TRAVEL FROM EUROPE

The Green Island Coordinator recently went to Utrecht in Holland to a trade fair and took the train to see how it stands up against the ferries and planes and the results were rather surprising! It took 7.5 hours from Yarmouth (IOW) to Utrecht via Eurostar and Thalys trains, this compared to about 12 hours for colleagues who took the ferry and drove and 8 hours for colleagues who flew (although they got stuck in traffic and missed their flight!). The train journey also included the scenery of northern France and Belgium, the window provided a thousand Edward Hopper images, something you never seem to get other than when travelling by train?

For comprehensive information on all european rail travel checkout www.europeanrailguide.com  

As a sustainable tourism initiative Green Island is not really in the business of supporting car travel, although we do realise that if you are bringing surfboards, sails or a whole young family it can be a bit of a mission to do so without your car. What we do ask though is that you leave you car at your destination and try and explore the Island by foot, bus or train as much as possible, and you will probably find that you will stumble across places you never even knew existed! Lymington, Southampton and Portsmouth all offer car ferry crossings. Plan your route through the AA route planner: www.theaa.com

An alternative option would be to travel by coach or train and then hire a car for a few days while you're here to explore those more remote areas that are a bit of a mission to reach by foot, bus or bike. This is probably cheaper than the return ferry ticket for a car anyway!!! Checkout www.southwightrentals.co.uk, www.premier-ford.co.uk or why not hire a scooter? Checkout www.funation.co.uk for details.

There are over 350 crossings per day from Lymington, Southampton and Portsmouth via passenger cats, passenger hovercraft and traditional car ferries. Lymington to Yarmouth takes about half an hour and drops you right into the heart of the rural West Wight. Red Funnel operates a high speed Cat (Red Jet) from Southampton to Cowes that takes about 20 minutes and a Southampton to East Cowes Car Ferry (50mins). Wightlink run a high-speed cat from Portsmouth to Ryde Pier head (15mins), a particularly nostalgic trip for many who came to the Island as a part of their childhood and a passenger ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne (35 mins). The Hovercraft operates between Southsea and Ryde and takes approximately 10 mins. Please click on appropriate ferry links for timetables and fares.