London to the Neatherlands
 

Looking at next April and considering flying in to London, spending a few days and traveling on to the Neatherlands, with a return a few days later. What transportation do folks recomend between London and Amsterdam for 2 people.

Keith

I'm temporarily workin in London, and just last weekend when my boyfriend visited me, we took a weekend trip to Amsterdam. Since we only had short time, we booked a flight but I think you can also take a ferry if you have time to spare.
Try easyjet.com or ryanair.com.

Fly
Train/boat
Train/Train

check cheap flights at www.whichbudget.com

Or there is a train to Harwich and few hour high speed boat ride to Hook of Holland and thence by train to Amsterdam - return fares can be quite cheap, though sea can be rather rough at times

Or, easiest perhaps is to take the high=speed rail route via Eurostar train London-waterloo to Brussels Midi station then via InterCity train to Amsterdam, taking about 5-6 hours all told from London. You can get cheap round trip fares on Eurostar if you book well in advance, if you just show up you could pay hundreds of dollars - early bird gets the worm here. Check fares at www.eurostar.com for fares in British pounds and compare with fares in US dollars bought in US thru RailEurope - sometimes cheaper sometimes more expensive but always check both. In US i always recommend BETS (800-441-2387) for their expertise in my experience and you can talk to someone rather than www.raileurope.com where prices posted often, in complaints on Fodors, are not in real time and may come back confirm but at a higher price. Better to talk to someone who will manually search for you. If under 26 special low youth fares apply on both sights. Cheaper fares more available Mon-Thu harder and higher on weekends. Can book up to nine months in advance in US. I prefer the train because you see the lay of the land in between but flying could be the cheapest of all - but figure in as well the cost of getting to the airport in London and back - not always cheap.

I'm tempted to recommend flying London-AMS. KLM or BA tix shouldn't cost more than GBP60-80 if you plan ahead. Better yet, try VLM which flies out of London City Airport (easy to get to, not crowded, short check-in/security queues if any).
Eurostar is doable, but Brussels-Ams is still about 100miles, which adds travel time.

Definitely fly if you can meet the checked luggage restrictions.

You can also check budget flights at www.skyscanner.net

By train you're looking at $100 each way minimum, if you can book the cheapest Eurostar fares. The Harwich-Hook boats can have some very cheap fares, including 'boat trains' on each end - check Stena Lina web site for fares. Again with flying you have to factor in costs of getting to potentially remote airports in London - not unsubstantial though in Amsterdam it's only a few euro by train from the airport into town.

We flew London Gatwick to Amsterdam Schipol on Easyjet. Very, very reasonable prices, however, the earlier you book the better the price you'll get. Right now, you can't book past March 2007, so keep checking their website and as soon as you see the April flights posted, book your tickets on-line.

FlyBMI.com goes from Heathrow and is often very cheap. I've taken EasyJet from Schipol to Gatwick, and that was fine.

The fast ferry between Harwich and Hoek van Holland ceases next January. The overnight ships on the route will then be lengthened and given additional passenger accommodation. Trains connect from London to Harwich and from the Hoek to Amsterdam. Through rail/ferry fares to any station in the Netherlands currently start at £25 each way (www.onerailway.com). The ferries are run by Stena Line (www.stenaline.co.uk).

Geoff - more details please on the ships - there are not currently any overnight ferries on this route as there were years ago when i took it - right?

You say the day ship will cease but they will start again after the ships are refitted? Right? any idea when?

Thanks for your infallible info on these matters.

To me this option should be strongly considered as opposed to air or Eurostar routes - really nice ships with lots of stuff on them and so cheap at about $45 each way! and a ship is a great experience and they have speeded up this route so much.

Sincerely PalQ

Stena Line currently runs day and night ships on the Harwich-Hoek route but they do not take foot passengers - they only take trucks and car passengers. When the fast ferry ceases on 8 January, the ships will also carry foot passengers on both daytime and overnight sailings. They will also be rebuilt so that they are each 240 m (787 ft) in length, making them the longest in Europe. The overnight service used to be a very convenient way of travelling between London and Holland because both ports have good rail connections. The fast ferry has a colossal fuel consumption so is no longer viable and will not be returning to the Harwich route.

bookmarking; I had the same question

Ryanair don't fly to Amsterdam, the only place they fly to in the Netherlands is Eindoven.

If you have the time then take the train / ferry / train combination (www.dutchflyer.com) or for a rail only option take the Eurostar to Brussels & Thalys from Brussels (http://www.seat61.com/Netherlands.htm)

Thanks for all the help!

Keith