several of you the ferry can end up cheaper than flights and car hire