Libby and I have been driving to and from Skiathos since we bought The Old Port House Bar in 2017. We select a different journey going and coming and also try different stop overs each year. We can take between a week and 10 days to complete our journey giving us plenty of opportunities to discover new and exciting places to tick off our bucket list. This year we took 8 days to complete the journey.
1st Leg (Hull to Rotterdam) 11 hours 30 mins
Overnight
Check in is really easy with P&O. Roll up in your car and present your passports. We arrived at 4.00pm for a 8.30pm sailing and was allowed to board at 5.00pm. You are given your disposable cabin keys and boarding passes (including meal vouchers) when you check in, so we went straight to our cabin.
Our car was jammed and we did have a slight panic as we were highlighted for a security check.
Security took one look and sent us on our way.
Onboard we were quite impressed with our Club Cabin.
Time for a few drinks at the bar, a lovely meal in the self service restaurant, plenty of live entertainment on board and a good nights sleep before docking in Rotterdam.
2nd Leg (Rotterdam to Mettlach (Germany))
4hours 16mins 272 miles
Quite an uneventful journey, very industrialised until we arrived near to our destination of Gästehaus Schloss Saareck in Mettlach, situated on the river Saar and the headquarters of Villeroy & Boch.
A magnificent place to stay but not for the faint hearted if you are allocated a room on the 4th floor, as we were.
We had booked a meal in the hotel restaurant as it was Easter Saturday. We are so glad that we did as the meal was exceptional.
The hotel is filled with Villeroy & Boch artifacts. The crockery was changed for breakfast and Dinner and the cutlery was all Villeroy & Boch.
3rd Leg (Mettlach to Lindau (Germany))
5 hours 284 miles
A lovely journey through Germany. We stayed at Best Western Plus Marina Star Hotel Lindau. A short distance from the island and perfect for us with lots of parking.
We had pre-booked dinner at Zum Zecker due to it being Easter Sunday. This was our second visit and one of our favourites.
After an early night we visited Lindau Island before setting off for Lake Como.
4th Leg Lindau to Lake Como
4 hours 156 miles
A fantastic journey through the Julier Pass taking us over 7500 feet above sea level.
On Lake Como we stayed at a family run Hotel called Hotel Regina
in Gravedona ed Uniti. We were taken care of from entering the building. Reception showed us to our room which had a small balcony and a magnificent view over the swimming pool and lake.
After a chilled bottle of prosecco on our balcony we had a romantic dinner in The Lake View Restaurant
Dinner consisted of Puff pastry with pear, walnuts and honey sat on a cheese fondue.
Followed by pan fried Sea Bass
and for dessert, Liquorice Parfait and Chocolate cake.
Another culinary masterpiece finale to a very special day.
5th Leg Lake Como to Venice
3 hours 40 minutes 190 miles
Not a bad little journey through the countryside and skipping around the lakes. Didn't encounter much traffic until we got to the outskirts of Venice.
We stay just outside of Venice in Mestre, as we have found a cracking little hotel with access to quite a safe car park. We have stayed at Hotel Plaza several times. It is located across the road from Mestre Train Station. You can purchase a return train ticket onto Venice island for 2.90 euro and it only takes about 8 minutes. You exit Venice Santa Lucia railway station and as if by magic you emerge onto the Grand Canal.
We checked in our hotel at 2.30pm and headed into Venice.
We had a couple of drinks in our Venice local. The Devils Forest Pub and a lovely meal at Vino Vino followed by a night cap at The Hard Rock.
And to round off the perfect day in Venice, it has to be a boat ride back to Santa Lucia.
6th Leg Venice to Igoumenitsa (Greece)
26 hours 44mins (Overnight)
We collected our ferry tickets at around 8.30am ready to sail at 11.30am. After boarding around 9.00am we collected our cabin keys from the Reception on the boat (ANEK Lines, Asterion II) and was shown to our cabin.
We had a nice spacious outside cabin and very close to the bar and restaurant.
We had a very pleasant sailing but did arrive in Igoumenitsa about 2 hours later than we expected.
7th Leg Igoumenitsa to Volos (Greece)
4 hours 10mins 191 miles
This is a lovely route taking us past Meteroa. Single file a lot of the way and very windy roads with steep drops. We ended up behind two large lorries which both pulled over to let us past.
Due to the Easter Weekend we had arranged to stay for 2 nights in Volos. We stayed at The Philippos Hotel. Very clean and central to Volos centre and just across the road from the ferry port where we would catch our ferry to Skiathos.
They even reserved us a parking space at the front of the hotel.
We love Volos, LIbby loves the shops, they even have a Marks & Spencer!
We had an early start to catch our ferry to Skiathos. We already had picked our tickets up from the agent on the harbour front and boarded at 6.30am for a 7.30am sailing on The Sporades Star.
A beautiful spacious and clean ferry. Pity the crossing is only 2 hours 15 mins.
Sorry this blog was so long but it does encapsulate 8 days into a very short itinerary and you have probably surmised that we love the journey as much as the destination. We organise a different journey every year and vary the return journey as much as we can. Ticking off places of interest as we go. We obviously have our favourites.
This is our view for the next 6 months. Which sums up the beauty of Skiathos. Over 60 beautiful beaches, some are recognised as the best in Europe. A cosmopolitan town offering a plethora of bars, restaurants and shops and some of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.
Libby and I thank you for reading this far and we hope you enjoyed sharing our journey. x
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