UK to Malta Drive and Ferrys

Hi Naz,

Welcome to the forum, where about's in the UK will you be travelling from?

I'll PM you some details.

Ken

Hi thanks
Myself and my other half Carl, with our cat are moving from Henley on Thames to Gozo in march.
Thanks Ken

pm Sent as requested

Hi!
We are moving to Malta in April:D Would it be possible to sent me the information you received on travelling to malta by car? Many thanks

Can this be made public?

this is usually a good tool to use

http://www.viamichelin.com/

Ok this is my route that I took and approximate costings.  This is not a penny by penny amount and should be taken as an experience of the Journey.

I travelled down from dover, Get a Single because if you do a day return by Credit Card they will charge you another £100.00 if you dont come back... it worked out about £40.00, Tolls in France including the Mont Blanc tunnel worked out at approx €80.00.

The tolls in Italy were quite expensive, from Mont Blanc to Livorno cost about €48.

Now Since my Journey the Livorno Ferry direct to Malta have stopped... so there are realistically 2 ways now... Ferry from Genoa to Palermo, then drive to Pozallo and get the Ferry from there to Valletta. Costs for this will be approx €133 for the Genoa to Palermo trip (Based on 1 person sharing a cabin in a 4 berth Cabin and a Car... Its only one night and you leave at 10 so not to bad) and then the Drive to Pozallo (about 2.5 Hours) then the Ferry to Malta costs €121 for a car and 1 passenger (no need for a room only 1.5 hr crossing)

the Alternative is drive through Italy... again the tolls will be about €120 and then the petrol....

You have a ferry from Villa San Giovanni to Messina in Sicily then drive again 2.5 hrs to Pozallo to get the ferry to Valletta.

Costings are about this:

UK Ferry - Drive to Italy - Genoa to Palermo - Pozallo to Malta €680 inc Petrol (Approx) I based petrol on 1200 miles @45 mpg and added some more and included the cheap hotel option overnight (SLOWEST WAY)

UK Ferry - Drive to Villa San Giovanni (Tip of italy) - VSG to Messina - Pozallo to Malta €750 inc Petrol (Approx)  I based petrol on 1800 miles @45 mpg and added some more and included the cheap hotel option  (QUICKEST WAY)

The best place to get ferry tickets from are www.aferry.co.uk

I stayed in a little place called Annemasse at a Hotel F1 which cost £30.00 for bed and breakfast (all you want) and is very close to the French Italian border, you can book this through:

so Journey time... from Calais to Malta Via roads if its non stop would take about 25 - 20 hrs

If you get the ferry from Genoa, the drive to Genoa from Calais about 14hrs, ferry to Palermo about 2 hrs, then about another 3 hr drive to Pozzallo and the ferry to Malta about 1.5 hrs

I hope this helps for now

Julian

Thanks for that amazing detail, you only left out if they had brown sauce in the B&B!!! Thanks again, much appreciated Dave

haha, Dave they did but it wasn't good... Pack Daddys or HP

Many thanks!

Hi guys am ready to bring my car and family over not too sure about the best route from uk, can you have a look at this one and advise if its rubbish or not!

I can't seem to be able to paste the link? It's mantisimo1 on photo bucket

Thanks guys Jay.

Sorry hope this link works Ricky!

Hi Jay,

link doesn't work.

Cheers
Ricky

Or this one?

Hi Jay,

that looks good. They are probably very similar but I might prefer the route past Bern in Switzerland

I'm not really sure about any major difference but I've never driven either route.

Cheers
Ricky

That is the route we took but we went through Switzerland as we wanted to spend a day there. It took 8 days, spending a full day shopping in Milan, a day at Pompei (but wish we had spent 3!) A morning stuck in traffic in Rome and a morning at Pisa.

The last 1/3 of the 'boot' is misleading time wise. The roads zig-zag through the mountains, so don't underestimate the time needed in the 'Are we nearly there yet?'

I think we would have taken longer next time, there were a couple of days of 8 hours solid driving and in tunnels that are 10 miles long and fast straight roads for miles it becomes very hard, to the point where you just have to stop.

I hope this helps a bit

Caroline

Thanks Ricky and Caroline!

Yes I think the second one makes more sense there's no particular rush but we will have Lila our retriever with us so have to plan hotels etc carefully and not really going to be able to do Pompeii/sightsee particularly (will definitely catch up once everyone's settled)

It really is a get there as soon as we can.

Just a quicky do dogs need to be kept in travel cages whilst in the car or are they ok as free range passengers ( or relief drivers if it takes so long )

HiJay,

I'm not sure about dogs, I just know that Italians won't let children under 14 or 16 (can't remember) in the front seat.

Just for you to be aware, the toll roads can be very long and although they have service stations, there are parts very far apart, so you would need to plan those for your dog. Also, i don't know if it effects dogs or not but the altitude is high in some areas. I was 3 months pregnant at the time and it made me feel quite ill!

