London to Dublin by Train and Ferry: The 1:30 AM Crossing That Beats the UK Departure Tax

🔗 Part of the Series London to Dublin by train and ferry is the field test for methods #3 and #6 in 8 Ways To Avoid The UK Air Passenger Duty (Airport Departure Tax). Read that one first for the full list of workarounds — then come back here for what the Irish Sea version actually feels like at two in the morning.

Going from London to Dublin by train and ferry is the one version of leaving the United Kingdom that does not involve paying the government the APD taxes of £102. It starts at London Euston, runs up the West Coast Main Line and along the top of Wales, deposits you in the Welsh port town of Holyhead, just before midnight, depending on the train you take and puts you on a ferry across the Irish Sea at one thirty in the morning. You are in Dublin at five. I did the whole thing on two tickets. Here is exactly how it went and what it cost.
Note: The prices are quoted in local currency. I didn’t use USD as it changes due to currency fluctuations.

£53.40Sail Rail fare, London → Dublin

3h 30mHolyhead → Dublin crossing

£0UK departure tax

05:00Arrival at Dublin Port

Why Would Anyone Do This

The UK Air Passenger Duty is charged on flights departing UK airports. It is not a tax on visiting the UK. It is a tax on leaving it by air. Which means the single cleanest way to avoid it is to leave the UK some other way — and then fly from wherever you land. Just ensure it doesn’t cost you more than the taxes to do this :-).

Ireland is one of the obvious candidates, because Ireland’s own air travel tax has been set at zero since April 2014 and has stayed there. Note that there are other taxes. Dublin is a genuine long-haul airport with US preclearance. And Dublin is reachable from central London on one ticket, without a plane, for less than the tax you are avoiding.

Here is what you are walking (sailing :-)) away from. These are the rates in force from April 1, 2026:

Band (from UK)	Reduced economy	Standard premium/business	Higher private jet
Domestic	£8	£16	£142
Band A (incl. Ireland, most of Europe)	£15	£32	£142
Band B (2,001–5,500 miles — the whole of the USA)	£102	£244	£1,097
Band C (5,501+ miles)	£106	£253	£1,141

Bands are set by the distance from London to the destination country’s capital city, which is why every US airport — Boston, Los Angeles, Honolulu — sits in Band B. And it all goes up again on April 1, 2027: Band B economy to £105.33, Band B standard to £251.95.

Two important things before you do the math: children under 16 are exempt from APD in the lowest class of travel, and under-twos without their own seat are exempt entirely. So the tax hits hardest on adults, and hardest of all on adults sitting up front.

Work an example. Two adults flying London to New York in economy pay £204 in APD before anything else. Two adults in premium or business pay £488. Two Sail Rail tickets to Dublin cost £106.80. You are ahead on the tax alone and that is before you compare the actual airfares, which are frequently cheaper out of Dublin anyway.

✈ Nonrev Note For non-revs the math is different but the endgame is the same. APD is collected on your ZED or ID90 ticket like anybody else’s. The “free” flight is not free out of Heathrow or most international airports. Positioning to Dublin by surface and listing out of DUB strips the tax off entirely, and DUB has a genuinely deep transatlantic bank plus preclearance, which means you clear US immigration in Dublin and arrive at a domestic gate in the U.S. If you get bumped in Dublin, you are bumped in Dublin, not stranded at a Heathrow Terminal with a £102 hole in your pocket.

The Ticket: Buy It End to End

This is the single most important paragraph in this post.

Buy one through ticket from London to Dublin. You can use Trainline.com. Do not buy a train ticket to Holyhead and then a ferry ticket separately. The through service is called Sail Rail, it bundles the train and the ferry into a single fare, and it is way cheaper than buying separate tickets. London (Any) to Dublin (Any) runs about £53.40 for the Advance Single. Buying the legs separately can easily double that.

A few things to know before you click buy:

• Advance fares close at 6:00p the day before you travel. After that you are into the more expensive Standby Single, which runs about £60.10.
• You choose your Irish port on the booking. DFP is Dublin Ferryport — that is Irish Ferries. DPS is Dublin Port — that is Stena Line. They are different terminals in the same port area, and they run different sailing times, so pick deliberately rather than letting the booking engine pick for you. I just did London (Any) to Dublin (Any).
• Baggage is included. No weight limits, no per-bag charges, no liquid rules, no taking your shoes off. You can carry a full-size bottle of water onto an Irish Sea ferry and nobody will look at you strangely.
• Sail Rail does not run on December 24, 25, 26, 31 or January 1.
• Advance Sail Rail is not refundable if you simply do not travel. Changes need to be made by 8:00p the day before, plus an admin fee. The rules of the tickets are shown at the time of purchase just like airfares.

