Irish Hitchers - can you help?

Best bet is either Belfast or Larne at this end, which leaves you Troon, Cairnryan, Stranraer, Birkenhead or Fleetwood to sail from over there.

As Nick says, P&O or Seacat to Larne or Belfast from bonnie Scotland.

I really like the Norfolk Line overnight one from Birkenhead near Liverpool, because, depending on where you are coming from, you can spend a lot of time travelling otherwise. I think its fab (but a bit dearer, and scotland isn't really a problem)

So my decision is - from London 6/7 hour car journey to Scotland and an hour or so on the boat, or 3/4 hours to Liverpool and 8ish hours on the boat.

Pretty much, yes.

Only other suggestion is make for Holyhead in Anglesea and get the Swift (or the Ulysess which may still be the world's largest car ferry) to Dublin and have a longer drive this end. There's no short way of doing it really.

I used to do the Fleetwood run fairly regularly, it's not bad. Once you're clear of the M25 ?

I'm sure there is a boat from wales to dublin as well, which might work a bit better for you? Don't know what company runs it, sorry about that.

It is a long old hoof, and when you get here you'll have a few hours of driving too (albeit quite a pretty one in parts).

That's what I thought, why she won't let us get the bloody plane I don't know. Ryanair is good enough for her when she's going to Spain!

Am tempted by driving up to Scotland, and then taking our time on the return journey driving back down through it.

Whichever way you choose, you're probably going to have a decent drive at some stage. Your mum can't be persuaded to fly, can she? I can't help much with the ferries, I haven't been on one for about 20 years, but Nick seems to have it all covered.

I'm going to push her towards flying, but give her all the options.

It's 20 minutes from me to Luton airport and about 45 minutes according to google maps from Derry to where we're staying - no brainer really.

It's probably actually the least enjoyable of all the options, been there, done it, have the T-shirt etc. The road from About Carlisle-ish to Stranraer (closest to you) is only an A class and is criminally busy, largely with HGVs. At the end of a long haul it can be quite scary.

Not sure I'd fancy that at the end of the journey.

Did I mention the fact we'd have a 2 year old with us as well! (Going to be fun, I can tell!)

I've always done the Cairnryan to Larne crossing with P&O. Fast boat is 1 hour, slow boat is 1 and three quarters. England end, I drove from Cambridge. Its a long way, but a really easy run. Its a pleasant drive and free from hold ups and no problems at all (I've always gone across to Birmingham and picked up the M6 and followed it all the way up). I don't know whether the other crossings are the same, but if you arrive early, you can catch the earlier boat. At Larne end, straight off the ferry onto the Larne Line which is a good road from where you can pick up a main route going north or south.

Thanks everyone, I'll take a look at them all and then (hopefully) book Ryanair/Aer Lingus. ?

Fly!

Ryanair have a sale on £1 flights, you can book only til midnight this evening.

We've done every route going as we always need the car. I live in the North West and it's a bloody long trek so from London I'd say it would be unbearable!

Stranraer-Belfast is the shortest crossing to the North side, only about an hour lf I think but it takes us almost 5 hours to drive there so you'd be looking at least 7!

Liverpool - Dublin overnight isn't bad but a long drive both ends too.

Holyhead-Dublin again isn't bad can opt 1.5 or 3 hours IIRC but again huge drives unless maybe you want to stay overnight to break it all up. The toll charges out of Dublin are extortionate, something like 20 Euros!

DO NOT get Fleetwood-Larne! It's a hidepus 8 hours with nothing to do on the boat! Unless you do overnight sailing but that arrives around 5am so you'd still feel shattered at the other end.

Ferries are also really expensive (at least £200 return and that's just two adults)

I'd defo fly if i could!

Ryanair haven't released the dates for when we want to go yet, but I checked and the Luton-Derry route is one of their genuine £1 ones - unlike lots of other places. Is stupid really, a hire car would be fine the other end.

I get the ferry from Troon to Larne but I live in Edinburgh so it's not so bad, I always go P&O as they have a loyalty programme so I get it a bit cheaper.

I HATE the ferry and it's really expensive compared to flying, it costs me around £200 return for Aoife and I to go over and then you still have the cost of fuel on top of that. It's much cheaper for us to fly over but then there's the cost of car hire.

Fly into Knock and enjoy the drive up the west coast.

When in Donegal, don't forget to take a day out to Bundoran - play the slot machines and watch the Atlantic waves crasing on the shore.

Definitely fly if you can preferably to Derry though Belfast would only add about an hour onto your journey I reckon (if flying to Belfast, the international is best with a fairly direct route to Derry from it). Donegal and Sligo have (used to anyway) an airport but don't think they take any of the big names. Depending on where you are in Donegal though, Derry should be fairly close and much cheaper/less time consuming than the ferry.

We're staying here https://www.irishcottageholidayhome.com/Welcome.html right up in the Inishowen Peninsula so we'd have to go inland quite quickly - or otherwise go a long way round. Good idea though, and would probably do it were it not for Owen.