Holyhead
 

It appears to have a maritime museum, a fairly random bit of roman wall, and a sea front that can be walked along. Can any or all of these things be reached by foot from the ferry port, or do we need to get a taxi/bus? Can we get a taxi/bus? Is there anything else of major interest, and is it a reasonably pleasant place for a stroll, assuming that the weather cooperates in March?

This begs the question - why do you choose to spend time in Holyhead, a fairly grim outpost in North Wales? It's most common claim to fame is as a ferryport for ferries to Ireland so if time permits, take the fast HSS ferry to Dun Laoghaire and have a nice walk there on the promenade (joking!)
Maybe being Irish brings out the Pavlovian reaction to Holyhead : let's get out of here, fast!

The intention is to take a ferry from Ireland and spend a few hours walking around before we return on another ferry. The main attraction is the ferry. My DS and DH absolutely LOVE ferries. I have only been to Holyhead once, transferring from a ferry to a bus in the middle of the night, so I don't have much of an opinion of the place. The maritime museum did look reasonably appealing, though.

couldn't agree more with SeeDee...we've ferried from Holyhead twice, and ferried to Holyhead thee times. Great litle town to zip in and out of fast. The terminal is quite nice. We've dropped rental cars off there, too. There are much nicer places to walk in Wales, or as SeeDee noted..go to Ireland.
stu

"<i>I have only been to Holyhead once, transferring from a ferry to a bus in the middle of the night,</i>"

That's the ticket :)

My question . . . Are you traveling some distance to Holyhead simply to do a R-T ferry ride? If so -- where else will you be during yourtrip, because there are other perfectly fine ferries in other parts of the UK.

Unfortunately, I don't think we'll have time to go anywhere more interesting in Wales, since Ferry 1 will get us there at 11:20 and we'll need to be on Ferry 2 at 17:15. We're pretty easy to please, so as long as we don't get mugged, can find something to eat, and don't miss our ferry back to Ireland, we should be reasonably happy.

We are going to be in Dublin, which seems to make this a logistically reasonable, if weird, day trip. It also allows us to take a cruise ferry over and a swift ferry back, therefore doubling the fun, plus DH wants to be able to say he's been to Wales. It's a short trip, and I don't want to dedicate an additional day to Wales.

Oops -- I missed the bit in your second post that you are doing the R-T <u>from</u> Ireland. I was working from Wales > Ireland > Wales. Sorry for the confusion.

Are you going to be on the west coast of Ireland? You can take ferries/boats to the Aran islands,

I'm not sure I'd do a Ireland/Holyhead/Ireland day trip just to be on a ferry.

Not doing the west at all this trip. It'll be all or mostly all Dublin (I like the city and have relatives there) except for this side trip to Wales. The ferries really are a major draw for those two, and I enjoy them as well, although not quite to the same extent.

I'm just afraid of getting there and discovering that the actual town is 3 miles away, and there are no buses, taxis, etc. We may not be fussy, but I can't imagine the ferry port has 6 hours of amusement.

I'd send the boys on the ferry excursion and stay in Dublin and do something fun on my own . . . :)

There's a certain temptation, but I don't entirely trust them not to miss the ferry back. DH is easily distracted and DS is mildly autistic, and since I am the only member of the family who has ever ridden a ferry across the Irish Sea I have become the resident expert. Plus it's fun to watch them have a good time.

I don't know what train or bus connections are these days, but the train comes right to the ferry place and generally coordinates with ferry schedules. You might look into taking a train or bus to one of the three wonderful castles that can be reached in your time allotment. Conwy is on the trainline to Chester. Beaumaris and Caernarvon would need a bus connection, as I recall. Maybe someone who has been recently or lives in the area can give more up to date info. Have fun!

That would be a thought, and considerably more interesting than walking around Holyhead, although from Google maps it looks like it ought to be possible to walk to the Roman wall, and probably the maritime museum as well. At least if it is possible to exit the ferry port on foot without being run over, which I wasn't as sure of.

Use multimap to workout the walking route -- I plugged in LL65 1ES (the post code for the Maritime museum) and Holyhead Ferry Terminal and it does a walking route (says 1.03 miles and 20 minutes)

http://www.multimap.com/directions

Be sure to click the 'walking' option

Looks perfectly reasonable, as long as the weather is decent, and I think will bring us right past the roman wall (which is embedded in a rather pretty medieval and later church). A little dull is fine, since we're Americans and everything is relatively exotic to us. And DS should enjoy the maritime museum. The castles look wonderful, and I'll look at timetables again when we get a little closer, since they don't have them up for March yet, but I am a little afraid of my timing. Missing the ferry would be a tremendous and probably very expensive nuisance, since it does not appear that Irish Ferries will just let you hop on the next one, which isn't until 2:30 in the morning!

While I'm at it, does anyone have an opinion on whether Club Class is worth the money (18 euros a pop), particularily on the way back, since we'll likely be travelling on a Friday evening, and I'm thinking the ferry may be crowded? It gives you a reserved seat, complimentary newspapers (which are not a big draw), and complimentary beverages/snacks (which might be).