# Day OR Night crossing to Hook of Holland?



## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

We're off to Amsterdam next month to support our SiL in his first marathon. Should we go on the 0900 sailing from Harwich (arrives 1715) or the 2300 (arrives 0800)?

DAY: costs £81 cash (£91 =£30 of 3xTesco vouchers + £1 cash). Leave home at 0430 or spend previous day/night in Harwich area. Spend money on drinks/snacks during the crossing? (Take flask/sarnies!) Disembark in the dark: find aire (Delft €7?) or campsite at night.

NIGHT: costs £119 cash (£131 = £35 of 3xTesco vouchers [limit of £105 per trip] + £26 cash) plus £43 cheapest mandatory cabin [TOTAL = £162 cash or £35 vouchers + £69 cash]. Leave home at 1900 or spend day in Harwich area. Spend nothing on board; get "good" nights sleep. Disembark in daylight with no rush to find accommodation.

All comments gratefully received, especially from folks who have done one of these trips.

TIA - Gordon


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## HermanHymer (Dec 5, 2008)

Careful decision to be made - where are you going to stay if you arrive late afternoon? Even in summertime I was "locked out" of a close (ACSI) campsite I was going to stay in - it closed at 7pm sharp. I phoned another one who kindly waited for me till I got there at 8pm. No late arrivals. Another point to bear in mind is that the road from the docks to the nearest motorway is jammed up at that time of day so it can take a good hour to get 20km down the road. Point 3 - the Dutch are not tolerant of wild camping at all. Point 4. Being winter and almost everything camping shut - have a plan in place.


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

We do the trip once a year at least, twice occasionally.

The daytime sailing is OK, but we always have a cabin, regardless, as the 9am sailing means 5am start from home, which means up at 04.00, so it's nice to have a place to rest after the 3 hour drive.

The night time sailing at 11pm is with a cabin anyway, and we have gone over on a Friday night sailing, been to see friends and then came back on the Saturday night sailing, back home by 9am on Sunday. Apart from the cost of the cabin which is mandatory, I'd go night time every time if I could.

Cabins have full bathrooms with shower etc, and you have breakfast on board in both cases, coming and going.

Very civilised way to travel, and we are booked up for 2016 already.

Peter


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

HermanHymer said:


> Point 3 - the Dutch are not tolerant of wild camping at all. Point 4. Being winter and almost everything camping shut - have a plan in place.


I'm hoping they might be more tolerant in the winter. At the moment I'm anticipating Delft (anyone know if it's still open?). If the worst comes to the worst, we have several friends in Holland and we might have to leave the van outside one of their houses (no room on the drives). However, they are in a bit of the wrong direction, but it does give me "Plan B".


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

listerdiesel said:


> The night time sailing at 11pm is with a cabin anyway ... Apart from the cost of the cabin which is mandatory, I'd go night time every time if I could.
> 
> Cabins have full bathrooms with shower etc, and you have breakfast on board in both cases, coming and going.
> 
> Peter


We're quite happy to be "smelly" for the first couple of days. :surprise: As I said initially, the night crossing is already £38 more expensive and the cabin adds an extra £43 (for the pleasure of being in the bowels of the ship: not a big deal as we'll be asleep, I hope). Breakfast adds another £10 per person: we normally have a cup of tea, a bowl of cereal and some fruit, all of which we will have with us in the MH. So that's an extra £101 for one voyage, which pays for another daytime crossing plus a good few miles of driving. :smile2:

Not an easy decision, given the downside to arriving in the dark with no obvious stopover. Anyone else with useful info please?


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## homenaway (Jul 27, 2005)

Hi,

We travelled from Harwich to Hook this year on a Sunday morning sailing and didn't bother with a cabin. We stayed at a CL in Ardleigh for the Saturday night It was a bit tedious being nearly 7 hours but it was a calm crossing. We then drove to Gouda where there is an official aire in one of the town centre car parks, Klein Amerika, for the first night. It was free on a Sunday night. 

We once came back on the Sunday daytime crossing which wasn't a good plan with rather drunk stag/booze cruise passengers.

From memory we payed about £80 single and bought a couple of heavyweight Sunday papers for the journey - the shop at the Harwich terminal was closed (permanently?)

Steve


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## Boff (May 10, 2005)

H1-GBV said:


> I'm hoping they might be more tolerant in the winter.


Nope, they are not. But meanwhile there are quite a few aire/stellplatz-type sites. Take a look at Campercontact.com. 



