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There are several ways to get from London to Amsterdam & the Netherlands without flying, avoiding unnecessary short-haul flights which are now the fastest-growing contributor to global warming:

• London-Amsterdam, by train+ferry, daytime:  This is the cheapest way to go, with special combined train+ferry fares from £29 one-way, £58 return from central London to central Amsterdam or any station in the Netherlands.  You take a train from London Liverpool Street station to Harwich, Stena Line's daytime ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland, then Dutch trains onwards to Amsterdam.  It means an early start from London (around 6:25am), so not everyone can get to London in time to catch it.  Eastbound, it runs Monday-Saturdays only.  Timetables, fares & how to buy tickets.

• London-Amsterdam, by train+ferry, overnight:  This is the most convenient and time-effective way to go, with fares from £59 one-way, £118 return from central London to central Amsterdam or any other town or city in the Netherlands, including a private cabin on the ferry with shower/toilet.  You leave central London (Liverpool Street station) at 8pm by train, sleep on the ferry from 10pm to 7:30am, and arrive by train in Rotterdam at 8:38am, the Hague at  9:58am and Amsterdam at 10.03am next morning.  It runs daily, ideal for a weekend away or an eco-friendly business trip.  Timetables, fares & how to buy tickets.

• London-Amsterdam, by Eurostar, daytime:  This is the comfortable high-speed option, with a wide choice of departures and no sea crossing involved.  Take a Eurostar high-speed train from London to Brussels via the Channel Tunnel in as little as 1 hour 51 minutes, then either the hourly InterCity train or a high-speed Thalys train train from Brussels to Amsterdam in about 3 hours more.  Fares from £69 to £149 return, city centre to city centre, book early for the cheapest prices.  Timetables, fares & how to buy tickets.

• Direct overnight cruise ferries from the north of England:  If you live north of London, there are overnight ferries from Newcastle or Hull to the Netherlands, a great way to travel.

• London to other destinations in the Netherlands

Holland or The Netherlands - what's the difference..?

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London to the Amsterdam & Netherlands, without flying, overnight...

You can travel conveniently from central London to central Amsterdam (or anywhere in the Netherlands) overnight, sleeping in a comfortable cabin on board a modern ferry from Harwich to Hoek van Holland, enjoying a cooked breakfast on board before taking a train from Hoek van Holland to Rotterdam, Amsterdam or any other Dutch town or city.  A full day in London can be followed by a full day in Amsterdam, without flying.  There's also a leisurely daytime service.  Stena Line, National Express Trains East Anglia & NS (Dutch railways) sell cheap combined train+ferry fares from London to Amsterdam or any station in the Netherlands via this route.

Stena Line withdrew its fuel-thirsty HSS fast ferry on this route in January 2007, and opened up its conventional ferries to foot passengers (before this, the ships on this route were only for motorists and lorries).  Both Stena Line ships, the Stena Hollandica and Stena Britannica, have undergone a £75m rebuild with more cabins, better passenger facilities, additional bars and restaurants.  To achieve this, they've each had a huge new centre section welded in, making them the longest ships of their type in the world.

London ► Amsterdam						Notes: m = On the 06:25 from London, change trains at Manningtree.  You can check sailing times at www.stenaline.co.uk. You can check UK train times at www.nationalrail.co.uk.  There are also direct trains from Cambridge & Ipswich to Harwich. You can check Dutch train times at www.ns.nl. No services run on 25, 26 December or 1 January. Fares    How to buy tickets Buying connecting tickets from other UK towns & cities Finding accommodation in Amsterdam Map of Amsterdam
Train:	Daytime service		Overnight service
	Mon-Fri	Sat	Mon-Sat	Sun
London (Liverpool Street) depart	06:25m	06:18	20:38	20:00
Harwich International arrive	07:51m	07:44	22:02	21:22
Overnight Stena Line ferry with cabins:
Harwich International depart	09:00	09:00	23:30	23:30
Hoek van Holland arrive	16:15	16:15	07:45	07:45
Local Sprinter train, runs every 15-30 minutes:
Hoek van Holland depart	16:37	16:37	08:07	08:22
Rotterdam Centraal arrive	17:08	17:08	08:38	08:53
InterCity train:
Rotterdam Centraal arrive	17:28	17:28	08:58	08:58
Den Haag HS arrive	17:44	17:44	09:14	09:14
Amsterdam Centraal arrive	18:33	18:33	10:03	10:03

