Mumbler in Holland! Our P&O Ferry Adventure and Road Trip

We are very lucky to have the P&O ferry on our doorstep in Hull, we use it most years for a low-cost family holiday abroad. This Summer we sailed from Hull to Rotterdam, taking the car and doing a road trip in Holland. Read all about our summer adventure…

The P&O Hull-Rotterdam ferry

The ferry sails daily and you travel overnight, staying in a very cosy cabin; I love this as you get on in Hull that evening and wake up in Holland ready to start your holiday the next morning. You can go as foot passengers which we have done in previous years, a bus then goes from Europort Rotterdam into Rotterdam city centre or to Amsterdam city centre and you can return the same day or a few days later. This year we wanted to visit a few places and, although public transport in Holland is amazing, we took the car to give us more flexibility.

We boarded in Hull around 5pm (giving me all day to pack and get last minute things!). Our first stop was the Kitchen Restaurant for dinner, it opens at 6pm and is a buffet setting which you can go up to as much as you like and eat what you can. Since we last sailed it has been much improved. There was a huge choice of food including a carvery/roast dinner section, food from around the world (it was Indian and Chinese gong out and Asian and Moroccan coming back!), plus fish, salads and a kids section. There are lots of starters, mains and desserts and even my picky daughter found plenty to eat.

Next it was off to the shops and entertainment. We picked up a few bargains in duty free then for Summer they had a very good singer/guitarist on the sun deck (deck 12), and on the main stage on deck 8 there was a kids show, a singer and then the resident band. We had a quick play in the arcades and headed back to our cabin  and all got a good nights sleep.

They wake you at 6.30am for breakfast and the ship docks around 8am to begin disembarking. Again we used the Kitchen Restaurant for breakfast and there was a huge choice from a full English to porridge, cereals, pastries, smoothies and fruit.

Top Tips for a P&O ferry crossing

• Timings – You can board from 4pm, sail at 8.30pm, are woken at 6.30am and dock around 8am. Don’t forget the time zone change! Going you lose an hour during the night, coming back you gain an hour in the night.
• Pack light. Cabins are small so we just took 1 small overnight bag with essentials, leaving the main bag in the car.
• Food – the restaurant was amazing and one of my kids holiday highlights, it is pricey but with what we all ate it worked out for us a good value big meal. If you don’t want to spend as much you can get pizzas or food at Costa, or take your own food onboard.
• Duty Free – if you forget something they should have it (we forgot my daughter’s toothbrush and bought one onboard). We found great deals on beer and wine, and on fragrances. You can only make a purchase when the boat has set sail, and alcohol has to be collected the next morning.
• Go to deck 12 to watch leaving port – the views down the Humber and the views of Rotterdam port were amazing (even better this time as it was sunset for us on both departures!). The boat maneuverers are also impressive to see leaving Rotterdam.
• The staff were all so friendly and helpful, and went out of their way to make our journey good. I wasn’t sure our top bunk was pulled down properly and they came straight away to check. If you need anything, they will help!
• Take some games – we had a bag with Uno, Dobble and some colouring for the kids to do while we enjoyed the singer!

Our holiday in Holland: Amsterdam

We drove off the boat and headed first for Amsterdam, around an hours drive. We were staying with a friend and parked outside her apartment, however in previous years we’ve found the underground car park at Central Station the cheapest and most central location. There are also park and rides around the city.

Amsterdam is a very family friendly city with so much to see and do. This year we hired a self drive boat to explore the centre of the city from the water, we also walked around and played in Vondel Park. Other things we’ve done in past visits which I would recommend is the Nemo Science Museum (next to central station and where the P&O ferry bus drops you off so a good one if you are foot passengers), Amsterdam Zoo, and we’ve hired bikes.

We then went on to visit Monnickendam. Thirty minutes drive north of Amsterdam you reach the coast, a beautiful bay with old towns tucked into the northern coastline. There was lots of free parking by the beach at Monnickendam and we played on the sand then walked around the town. Just north is Edam and the cheese museums.

West Coast – Duinrell Eurocamp, Wassenaar and Noordwijk and

We drove 45 minutes west from Amsterdam to our base for the rest of the week – Duinrell Eurocamp. We LOVE a Eurocamp and this was one of the best we’ve found. Its a huge site in the woods with a theme park and water park on site! There was so much to do for the children with a huge variety of rides for all ages, parks, play areas, tracks and the pools. You could camp, take a campervan, or stay in a range of lodge style accommodations called ‘duingalows’. Our duingalow had everything we could need for a great week.

The town of Wassenar is directly opposite the site and is a lovely old quaint place with lots of shops, including some very good food shops and supermarkets to stock up the duingalow with.

The beach at Wassenar is 4km away, with stunning open white sands it’s well worth a visit. You can hire bikes at Duinrell if you want to cycle there, or its a short drive and has a big car park. There are lots of beach bars and restaurants there too. We visited the beach then returned to the park for an evening of crazy golf and the parks and small rides which stay open till 10pm.

We also drove north of Wassenar to the next seaside town along – Noordwijk. We parked at the beach car park which was huge with lots of space. The beach front here was wonderful, more huge expanses of white sand and some lovely beach bars. This town was much bigger and had loads of bars and restaurants, shops, a Ferris wheel and also a space museum (the town is the European Space Centre!).

Top tips

• Duinrell is 45 mins drive from the Rotterdam port, but if you don’t want to go by ferry a it’s only a 20 minute taxi ride from Schiphol airport (which you can fly to from Humberside).
• You can hire bikes there, it was around 10euros per person per day.
• Access to the theme park is unlimited if you are staying on site and you can ride all day from 10am-6pm (my son literally did!).
• The Tiki Bad swimming pools need to be booked in advance and are an extra charge – the indoor pool has lots of water slides and splash areas, with slides for all ages (but some pretty big ones if you are brave!). It was around 44euros for a family of 4 for a 2 hour slot. The outdoor pool had a few small slides and a pool area, it was around 22euros for the 4 of us for a 5 hour slot. We went to the outdoor pool on a hot day and all the loungers were gone but you can take your own things in so we took picnic chairs, picnic rug, a cool box of drinks and snacks and even a golf umbrella for shade!

Other places to go in Holland

In previous years we’ve taken the ferry and driven to other parts of Holland. We really like the Centre Parcs in Holland, they are much cheaper than the UK and just as good if not better, there are lots to choose from at different price points. There are also several other Eurocamp sites we are yet to explore.

Efteling is an amazing place for kids, a theme park and woodland fairytale area with accommodation on site. We visited there back in 2019, read that review here.

I hope this has inspired you to take the P&I ferry and go to explore Holland!