H1-GBV said:


> If the worst comes to the worst, we have several friends in Holland and we might have to leave the van outside one of their houses (no room on the drives).


That depends. If it is a quiet residential area and none of the neighbours kicks up a fuss, then you will most probably be OK.

Best Regards,
Gerhard


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

Camping car Infos show 3 aires where overnight parking is allowed in Rotterdam only a short distance from the Hook.


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

This one looks nice for an overnight - but make sure the handbrake is on.:wink2:

https://goo.gl/maps/mkk3q


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

Stanner said:


> This one looks nice for an overnight - but make sure the handbrake is on.:wink2:
> 
> https://goo.gl/maps/mkk3q


Thanks for that: I was ignoring the spots close to Rotterdam but this looks delightful. I would by wary of reversing in when it is dark! (The other spot, further round, looks safer in that respect :laugh


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

homenaway said:


> Hi,
> 
> We then drove to Gouda where there is an official aire in one of the town centre car parks, Klein Amerika, for the first night. It was free on a Sunday night.
> 
> Steve


Thanks. That was where I was thinking of! Why did I write "Delft"? :frown2:


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

H1-GBV said:


> I would by wary of reversing in when it is dark!


"It's OK, back up, there's nothing behind you.............. Splash!":crying:


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## lalala (Aug 13, 2009)

Have you looked under the current Stena Line offer? They are offering up to 50% off using the code Aut1. It works for our camper length so may work for any camper/MH. You have to book by today!!! 
We use Stena Line sometimes and always travel out with a cabin overnight and back during the day. The timings suit us better. By the way i believe that if you use Tesco vouchers there is no flexibility ... is this correct?
lala


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

Your trip

Your money

Your choice

Not a lot more that can be said really.

Andy


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

lalala said:


> Have you looked under the current Stena Line offer? They are offering up to 50% off using the code Aut1. It works for our camper length so may work for any camper/MH. You have to book by today!!!
> We use Stena Line sometimes and always travel out with a cabin overnight and back during the day. The timings suit us better. By the way i believe that if you use Tesco vouchers there is no flexibility ... is this correct?
> lala


DAMN! Only just seen this post - code is no longer accepted.

Correct: there is *no flexibility* with Tesco.

We are fairly certain of our outward journey: grandson's birthday on Tuesday 13th; marathon on Sunday 18th (need to be there for Saturday). We will almost certainly book this through Tesco.

Return journey is more unsure: we will visit relatives near Hanover then explore the Mosel. I think we will see what CCC can offer us.


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## lalala (Aug 13, 2009)

Sorry you missed the post, I thought you'd look or I'd have sent you a PM. If you book your return with Stena as a flexible ticket you can cancel up to 24 hours in advance for the sum of £3, or you can change it to another date. We book a day crossing coming back because we are in Norwich, it isn't a long drive and we don't have to have an overnight stay on the way. We use the tunnel most of the time but Stena when we have a long journey east. This spring/summer we have a complicated journey from France, via Norwich, to Iceland and vice versa on the return so using Stena from/to Harwich makes sense. What we really miss is the Harwich to Denmark crossing. New EU sulphur regulations on the North Sea/Baltic routes were given as a reason for its closure. Doesn't seem right that we have no Scandinavian crossing yet the Adriatic and Mediterranean routes have loads.
Hope your son does well in the marathon,
Lala


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

lalala said:


> Sorry you missed the post, I thought you'd look or I'd have sent you a PM.
> 
> Lala


THANKS. Sadly Friday was a "busy" day, with medical appointments and grandchildren to care for. When we got home there was a message from my Dad (88y old, dementia, in Teesside: my brother, who lives 3m away is on holiday inAustria) who was having problems with his antibiotics.

That took 3h of phone calls to sort out, so it was a drink then off to bed. I didn't get time to look at anything until Saturday pm.

Where do you get your codes from?

Gordon

PS SiL completed an 18m leg of the Round Norfolk Relay (1830-2100 on Saturday) before jetting off for 2 weeks in Portugal at 6am on Sunday. He is a bit of an all-action guy!


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## lalala (Aug 13, 2009)

Hi Gordon, Stena emailled me the code, it was current for about three weeks. I think they do so because we have booked online with them last year. It might be worth while subscribing to their emails that have promotions. Also worth knowing that we have booked our May/June crossings at full price but that Stena have promised to honour any offers that they bring out that are relevant to our booking. So we don't lose by booking early.
Friday sounds to have been a 'full-on' day, hope you got everything sorted out,
lala


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

We decided to book the daytime sailings and went back to the Stena website: prices had risen by at least £10 for each leg; £25 for one of the days we really wanted. I also discovered that I needed to add on the length of the cycle carrier (unlike Eurotunnel) so that increased the cost by another £10 :crying:.

