Driving to England from Corfu

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For this, we follow a similar route to the journey down and again ensure that our Sunday drive is through France or Germany - this requires a Thursday evening departure from Corfu.  Depending on which ferry company we use, the ferry normally docks in Ancona at around 14:00 (Minoan) or 17:00 (Anek) so we spend our first night near Imola (14:00 arrival) or Senigalia (17:00 arrival), our second just north of the Swiss / French border and the third in northern France or Belgium. (NB. In 2021 Minoan moved to smaller / slower ships which resulted in an arrival time nearer 17:00 - it remains to be seen if these continue to be used in 2022)

For the German route, we again spend the first night in Imola or Senigalia, the second on the Austrian / Germany border and then the third in Belgium / northern France. In both instances, this leaves us with a 150-200Km drive to Eurotunnel, where we normally get the train around 10:30 (and avoid most of the M25 rush hour traffic!). 

 

After our drive to the UK in November 2018, we both agreed that time spent in the car was becoming uncomfortable (probably down to our age!!), and that we should consider taking an extra day for the journey. We took this approach for the first time on our journey in November 2019.  Thus, we spent the first night near Forli / Imola, the second on the Austrian / Germany border, the third near Luxemburg and the fourth near Ashford in Kent.   In terms of mileage, this equated to 180Km on Day 1, 620Km on Day 2, 560Km on Day 3, 440Km on Day 4 and 450Km on Day 5.  

 

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.