[Kevan Bailey]

We usually do the Ancona - Patras crossing. Up to now we've tried to avoid the Minoan ships like the plague and use the Anek Superfast (which isn't, really) as they're far, far better. I did notice last month, though, that for some crossings Minoan have replaced the horrible EuropaLink with a new ship (Cruise Europa?) which looks brand new and, although it left Ancona after the ship I was on, it got to Patras before me. Get a cabin if you can run to it.

Don't forget to factor in the cost of road tolls; these can be horrendous. Our favoured route from the UK is to drive to Dover, take the ferry to Dunkirk then head through Belgium into (Munchen): there's no tolls until you get to Austria where you have to buy a €8.50 vignette to use the motorway. We then head south to Italy over the Brenner (another toll, €8 I think, then on the Italian motorway system to Ancona (€40 for our Toylander). Don't even think about the French route via the Mont Blanc tunnel if you're on a budget.

Our usual travel method is to leave home first thing in the morning, then just keep tag-team driving until we get to Ancona; you'll be there by teatime the next day.

 

[Kevan Bailey]

I forgot to mention that if you're taking a ferry from Greece out to one of the islands, booking the international crossing with Anek gives you a 30% discount on the domestic route with Blue Star. You'll only find this on the company's website, not on a booking engine such as Paleologos

 

[Kevan Bailey]

The French route might be a bit quicker, but it's expensive in tolls. Depends what you're driving. Rheims is perhaps a bit too early to stop and it's horrendous in the evening rush hour. We tend to use Dover/Dunkirk as at puts us on a toll free route as far as Austria.

As I said in my previous post, you're looking at 36 hours from UK to Ancona with a couple of snooze breaks, assuming two drivers.