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. 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 most days).
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. We will
be using this route again in November 2022.