Amsterdam ► London					Notes: You can check sailing times at www.stenaline.co.uk. You can check UK train times at www.nationalrail.co.uk. Train times from Harwich to London may vary, especially on Saturdays & Sundays.  m = You must change trains at Manningtree on Sundays. You can check Dutch train times at www.ns.nl. No services will run on 24, 25, 26, or 31December. Fares    How to buy tickets Buying connecting train tickets from other UK towns & cities Finding accommodation in Amsterdam Map of Amsterdam
InterCity train:	Daytime service		Overnight service
	Mon-Sat	Sun	Daily
Amsterdam (Centraal) depart	11:10	11:10	18:59
Den Haag HS depart	12:01	12:01	19:46
Rotterdam (Centraal) arrive	12:23	12:23	20:02
Local Sprinter train, runs every 15-30 minutes:
Rotterdam (Centraal) depart	12:43	12:43	20:13
Hoek van Holland arrive	13:12	13:12	20:42
Overnight Stena Line ferry with cabins:
Hoek van Holland depart	14:45	14:45	22:00
Harwich International arrive	20:15	20:15	06:30
Train:
Harwich International depart	21:06	20:58m	07:10
London (Liverpool Street) arrive	22:36	22:42m	08:48

Fares:
London to Amsterdam  or any Dutch station  by daytime train+ferry	Adults £29 one-way, £58 return  Children (aged 4-14 inclusive) £14.50 one way, £29 return  Children aged 0-3 inclusive go free.
London to Amsterdam  or any Dutch station  by overnight train+ferry	Adults £59 one-way, £118 return  including private cabin with toilet & shower.  If two adults share a cabin, the fare falls to £52 per person each way.  Children (aged 4-14 inclusive) £30.50 one way, £61 return, with sleeping berth.  Children aged 0-3 inclusive go free, but do not get their own berth.

Above:  The overnight train+ferry fare includes a standard inside cabin (see the picture lower down this page), but you can pay more for a Comfort Class cabin or a Captain's Suite (shown here), with double bed, satellite TV, internet access, tea/coffee facilities and complimentary minibar.  Ideal for an eco-friendly business trip to Rotterdam, Den Haag or Amsterdam....

• These fares include the train from London to Harwich, the Stena Line ferry to Hoek van Holland, and the Dutch train from Hoek to Amsterdam, all in one ticket.

• These fares are valid to any town or city in the Netherlands, not just Amsterdam.  For example, from London to Rotterdam, Den Haag, Leiden, Haarlem, Utrecht, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Eindhoven, Maastricht, Gronningen, Enschede, in fact any Dutch railway station you like...  You can check train times from Hoek van Holland to anywhere in the Netherlands at the Dutch Railways website, www.ns.nl.

• These fares are valid from any National Express East Anglia railway station, not just London, including Cambridge, Colchester, Chelmsford, Norwich, Ipswich, Ely.  There are direct trains from Cambridge and Ipswich to Harwich, as well as from London, Chelmsford & Colchester.  You can check UK train fares & times at www.nationalrail.co.uk.  Allow plenty of time (at least 40 minutes, preferably more) to connect with the ship at Harwich.

