Best way of getting to Ireland from England?

[Wintermoonandstars]

Anyone want to share ideas?

There just doesn’t seem a cost effective way of doing this, either you pay a huge amount for the ferry or you have to pay for car hire … wondering what others do?

Which part of Ireland are you trying to get to? Makes a huge difference!

Also where are you starting from in the UK? Also makes a difference to my answer.

Flights or ferry are your options

Where to/from? how many people? Do you need a car there? we take the ferry as it works out more cost effective. Usually we are on the motorbike these days which are cheaper

Fly or boat. That's it.

Thanks. (I know it’s fly or boat, by the way 😂 we don’t have a tunnel!)

We are East Midlands do not near the water. It’s me DH and toddler aged child.

Oh I do this trip regularly, if you’re going to Dublin, the Anglesey - Dublin ferry is best as you can drive across noeth wales easily. If you’re heading to Belfast or the North West get the Liverpool to Belfast if you can afford it as it’s an overnight/8 hour day sailing and you can sleep on the boat (it’s the least amount of driving), or the very cheapest is P+O Cairnryan to Larne (also shortest time at sea, around 2.5 hours).
I don’t do planes with my baby and toddler.

Where you going in Ireland and do you need a car the other side

what is your closest airport

we do rail sail a lot - train from London Euston to Holyhead then onto the boat to Dublin

its 50£ each ! Kids under 5 free

otherwise we just fly from stansted with Ryanair

The flights aren’t badly priced but then the car hire at the other end means it’s costly. We have friends there and I’d love to visit more regularly, but it just works out as so expensive. Our nearest airport is probably Birmingham.

It's expensive. We drive, need a car when we get there, cross border so hire cars are stupid expensive. We drive to Stranraer from SE London, ferry to Larne. In the summer we go to France, then back to Ireland from Cherbourg and drive up to NI. Can bring as much wine as you like that way...

I’m East Midlands and we travel to the west of Ireland so need a car. It is really expensive as like you say you can get a cheap flight but then pay to hire a car. We tend to get the ferry which is equally expensive but we find it easier overall.

Can you tell us from where to where? How many passengers etc?

Sorry - my post delayed.

why do you need a car in Ireland?
tesco points can be redeemed against some ferries.

We don’t really use Tesco, to be honest - there is an Asda, sainsburys and Morrisons nearby but the nearest Tesco is off the beaten track and quite small.

We would definitely need a car in Ireland, friends live quite rurally.

Car hire is prohibitively expensive here. Can you do fewer longer trips, making the cost of the ferry count for more?

Via or over Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Agreed car hire is expensive there. Is there any way you could borrow a car over there? Or get picked up and use taxis afterwards?
East Midlands Airport often has cheap flights btw.

We live in East Midlands. Went over by f

I live in Kent so have always flown from Heathrow everytime I've been to Ireland

*ferry once during the first lock down, never again say the dc

Mine go regularly to Dublin to stay with their dad though so no care hire and they usually fly out from East mid, occasionally Birmingham