European Ferry Travel
(written 11/05; last revised 4/09)
Bikes on the Boats
Ferry travel is common between the the UK and the continent,
the Greek Islands and its mainland, Croatia and
the eastern coast of Italy, and the various Mediterranean islands, plus ferries are a great way to travel with bikes. If it
is a car ferry, you just roll your bike on with the cars, usually at no extra charge, and
park them where the staff indicates. If it is a passenger-only ferry, bikes may
or may not be allowed and they may incur an extra fee. It sure beats flying, which
requires partially disassembling the bikes and boxing them and the gear and
perhaps paying excess weight charges.
They often look better on the outside than on the
inside.
Prices
Boat travel is generally very affordable. In November 2005 an
hour and a half ride cost about $6 per person and an almost 10 hour trip was
about $40. We opted for an inside cabin on our overnight trip between Greece and
Ancona, Italy and paid about $130 each for the 15 hour trip. Curiously, our hour
and a half trip between Greece and Albania was about triple the cost of the
similar length trip within Greece.
In 2008/2009 the cost for 2 in an outside window cabin with
toilet on the 22 hour ferry from Rijeka to Dubrovnik, Croatia was only about 10%
more than the cost of bus tickets for the journey. The ferry trip was a whole
lot more comfortable than the bus and eliminated negotiating with several bus
drivers about getting the bikes on the bus. In fact, after the extra charges for
the bikes, the ferry might even have been cheaper.
Comfort
The large inter-island Greek ferries are luxurious floating hotels.
Whether you buy the cheap-seats or a cabin, you can roam the nicely appointed
public areas and lounges. In the off season it is easy to find a quiet, no-smoking area
window seat to enjoy the view. And it's nice on the long trips to be able to
stretch your legs or step outside for a change. Usually we expect to get a lot
of leisurely reading and writing done while on board.
In 2008 we took long-haul ferries from Palermo on Sicily to
Genoa, Italy and then from Genoa onto Barcelona, Spain. Unlike the Greek
ferries, the public spaces were limited and we spent most of our time in our
cabin. The ferries were new and our cabin was nice enough, but we missed the
luxurious reading nooks of the Greek ferries.
And the comfort-factor tends to be much lower on ferry trips
of a few hours rather than the over-nighters. Like on the ferries we took in
2008 between Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, you take a seat and are expected to
stay in it.
You often don't have much control over the air temperature
even in
a cabin, so layer clothing to be comfortable for a range of temperatures. We
and most people leave most of their luggage down on the locked car decks and
only bring an overnight bag of toiletries, food, and books with us.
In Croatia in the off-season, buy
your tickets the day of sailing in case the sailing is
cancelled due to bad weather. And do press for a cabin on the upper levels to get away
from the sickening engine fumes and deafening engine noise that are hazards on
the older ships. The off-season ferreis are often small and decidedly unglamorous.
Cabins
We treasure our sleep, so we always get a cabin for overnight trips. With a cabin you get comfortable twin beds and a small private
bathroom. Linens are provided, just like a hotel. We usually pay the small extra
fee for an outside window as despite what the sales people tell you, those
cabins also tend to be a bit larger, which is welcome on a long trip. And
even if the voyage doesn't include many daylight hours, it's still reassuring to
peek outside to determine if it's daylight or if the boat is really moving or
not. Bring a small
flashlight to find your way to the toilet at night as the cabins are often pitch
dark. (We keep the tiny flashlights in our fanny packs easily accessible at night
in case of emergency.)
Even a cabin with an outside window can be cramped in
Croatia.
Usually the staff kicks everyone out of the cabins as much as
2 hours before docking so as to have the rooms ready for the next wave of
passengers, so plan accordingly. It's good to ask at the reception desk when
you'll have to vacate your cabin so you don't
get caught in the middle of a shower.
Airplane Seats
On large boats if you don't pay for a cabin you'll often be
assigned an airplane seat: a slightly reclining seat in a sea of other seats.