• The £59 overnight fare includes your own private cabin with en suite shower/toilet on the ferry.  Passengers travelling alone get sole occupancy of a single-bed standard inside cabin, included in the £59 fare.  If two adults travel together and share a 2-bed standard inside cabin, the London-Amsterdam fare falls to just £52 each way per person.  Standard cabins have comfortable beds with fresh clean sheets and duvets, a private shower and toilet with fluffy towels and shampoo/shower gel, and a small writing desk/dressing table with European-style power sockets for mobiles or laptops.  Standard outside cabins cost £6 more than standard inside cabins ('outside' just means they have a porthole).

• Cabin upgrades:  More luxurious 'Comfort' and 'Captain's suite' cabins are also available for a slightly higher fare.  For two people sharing, London to Amsterdam costs £64 per person with a Comfort Class cabin or £78 per person each way with a Captain's Suite with double bed.  Comfort Class cabins and the Captain's Suite all have windows, satellite TV (mainly Dutch channels but these show many English programmes), internet access, tea and coffee making facilities, fresh fruit and complimentary minibar (small bottles of sparkling wine, red and white wine, cans of beer, mineral water and soft drinks, all included in the cabin price.  Ideal for a civilised low-carbon business trip to the Netherlands or a special weekend away!  There are also cabins available suitable for passengers with disabilities and family cabins.

• The £29 daytime fare does not include a cabin on the ferry, but you can reserve one if you like for a small charge.  The privacy and comfort of a private 2-berth standard cabin with writing desk, power sockets for mobile phones or a laptop costs around £26 extra per cabin and is well worth it for the 6.5 hour crossing.  'Comfort' and 'Captain's suite' cabins with satellite TV and internet access (see above) cost more.  Both self-service and waiter-service restaurants are available for meals on the ferry, plus bars and cinema.

• You can check these fares & cabin charges and book online at www.dutchflyer.co.uk.

• Taking a bicycle:  Stena Line allegedly won't allow bikes to be taken on the ferry by passengers with these special train+ferry tickets.  But you can call Stena Line and book a foot passenger ticket with bike for the ferry, then buy separate train tickets London-Harwich and Hoek van Holland to Amsterdam.  Taking a bike on the ferry costs around £7 each way plus the £18 one-way foot passenger fare.  Bikes are carried free on One Railway trains between London and Harwich, except on Mondays-Fridays on trains due to arrive in London 07:45-09:45, or departing from London 16:30-18:30 when bikes are not allowed on trains at all.  In the Netherlands, you need to pay for a bike day ticket, costing 6 euro.  However, bikes may not be taken on Dutch trains in the morning and evening Monday-Friday peak hours.  On arrival at Harwich International, you will need to cycle round from the station to the motorists' terminal to board the ferry via the vehicle ramp.

• Taking pets:  Stena Line will let foot passengers take cats and small dogs in containers, and larger dogs if you reserve an on-board kennel, under the PETS travel scheme.  Call Stena Line for details.

Cheaper than flying...

• I paid £200 return by train+ferry for myself, my wife and 10-month old Nate from London to any Dutch station, for a weekend visit to the in-laws in Enschede in the east of the Netherlands.  This fare got us from central London to central Enschede, and it included a private cabin overnight on the outward journey, plus an optional private cabin on the daytime return journey in which my wife and baby could nap whilst I worked on my laptop.  Out of curiosity, I wondered how much I'd have saved taking a budget airline.  EasyJet would have charged us £219 for the flight alone (without any ground transport costs) on the same weekend.  Ryanair appeared to offer an outward flight for a mere £14.99 and a return flight for just 79p.  However, when I clicked 'proceed', Ryanair seemed to think that 2 x £14.99 plus 2 x 79p adds up to £127..!  They add taxes, a charge for the baby, and taxes on top of the charge for the baby.  Then they would have charged us an extra £15 for our two bags.  On top of this we'd have had to pay another £50 (2 x £25) for train tickets from London to Stansted airport and back plus 70 euros (2 x 35 euros, £50) for two train tickets from Eindhoven (the Dutch airport) to Enschede and back.  Total cost by 'budget' airline, £242.