You can see all the timings and book at Trainline’s Rail & Sail page, which is the easiest place to eyeball the schedule, and Transport for Wales sells it directly too.

The Trains: There Is More Than One

Most people assume this is a single fixed journey. It is not. There are several trains a day that will get you from London-Euston Station to Holyhead, and which one you pick completely changes the nature of the trip.

There are three types of train trips:

• The direct run. Several Avanti West Coast services a day go Euston to Holyhead without a change of train, in a little under four hours — typically a couple in the morning and a couple mid-afternoon. Simple, scenic, and they line up with an afternoon or evening sailing.
• Connect at Crewe or Chester. Any of the frequent Euston–Crewe or Euston–Chester departures, then a Transport for Wales service along the North Wales coast. More departures, more flexibility. The Chester trains have a very short connecting time, so be cognizant of that.
• The long day. Which is what I did. Out of Euston early, a large gap in the middle, and a late train into Holyhead that lands you there just before midnight for the overnight sailing. Always check the train schedules before you go. This gives you a chance to visit friends or another English/Welsh city.

The ride itself is enjoyable; more so if you love trains. Once you are past Chester the line runs along the North Wales coast with the sea on your right for the better part of an hour. You cross Stephenson’s tubular bridge at Conwy, then the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait onto Anglesey, with Snowdonia sitting off to the left. This is one reason to do the journey during the daytime.

Making a Stop Along the Way

I broke my journey partway. Left Euston at 07:46, spent the day somewhere on the route, and got back on the rails at 21:49, arriving Holyhead just before midnight. It turned a transport day into an actual travel day, and it is the thing I would most encourage other people to copy.

But you have to ticket it correctly.

⚠ Read This Before You Plan A Stopover Sail Rail tickets do not permit break of journey. Transport for Wales is explicit about it: the only stopping you are allowed to do is changing from one train to another. If you want to spend six hours in a Welsh or Cheshire town on the way, do not just get off and assume your ticket still works. The clean way to do it is two tickets: a normal rail ticket from London to your chosen stop, then a separate Sail Rail from that station through to Dublin. Sail Rail is priced from stations all over the British network, not just London, so the second leg is often not too pricey. Whether the total still beats the tax depends entirely on what you pay for the first leg — book that Advance and it can land well under; buy it walk-up on the day and it will not. But as a non-rev you may have to do that

Good candidates for the stop, depending on how the timetable falls: Chester (Roman walls, a complete medieval city center, and it is on the direct line), Llandudno (Victorian seaside pier, cable car up the Great Orme), Conwy (the castle is right by the station), or Bangor. Any of them turn a slog into a day out.

Holyhead at Night

This was my second time in Holyhead, this time at night.

The station, the ferry terminal and the town center are all joined by the Celtic Gateway Bridge. A stainless-steel footbridge that opened in 2006. You walk off the train, over the bridge, and you are in the town. It is minutes, not a taxi ride. That design is what makes a night wander possible at all.

There is a signposted 3-mile circular town walk that takes in most of what there is to see. As it was late I didn’t get beyond the end of the bridge walkway this time:

• St Cybi’s Church — built inside the walls of a Roman fort. The fort walls are still standing around it. This is genuinely unusual and worth the ten minutes.
• The Skinner Monument — an obelisk on the hill with the whole harbor laid out below it.
• The George IV Arch, 1824, marking the king’s arrival, and the Market Hall from 1855.
• Holyhead Breakwater — opened in 1873, 2.75 km long, still the longest breakwater in the United Kingdom.
• Holyhead Maritime Museum, in the town’s old lifeboat station.

Obviously the museum is not open at eleven forty-five at night. But the church, the arch, the monument, the waterfront and the harbor lights are all perfectly good in the dark, and the town is quiet and safe to walk. If your train gets in earlier in the evening you can add food; if you are on the late train, budget an hour, keep it to the town center, and be back across the bridge by midnight.

💡 Timing Tip Holyhead does not have a large stock of late-night food. Eat on the train, or buy something in town before things shut. There is food on the ferry, but see the pricing note below.

Check-In: 12:30 AM for a 1:30 AM Sailing

This is where it stops feeling like a train trip and starts feeling like an airport, only calmer.

Foot passengers, as we are called :-), check in at least 30 minutes before departure with Irish Ferries, and 40 minutes with Stena Line. For the 01:30 Irish Ferries sailing that means the hard cutoff is 01:00. I checked in at 00:30, which gave me a comfortable half-hour buffer and no sweating.