Went on the CCC website and got the days and sailings that we required for a total of £147.50 (£55 cheaper than direct via Stena). "MH upto 12m go for the same price as a car". This also includes a free upgrade to a flexible fare :smile2:. (which would cost another £24 in total.)

Thanks for all the helpful comments - Gordon


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

We arrived in Harwich on Wednesday at 07.30 and had one of the slowest check-ins I have ever experienced. There was only one gate open but several folk standing around, including two "security" personnel after the gate. Cars were taking over 5mins each so progress was slow and the traffic queued back up to the entrance, probably blocking the roundabout. When it was our turn the guy talked about the interior decoration of the MH and was in no hurry. However, the boat had everyone on board and was slipping its moorings only 20mins behind schedule: thank goodness it was mainly empty!

The crossing was uneventful and we arrived in HofH on time, achieving a swift disembarkation despite some idiots who decided to re-pack their car boots after returning to their vehicles quiet a time after being instructed to do so. Unfortunately TomTom believed we were still in UK and couldn't find a satellite until we were half-way round the Rotterdam Ring Road: thank goodness we had decided to go directly to Gouda, so the direction was easy to guess. [Holland has an impressive history of weaving and it was interesting to note how many drivers continued to practice their skills at high speed in the pouring rain. Sadly some thought it was quite acceptable to block all of Lane2 because they needed to enter Lane1 (as near the front of the queue as possible.)]

We arrived at Gouda just as it was getting dark and I believe I made the correct decision: day time crossing, save £80, get good (cheap) nights sleep. We went to Gouda as the CamperContact notes said "cheese market on Thurs morning". It failed to add "June to August only".

Klein America at Gouda is a lovely resource: €8 for 24h parking complete with all services including 12 EHU points (electricity included in the price). The pay machines are just outside the barriers but they do not accept Visa nor MasterCard, especially if you put them in the "notes" slot :crying:. In reality, even the "card" slot only takes Maestro: fortunately I was able to extract my credit card and pay with cash. - Gordon


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

Maestro is one of the few cards that shops will accept.

Service Stations take most including Amex.

Peter


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

listerdiesel said:


> Maestro is one of the few cards that shops will accept.
> 
> Service Stations take most including Amex.
> 
> Peter


I've never had any problem using Visa or Mastercard in hotels, restaurants, shops or filling stations the Netherlands?


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

H1-GBV said:


> We arrived in Harwich on Wednesday at 07.30 and had one of the slowest check-ins I have ever experienced.


The polar opposite of my check in at Pembroke for Irish Ferries in May.

I didn't even have time to put the handbrake on. As I pulled up to the booth with the window down the agent asked "Mr Stanner?" I replied "Yes" - he handed me the boarding card and I didn't actually have to stop.

The advantage of not having to hand over passports I suppose.


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## StephandJohn (Sep 3, 2007)

We've only been to Holland once. It was lovely and we'd definitely like to go again. The only down side was travelling from France in to Holland and driving around Rotterdam. It was extremely horrible with agressive lorry drivers and the sheer volume of traffic. I don't know if traveling in the day and getting there later would make the traffic any better but it might.


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

Stanner said:


> I've never had any problem using Visa or Mastercard in hotels, restaurants, shops or filling stations the Netherlands?


We tried using Visa and Mastercard in a couple of small town stores/supermarkets, nothing doing. Cuijk was one town that we tried in, local supermarket didn't take anything but Maestro. I think the campsite at Plasmolen was the same.

As I said, most filling stations take all cards, but Maestro is the preferred card for small traders, even small supermarket chains.

Peter


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

listerdiesel said:


> As I said, most filling stations take all cards, but Maestro is the preferred card for small traders, even small supermarket chains.
> 
> Peter


We visited Lidl at Muiden (Pampusweg 12), just outside Amsterdam. The Fuel station (€1.11 pl) ONLY accepted cards but not my Visa nor my MasterCard. Good job I've still got half a tank left!

We're now at Almere Haven, having passed a (TOTAL?) garage selling diesel at €1.18. Shell (near Gaasperplas) was €1.25. I'm guessing that both of those would be manned, so at least able to accept cash?

Only a month ago I closed an account which I hadn't used for years BUT which gave me a Maestro card - _c'est la vie_ - Gordon


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