...faster than flying...?!

• Funnily enough, the plane wouldn't even have been quicker, at least on the outward journey.  Their afternoon flight was too early to catch after finishing work in London.  Their 6.55am morning flight, which would have meant getting up at 3am and driving or taxiing to the airport as it's too early for public transport to get you there, would have got us to Enschede by midday.  The overnight train+ferry allowed us to leave London after 8pm, and arrive in Enschede at 11:35 next day, half an hour before the flight would have got us there, having slept in a cabin on the ferry.  Train+ferry not only gave us more time in the Netherlands, it gave us more sleep..!

How to buy tickets starting in the UK...

• Buy your train+ferry tickets from London to Amsterdam online at www.dutchflyer.co.uk, with no booking fees.  Tickets are sent to any UK address.

• www.dutchflyer.co.uk will book one-way or return tickets from London (or any One Railway station) to Amsterdam (or any Dutch station), but if you want to book journeys starting in the Netherlands (i.e. one-way or return from Amsterdam to London), you'll need to use the equivalent Dutch website www.golondon.nl, see below for instructions on how to use it.

• You can also buy train+ferry tickets by phone, by calling either National Express East Anglia on 0870 40 90 90 (lines open 08:00-22:00 daily) or Stena Line on 0870 5 455 455 (lines open 08:30-20:00 Mondays-Fridays, 09:00-18:00 Saturdays, 09:00-17:00 Sundays).  A booking fee (around £3) normally applies to phone bookings.

• If you're from overseas (USA, Canada, Australia etc) then you cannot book online unless you have a suitable UK address to which tickets can be sent.  But you can book by telephone with National Express East Anglia (the UK train operator involved in this service) on +44 870 40 90 90, and ask to pick up your tickets at Liverpool Street station.  If this number doesn't work, try +44 1603 214 505, which is Customer Services, ask to be put through to their telesales department.  Lines are open 08:00-22:00 Monday-Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturday & Sunday, UK time.

How to buy tickets starting in the Netherlands:

• You can buy one-way or return tickets from Amsterdam (or any Dutch station) to London (or any National Express East Anglia Railway station) online at www.golondon.nl.  It's in Dutch, but easy to use following these instructions:

• 'Elke station in Nederland' simply means 'any station in the Netherlands' including Amsterdam.

• 'Retour' means return, 'Enkele reis' means one-way.

• After inputting your dates of travel, click 'afvaart zoeken' and you'll see the daytime or overnight crossings offered.  Select the one you want and click 'volgende' (which simply means 'next')

• Now all you really need to know is that 'volwassene' means 'adult' and 'kind' means 'child'.

• It may help to know that 'kies een hut' means 'choose a cabin'.  'Verplicht' means 'compulsory', on night crossings.  'Voertuig' means 'vehicle', but as a foot passenger you aren't interested in this bit.  'Annuleringsverzekering' means 'cancellation insurance', if you don't want this then tickets will be non-refundable, but it's up to you.  Under 'extras', 'dinerbuffet' means evening buffet meal, 'ontbijt buffet' means breakfast buffet'.

• Ticket delivery:  You pick up your train+ferry tickets at the Stena Line ferry check-in at Hoek van Holland.  To get there, you'll need to buy a one-way train ticket to Hoek van Holland from Amsterdam or whatever your Dutch starting station is, but the cost of this is refunded when you pick up your train+ferry tickets.  Dutch stations have ticket machines with touch-screen and an English language button.  they accept cash or Maestro cards, including UK-issued Maestro cards.  Larger Dutch stations also have ticket offices, which also accept cash and Maestro cards but not credit cards.

• Alternatively, you can call Dutch Railways on +31 900 92 96 (lines open 08:00-21:00 Mon-Fri, 10:00-18:00 Saturday and Sunday, Dutch time) and the tickets will be posted to any Dutch address or can be picked up from major stations including Amsterdam.

