Harwich to Hoek van Holland with Stena Line

Just over two months ago when this blog goes live, on 12^th September 2025, we started our journey from Peterborough to Dresden, to begin our two-week holiday in Germany. With members of our travel party not being fond of flying or tunnels under water, our options of getting off the island of Great Britain were limited to ferries, however you should know by now that with me involved our plans wouldn’t be as simple as Dover to Calais. No, this trip to Germany was without a car, and as such we decided to make use of one of the UK’s few remaining rail and sail options by sailing onboard Stena Line’s Harwich to Hoek van Holland route.

Getting to Harwich International and the ferry is really easy from across the Greater Anglia network, especially if you purchase a ‘rail and sail’ ticket which includes travel on any Greater Anglia services. For us that meant the 1750 service from Peterborough to Ipswich where we had a 90-minute change to a direct service from there to Harwich International. For us this timing worked well as we were able to head to The Station Hotel outside Ipswich station to grab some dinner before continuing towards the ferry. Greater Anglia also provide two direct ‘boat trains’ from Cambridge and London Liverpool Street, which means passengers from 14 stations across the network have direct access to Harwich International in addition to those served by the usual Manningtree to Harwich Town shuttle.

Arriving at Harwich International around 90 minutes before the ship was scheduled to depart, it only took a minute to get across the footbridge to the ferry terminal, where we headed to the ‘Tickets and Reservations’ counter to check-in. Here we had our passports checked and received our cabin keys and boarding passes, the latter of which were immediately checked by another member of staff before we were allowed to start heading through the boarding process. Next up was security, where bags go through an X-ray machine, and you pass through a metal detector, although unlike airport security there’s no limits to liquids etc and you don’t have to remove laptops or other devices. After security there wasn’t any passport control, but we were asked a couple of questions by Essex Police before being allowed to start the marathon walk along the gangways to the ship. Despite the walk, we were on the ship and waiting for the lift up to the cabin decks within 15 minutes of getting off the train.

Our ship for the overnight crossing was the Stena Britannica, a Ropax ferry and one of a pair of sister ships specifically built for this route across the southern North Sea. With a max speed of 22 knots (41 km/h), the Stena Brittanica has 538 cabins and has been operating on the Harwich to Hoek van Holland route since 2010. When we reached our cabins, we were pleasantly surprised as they were much larger than the ‘sleeper’ size cabins we were expecting. All cabins have an ensuite with toilet, sink and shower and our “2 berth outside bunk-bed” cabins were the cheapest option apart from the equivalent interior cabins, although they can also be booked as three-berth as the bottom bunk is double bed sized which I think is cheaper per person. Our cabins were right at the front of the ship in the middle and had huge windows allowing us to look out on the glistening lights of the port and watch the last of the cargo trailers being loaded.

Whilst all the passenger cabins are on decks 8 and 9, most passenger amenities are on deck 7, and having dropped our luggage off in the cabins, we headed down to the bar at the front of the ship to grab a drink and properly start the holiday. There are actually a few options for refreshments, with the main bar and restaurant at the front, a small snack bar by the duty-free shop, and a café towards the rear near the sun deck. Sitting down to relax for a while before heading to bed, I was impressed how seamlessly the journey had gone so far, with easy train connections and now, within 30 minutes of getting off the train at Harwich International, we were sat in the bar enjoying a pint. I was also impressed with the overall comfort of the ship, from the size of the cabins to the general quietness of the ship itself. In the cabins we could feel the engines as they started up and we set sail, however we could barely hear the hum of them even as they were putting in the most effort.

Departing Harwich at 2306, six minutes late, we made our way slowly out of the Stour-Orwell estuary, passing the Port of Felixstowe and beginning our journey across the southern North Sea. Settling down to sleep just after we set sail, I unfortunately had a broken sleep although the bed itself was comfortable enough, with any attempt at sleep ending at 0530 British Sumer Time when Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy was pumped through the speakers followed by a Good Morning announcement. Around 10 minutes later another announcement without any pre-amble made the entire ship jump in shock, and at 0600 BST we were again treated to the melody of Bobby McFerrin’s classic. As Stena Line clearly wanted us up and awake, we got ourselves ready and headed back down to deck 7 to grab some breakfast before arrived in The Netherlands. I had a large fried breakfast which included a coffee, whilst Beth went for egg on toast, which all in all came to around £20.

Around 20 minutes before our scheduled arrival time we were alongside the dock at Hoek van Holland and anyone that was somehow still asleep would have been shaken awake by the reverse thrusters being used to bring us to a stand and get us alongside the dock. We docked pretty much exactly 0800 CEST and announcements for various groups to head to different areas to alight followed shortly after. We somehow ended up at the front of the queue for the lift down to the gangway and were stepping off the ship at 0815. Another longish walk later, this one with travelators, we were at passport control at 0821, through into the main terminal area at 0824 and on a metro train to Rotterdam city centre at 0831.

I was really impressed with the whole ‘rail and sail’ package offered by Stena Line in partnership with Greater Anglia. Even though we started our journey at a station not served by one of the direct ‘boat trains’, the change at Ipswich was simple and gave us the opportunity to get some dinner without it being too late. The boarding process at Harwich was really quick and smooth, even for those completely new to it, and we were in our spacious and comfortable cabins around 20 minutes after stepping off the train. There was a good choice of food and drink available and all of it was decent quality, and the arrival process at Hoek van Holland was once again pretty quick and smooth with it only taking around 15 minutes from stepping off the ship to boarding a metro. For those wanting to get to The Netherlands or into Germany, I’d certainly recommend this route as its quick, easy and comfortable.