Usually we instead find a pair of the unassigned, lounge-styled window seats for the
journey. Larger boats often have free, semi-private shower stalls but bring your
own soap and towel.
Money
You can often pay for your ticket in several different
currencies but once on board all transactions may be in a single currency. We always
pack enough food and water for the journey and rarely buy anything on board, so
it doesn't matter to us, but it's a crisis for some. We were under way on an
overnight trip when one couple was hearing for the first time that the only
currency they had in their pockets wasn't accepted on board and they wouldn't be
able to buy any meals as planned. The currency used on board is usually that of
the registry of the boat, so for example on a Croatian boat going from Italy to
Croatia you might need Croatian money. The folks selling you your ticket will
usually know the currency used on board if you are traveling outside the EU.
Water
We always bring our own drinking water on board for the
entire journey and also use it for brushing our teeth. There is just no way to
know what the water quality is in the boat's tanks and bringing your own water
is an easy way to avoid a nasty GI illness.
Motion Sickness
After trying Scopolomine patches and antihistamines to
prevent motion sickness, now our favorite remedy is ginger root. It works almost as well as the
traditional drugs but has
no side effects. The traditional medications are long acting and always made me feel crummy
long after the voyage was over.
The motion sickness drugs need to be started before you board, so you have to gamble before you are
underway: do you want to feel bad from the side effects or from the motion
sickness. The ginger root should also be started before the boat gets underway,
but since there are no side effects with the ginger root, there is no penalty for taking it. We've even
taken the herbal remedy at the first signs of motion sickness instead of before
getting underway and have still gotten relief in about 20
minutes.
None of the remedies, including ginger root, make us invincible. If the seas are very rough, we
still can't read without triggering symptoms.
With or without medication, lying down is a huge help in
countering motion sickness. If I don't have any medication available, I can
prevent vomiting by lying down and staying down. It of course is limiting for a long trip, so
it's nice to have the ginger root handy. If there is room, you can often lie on
a couch if you don't have a cabin. I've seen some people lie down on the floor, tucked in
behind the last row of seats, from the beginning of a voyage so that they could
be completely flat and out of the way.
I've been unable to buy ginger root capsules overseas when we
needed them, so I always bring a stash from home. We take 500mg an hour before
traveling (when we remember) and take another dose every 2 to 4 hours as needed.
Drink plenty of water as the capsules are large.
One friend reported vomiting despite taking the ginger root
and the flavor was so wicked that he hasn't been willing to take it again. With
that story in mind, I'm always careful to stay reclining or close to it if I've
taken a dose when feeling bad to give in time to be absorbed.
Be on Your Toes
Unlike air travel, much more responsibility is left to the
passenger to be at the right place at the right time for boarding ferries. On our trip from Igoumenitsa, Greece to Ancona, Italy we were amazed at the lack of assistance
passengers were given in the reassuringly new terminal building. Some of the clocks hadn't
been switched to standard time which should have been done 3 weeks prior. The boat
we planned to take was running an hour and a half late and some of the ticket
agents hadn't a clue about the delay. The departure board was never updated to indicate the
changed boarding time. There were no auditory or visual announcements of when a boat had docked
or was boarding. Once we understood that we were totally on
our own, we took turns darting
out in the cold, windy night to trot down to the gate to see if the boat was in.
Especially in Greece, where the very efficient ferry captains don't mess around, so you need to be there and ready to board when it
arrives.
We had a similarly disturbing experience in 2008 when leaving
the Aeolian Islands for Messina, Italy. When it was 5 minutes before our
departure, I inquired in rough Italian if our boat had arrived. "Si, Si" was the
answer as he pointed to the competing ferry line's boat. Indeed, that was the
boat we were supposed to board. We were all the more startled as many of the
ferries in the Aeolians run late so we had been prepared to wait longer. We
suspect several other tourists literally missed the boat that day.