Check-in works like this:

1. Ticket check. Your Sail Rail ticket is presented and you receive a boarding card; no seat number though :-).
2. Document check. They look at your passport here — this is a carrier document check, not immigration. Carry a passport even though this is technically a domestic-ish movement within the Common Travel Area. Non-Irish and non-British nationals absolutely need it.
3. The departure lounge. You wait here once you are checked in. It is a lounge, not a terminal — seats, vending, restrooms.
   
   

   Departure Lounge in Holyhead

4. The bus. A courtesy bus shuttled us to the ferry.

There were about thirty of us on that bus. The driver waited for the very last passenger then we left. There was even a baby in a stroller.

The bus then did something unexpected, it did not drop us at a gangway — it drove right into the ferry, onto the vehicle deck, and stopped directly at the internal door for the passenger stairs. You step off the bus, walk through the door, and climb to Deck 5. Then the bus reverses out of the ferry and drives off.

When the ferry casts off, you can watch from the outer deck. This was pretty fascinating to see despite the chilly weather at that time of the morning.

Onboard: It Is a Cruise Ship That Happens to Carry Trucks

🚢 Know Which Ferry You Are Getting Irish Ferries runs two different vessels on this route, and they are not the same experience. The 01:30 and 13:15 are the Ulysses; the big one, 209 meters long, and the ferry everything below describes. The 07:30 and 19:30 are the James Joyce, which is a smaller, older ferry and does not have the cinema. If a specific facility matters to you, pick your sailing by ferry, not just by time.

I was on the Ulysses. It is one of the largest ferries operating in the Irish Sea — roughly 1,875 passengers and around 1,340 vehicles, with several decks given over entirely to cars and trucks. And there were a lot of trucks. There were about thirty or so of us on foot as they say, freight everywhere. That freight is why this sailing exists at 1:30 in the morning. We are just along for the ride.

What is upstairs:

• A cinema. An actual two-screen picture theater, showing actual films. (Ulysses only.)
• A pet area — a dedicated den where you can sit with your dog, with access to an outside space. Important caveat: Irish Ferries only accepts pets on this route when you are traveling with a vehicle. If you are walking on with a Sail Rail ticket, you cannot bring an animal. Great facility; not available to the readers of this particular post.
  
  

  Pet Den on the Ulysses Irish Ferry

• A paid premium lounge. Quieter, more space, big windows, complimentary soft drinks and snacks. Prices start around £18. Worth it in daylight when there is actually an Irish Sea to look at; at 2 AM you are paying for a nicer chair in the dark, so I didn’t bother.
• Cabins. Private, en-suite, air-conditioned. On my sailing they were showing from €24 to €79 depending on type — pricing moves, so treat that as a ballpark, not a rate card. On a 3½-hour overnight crossing, if you have anywhere to be the next day, this is the best money on the whole trip. Book it when you book the ticket; there are only around a hundred cabins on board and they go pretty quickly.
  
  

  The hallway near the cabins on the Ulysses Ireland ferry

• Three restaurants plus a bar and a coffee shop. All of them pricey. Bring your own food :-).
  
  

  Onboard restaurant

  

  Price list on the Ulysses restaurant

• Free wifi, duty free shopping, a family entertainment area, and an outside promenade deck.
• Comfy chairs. The reclining seating area is the sleeper option for the rest of us. Mine had USB ports, which meant I got a charge as well as about two hours of sleep.

Bring: a neck pillow (as much as I’m not a fan), an eye mask, earplugs, a charging cable, and a jumper. The ferry is warm but the promenade deck at 3 AM in the middle of the Irish Sea is not.

05:00 — Dublin Port

I arrived exactly on time at 05:00. The published timetables allow 3 hours 30 minutes gate to gate on both operators, though both market the crossing itself as 3 hours 15.

I went to watch the docking as well as the departure of the cars and trucks. Fascinating. Eventually, I found my way off the ferry. It wasn’t very clear and there was no announcement. I went back to the front desk of the ferry and asked where to go. The exit was right next to the reception area. After that it was Immigration and Customs. No passport stamp though as I arrived from the U.K., it seems. Britain and Ireland operate under what’s called a Common Travel Area, and arrivals from Britain are not treated as a standard international arrival. Passports were checked before I left Holyhead.

Regardless of citizenship, have your documents ready.

Getting Into the City: The €3 Bus

Dublin Port sits about three miles from the city center, and there is a special shuttle — Nolan’s route 853 — running from outside the terminal.

