Driving to England from Corfu

For this, we have followed similar routes to the journey down and again ensure that our Sunday drive is through France or Germany - this requires a Thursday evening departure from Corfu. 

As the ferries normally dock in Ancona around early / mid-afternoon we normally look to spend the first night in a hotel just north of Ancona - there can be quite a delay getting of the ferry / out of the dockyard, so we prefer not have a too much of a drive.

Thereafter, when travelling via Switzerland,  we look to spend our our second night just south of the Italy /Swiss border and the third in central France.  For the German route, we spend the second night near the Austrian / Germany border and the third near Luxemburg. In both instances, we normally aim to get the train around 16:00 with Eurotunnel so that we can spend the fourth night in Ashford, Kent.   

In November 2021, following changes to ferry schedules, we decided to try the Igoumenitsa to Bari ferry and to drive up through Italy from there.   The ferry left Igoumenitsa at 23:59 and docked in Bari at 09:00 - exit from the ferry was very fast and we were on the motorway shortly after 09:45. 

This route did not require any additional hotel stops as we had already "introduced" our four night routine, so the only additional costs we had was in terms of fuel and tolls.  From Bari we drove to our "normal" first night hotel area (Forli) - a drive of just over Km600.   Thereafter, we followed our "normal" Austria / Germany route.  We used this route again in November 2022 - toll costs were EUR75.10 (Italy), and EUR10.50 (Austria), plus the Austrian Vignette (EUR9.60). 

After this "trial", we decided that the additional drive up from Bari did not rest well with our ageing backs so for November 2023 we reverted to using the Ancona ferry!.