Caroline

Ok, thanks for that Caroline very useful tips.

Especially Italian seating. I'll also bring some mountaineering equipment and Brian Blessed, should be useful

Safe travels to you and yours JayJay

Let the 'games' begin.............

We are about to tavel late November, we are planning a european road trip first, 10 days of travelling, plans so far Paris,German christmas markets, switzerland, Italy (Florence, Rome Naples Pompeii) travleing from Palmero to Sciliy to Malta. We were hoping to travel to south Italy and get a ferry but cannot find a route, has anyone got any ideas? or has anyone else ferry'd from southern italy with a car. Also does anyone know if ferries do have to be booked in advance and by how much. As we have time on our hands and there is no rush we are planning on using trivago or similar to find nightly accomodation and would prefer not to have to rush to a specific ferry crossing
I know virtuferries dont take passage on Tuesdays or Thursdays to Malta.

Hi,

We travelled from south Italy and we just arrived at the port, no pre booking, a roll on roll off ferry.
For the life of me, I can not remember where from!!!
All I remember, is like you, not finding anything online and hoping for the best, which we did and it was fine!!!

Hope this kinda helps

Also, things may have changed but you needed the full log book to get from Sicily to Malta (we didn't as we had just bought our car.)

Oh and also, I wrote earlier on this thread that we did 8 days and it was hard (as in, we were sight seeing too.)
We did France in a day (didn't want to stay in France any longer than we needed lol!.) We did a day in Switzerland but stayed the night in Italy. Then 6 days in Italy/Sicily. This still meant 2 days of very hard driving in between and really not much sight seeing. I think 10 days will make a difference but maybe 12 would be even better. We didn't stop over night in Sicily and that was a hard push to get to Pozzalo in time.

Just some rambling thoughts for ya

Caroline

Thanks Caroline
can I please ask what time of year was it when you travelled?
We are also concerned and trying to find out if any of the roads are closed in November due to the alps and snow etc, also as it is out of season I have hopes that the italiean touristy areas we pass through will not be AS busy. We have been told to expect the rain at that time of year going through Italy. But I will take on board you comment about making the trip longer, we are planning 10 days but if it takes longer and we are tired we will take a break for a few days as and when, - as long as I'm in Malta for early - mid december it'll be okay

Hi, we went in the middle of October. It was grey and raining most of the way. (Then in Malta, people were on the beach lol.) There was no snow in South Italy, which is where you will end up passing through ski resorts. Alps ski resorts we bypassed with toll roads and went through the valleys in Swizterland. I can't remember roads being closed (it was 10 years ago!)

I also regret being stressed about it. My ex-husband and I and our son (18 months old) in one car and My mum and step dad in our transit van. It's all a blur really. I was the one that had to do the organising. The selling of the house, moving countries and 3 months pregnant put me in a kinda state of shock.

the mistakes we made, were not taking enough time out for Rome, it's huge, like London and were stuck in traffic all morning, which was going to make us behind.
on the other hand, Pisa, which we planned a day for was dissapointing, apart from the tower itself, that is all that is there and we wasted a whole day, whereas Pompai is amazing and you can buy 3 day tickets but we only had a day, which really wasn't enough.
We did spend a day at Modena (Farrari factory.) which was great for my husband.
I just felt, for a once in a lifetime chance, we rushed it. The 2 days of 8 hours driving was too hard for a 'lazy' road trip. as I said before, the last third of the boot was misleading in time length, it started to put pressure on us to get to Pozzalo. I really didn't want to stay a couple of days in Sicilly when we were so close!

My advise, sit back, enjoy, don't stress...It will be OK, you will get here and take a chance to take it all in!

Caroline

In the last hour and with thanks to a forum members link I have discovered a ferry from Salerno (28 mins drive from Pompeii) direct to Malta. For a total price of 287 euro we can ferry ourselves and car inc taxes from Salerno overnight to an afternoon arrival in Malta.
cruiseandtravel.eu/ferries

It means we wont have to worry about the bottom of the "boot" or sicily and it will give us a break from driving

Great news and sounds very sensible, apart from scenery and Mount etna, you won't miss much and would be a far more relaxing way to Malta!

well done and good luck!

Dave&Rea wrote:

In the last hour and with thanks to a forum members link I have discovered a ferry from Salerno (28 mins drive from Pompeii) direct to Malta. For a total price of 287 euro we can ferry ourselves and car inc taxes from Salerno overnight to an afternoon arrival in Malta.
cruiseandtravel.eu/ferries

It means we wont have to worry about the bottom of the "boot" or sicily and it will give us a break from driving

Just to keep you updated the ferry from Salerno to Malta is finished.
We had booked this ferry for last week and received a message while travelling down through France that the ferry had been sold and would no longer operate!!!
They have said they will refund the money but doubt that we will get compensation.