What's the train+ferry journey like..?

1.  By train from London to Harwich... You leave London Liverpool Street station by train direct to the ferry terminal at Harwich International (formerly known as Harwich Parkeston Quay).  The train's final destination is Harwich Town, but you must get off at Harwich International two stops before.  The train arrives right next to the ferry terminal, where you check in at the Stena Line desk and are given your boarding pass and cabin key.		2.  ...by Stena Line ferry to Hoek van Holland... On the ferry, cabins are compulsory on the overnight crossing, and are included in the fare.  The middle photo shows a standard inside cabin, included in the £59 fare.  All cabins have comfortable beds, a private shower & toilet, shower gel/shampoo and towels, and there's a small dressing table with power sockets (European type) suitable for laptops or mobiles.  Cabins are optional on the daytime crossing at a small extra cost, well worth it for comfort and privacy.  Both the 'Stena Hollandica' and 'Stena Britannica' have a bar, 'Food City' self-service restaurant, 'Metropolitan' grill & buffet, children's play area, cinema & shop.  A bottle of wine in the shop costs only £2.79, so treat yourself!  The day crossing takes 6.5 hours, the night crossing 7 hours but you board the night ship 1½ hours before sailing to get a good night's sleep.  On overnight crossings, a cooked buffet breakfast is available in the 'Food City' self-service restaurant, serving starts an hour before arrival.  On daytime crossings, if you don't have a cabin, you can place your bags in a luggage room which is locked during the voyage.

3.   ...by local train to Rotterdam... At Hoek van Holland, the station is right next to the ferry terminal.  Go to platform 2 for the Sprinter train to Rotterdam Centraal, which runs every 15-20 minutes Monday-Saturday, every 30 minutes on Sundays.		4.  ...change for Amsterdam or anywhere in the Netherlands. Change trains in Rotterdam for frequent InterCity trains to Amsterdam and other destinations all over the Netherlands.  Your train+ferry ticket is valid to any station in the Netherlands, on any train that day.  Many InterCity trains, including the ones to Amsterdam, are smart modern double-deck trains like this one.  Take a seat upstairs and watch Holland unfold outside the window...

Taking Eurostar to Brussels and a connecting train to Amsterdam is an excellent way to go, faster than the train+ferry, and there is a wider choice of departures.  It's a very comfortable way to travel, and it avoids a sea crossing if that's important to you.

There are two options:  You can combine Eurostar with the regular hourly InterCity trains between Brussels and Amsterdam, or combine Eurostar with slightly faster more comfortable but less frequent 'Thalys' trains between Brussels and Amsterdam.  InterCity trains are more frequent, don't require seat reservations, so can be more flexible if you want to stop off in Brussels.  But the Thalys trains are slightly faster and more comfortable.  Through tickets between London and Amsterdam are available for both these options.

Top tip:  For a plane-free weekend in Amsterdam, catch a Friday night Eurostar to Brussels, spend the night there, and continue to Amsterdam on Saturday by InterCity train.  The London-Amsterdam Eurostar+InterCity train fare allows you to stop off in Brussels for up to 24 hours if you want.  There are InterCity trains from Brussels to Amsterdam every hour all day, no seat reservation necessary.

London ► Amsterdam  (Eurostar + InterCity train)
	Mon-Fri	Mon-Fri	Daily	Daily	Daily	Daily	Mon-Fri	Sat	Sun
Depart London St Pancras	06:00	07:00	08:05	10:00	12:57	14:34	16:35	16:55	16:04
Arrive Brussels Midi/Zuid	08:56	10:03	10:56	13:03	16:03	17:33	19:26	19:59	19:03
Change trains in Brussels onto the hourly InterCity train to Amsterdam, no reservation required.  Stop off if you like.
Depart Brussels Midi/Zuid	09:15	10:15	11:15	14:15	17:15	18:15	20:15	20:15