Terry

Tear  who was the operator I've booked this ferry for tomorrow night with Grimaldi lines oh my god my family are in Turin and I'm flying out to meet them this morning!!!!

What alternative did you use as I've just checked and they are still taking bookings?

Terry? You there?

Aaaaaaaaggggggghhhhh

As I said in my posting we received this message while travelling down through France to catch the ferry from Solerno to Malta.

" Mr T...
I just tried to call you to the phone number annexed to your booking, but it was not accessable.

I just would like to be sure that you have been informed about the cancellation of the boarding booked. The service from Salerno to Malta has been suspended and we are waiting for a new vessel available.

Let us know if you were already informed and if you already agreed for the refund of the amount already paid.

Best regards
Salvatore Calamita
Amoruso Agency – Grimaldi Holding"

When we contacted them the person at Grimaldi told us that the ship had been sold and they had no idea if or when another would take over.
They have been consistently cancelling this ferry, I suspect because not enough passengers / freight. Check direct with Grimaldi ferries on  [email protected]

As far as I am aware there are no other ferries that run from Malta to mainland Italy.

How did you do the crossing then ?

We had exceptional circumstances occur so we had to leave our vehicle in a safe storage and we flew back to Malta.  However, prior to doing that we did a search on the 'net and found ferries that run to Sicily but non that run direct to Malta.

This website is the most helpful .....

http://www.cemar.it/ferries.html

Terry

Thanks for the info sicily it is then.

Sorry about your journey it sounds pretty grim, J

I found it ironic that the name of the person was Salvatore Calamita

That must have been horrendous for you.

redmik wrote:

I found it ironic that the name of the person was Salvatore Calamita

That must have been horrendous for you.

It was only last week, we will be returning sometime this week to continue our journey. This time via Sicily (we hope).

Terry

tearnet wrote:

redmik wrote:

I found it ironic that the name of the person was Salvatore Calamita

That must have been horrendous for you.

It was only last week, we will be returning sometime this week to continue our journey. This time via Sicily (we hope).

Terry

Good luck

Aaaaaand relax.

Ok guys we did it, set off last Friday at 4pm from London and arrived back in Malta Tuesday evening, everyone in tact and the dog happy rather than petrified in a plane hold and noisy caged area.

It was rather tiring but a good journey and on the whole route we only saw 1 crash which was sadly a fatality.

My other half can now drive like an Italian but was disappointed to find Malta didn't have any roads long enough for her new jet powered Vauxhall a little mod we picked up in Milan.

Fuel €250
Tolls €250
Hotels €350 (4 people and 1 dog) Experia was a great site for booking dog friendly hotels even an hour in advance.
2 ferries one from Salerno to Palermo, the other pozzalo to Valetta €500 for car and family.
Eurotunnel €85
Plus of course food and downloaded apps to keep the monkeys happy.

So I'd think about €1,600 total for the journey.

We didn't use the Geneva route just France and Italy then the ferry to sicily ( booked a cabin and slept with our dog, she was supposed to be in a cage on deck but we said no way so they let her stay in the cabin much to the chagrin of an Italian couple with 2 dogs ( I just told the 60 year old Sophia Loren receptionist with hugely inflated lips that she had plugged in to a tyre inflator by her side that " you Italian Ladies are so beautiful" and she melted, ) weird experience it was supposed to leave at 12 noon but actually left at 5 pm.)

Yet painless and the only time we were even looked at by any customs on route was in Malta to check the dog which we didn't actually need to do they just ushered everyone through but we insisted ( well we had to show someone her pet passport her picture was very flattering)

The vet even offered me a job checking microchips because he was scared of animals and we scanned our own I nearly said yes until he mentioned Lions that are coming in to Malta for the Christmas circus, I think I'll stick to acting.

Any questions please just ask but this journey isn't as daunting as you may think, everyone was charming except for 2 certain French motorway services staff but otherwise not in any way terrible and the scenery was stunning, although and we did a lot of evening driving when the roads were less congested .

It would be a different story in the heat of summer I'd guess and so this time of year was just right.

We didn't really plan anything except the Italy Sicily ferry as there were only 2 a week now so it was mandatory we arrived when we did ( less the 5 hours delay)

So you want to bring a car and pets/children it's a good way to go or if you want to fly its 3 hours from Bristol with Ryanair at €14 euros single at the moment.

Damn it I should have just flown I've never liked our car!

( I just told the 60 year old Sophia Loren receptionist with hugely inflated lips that she had plugged in to a tyre inflator by her side that " you Italian Ladies are so beautiful" and she melted, )

Great! Funny reading jayjay!

For all those who are unable to use the 14€-flight from Bristol and/or are not allowed to fly at all, e.g. because of health problems or what ever, I found an interesting blog from a rail expert:

How to go to Malta without a car and without flying?

The part in a wagon onto the ferry and then up to Siracuse should be a rare experience!

Connector thanks for that link.
Great read.