• €3 to Dublin city center, €4.50 through to Heuston Station.
• Strictly cashless. Credit card, debit card or Leap card only. No cash, at all. Have a card out before you get to the door.
• Stops include Connolly Station, Georges Quay, Aston Quay and Heuston.
• It runs to its own timetable, not to the ferry. The published morning departure from the ferry terminal is around 05:50, with roughly 25 minutes to Connolly and about 45 through to the Heuston end. So budget a short wait after you clear the terminal, and do not plan a 05:15 dash into town.

⚠ Check the 853 Timetable Before You Sail The shuttle runs only a handful of times a day and the departures are pinned to the sailings, not to demand. If your ferry is delayed or you are slow through customs, the next one may be hours away. Screenshot the current timetable before you leave — there is no guarantee of signal or a working phone at 5 AM in a port.

There is also a public Dublin Bus route (53) serving the port area. Taxis are available at the terminal, figure roughly €15–20 to a city center hotel for a nine-minute run, which split between two people is not far off the bus and gets you moving immediately.

You Arrive at 5 AM. Now What?

Five in the morning is a horrible arrival time. Nothing is open. If you’re staying in Dublin, the hotel will not check you in for another 10 hours.

Three ways to handle it:

1. Book the night before and eat the cost. Reserve the room for the previous night so it is yours when you walk in at 05:30 or thereabouts. You pay for a night you barely use, but you get a bed, a shower and a lie-down, and after a 1:30 AM ferry that is worth real money. You can also book a hotel for a few hours at Nappr.io/?passrider
2. Go straight to the airport. If Dublin is purely a positioning move and your flight is that morning, the port-to-airport run is straightforward and you will be at the terminal before the check-in desks open. You can take the Dublin Express from its stops in the City Center. Buy your tickets online or on the bus.
3. Do the whole thing in daylight instead. See below.

Where to Stay in Dublin

Map of what is actually available near the port, the city center and the airport — move it around and compare:

Booking through this map supports Passrider at no extra cost to you.

The Civilized Version: Do It in Daylight

Everything above is the hardcore version. You do not have to do it that way, and for most people I would not recommend it.

There are four sailings a day on each operator. Typically:

Operator	Holyhead departures	Ship	Crossing
Irish Ferries (Dublin Ferryport, DFP)	01:30 · 13:15 07:30 · 19:30	Ulysses James Joyce	3h 30m
Stena Line (Dublin Port, DPS)	04:00 · 10:00 · 16:00 · 22:15	Adventurer / Estrid	3h 30m

Schedule subject to change. Confirm at the time of making the booking.

Which gives you these much more humane itineraries:

• Morning train, afternoon ferry, dinner in Dublin. The Avanti service out of Euston connects properly to the 13:15 — which is the Ulysses, so you get the big ferry and the cinema in daylight. You are in the city by evening, you sleep in a bed, and the whole thing costs the same £53.40. This is the version I would actually recommend.
• Overnight in Holyhead or Chester, morning ferry. Break it into two easy days. Stop somewhere in North Wales, sleep, take the 07:30 and be in Dublin for lunch. Note that one is the James Joyce — smaller ferry, no cinema, still perfectly comfortable.
• The 22:15 Stena sailing if you want an evening departure without the 1:30 AM masochism, arriving Dublin at about 01:45. Same 5 AM problem in reverse: nothing is open at two in the morning either.

London to Dublin by Train and Ferry: The Honest Verdict

London to Dublin by train and ferry was a very good ride. The trains are comfortable and the North Wales stretch is legitimately beautiful, at least during the daytime :-). Holyhead is a better town than its reputation. The ferry is enormous, warm and well-equipped. The crossing is smooth and punctual. And you arrive in Dublin having paid nothing to leave the UK except the cost of the ferry and train tickets.

But at 1:30 in the morning it is tiring. I slept about two hours in the comfy chair — which had USB ports, so I got a charge out of it too — and I was functional in Dublin, not sharp. Next time, I’ll book a cabin without thinking twice.

Would I do it again? Yes — but on the afternoon sailing, with a stop along the way, and a hotel at the other end. The overnight is for when the schedule demands it. And, yes if I do the 1:30 AM sailing, I would get the room on the ferry :-).

The Timeline, Start to Finish

Here is the whole London to Dublin by train and ferry run as it actually happened, hour by hour.

Time	What happened
07:46	Departed London Euston
Daytime	Broke the journey — a full day out en route
21:49	Back on the train toward Holyhead
~23:50	Arrived Holyhead. Over the Celtic Gateway Bridge into town
23:50–00:30	Night walk around Holyhead — church, arch, harbor
00:30	Ferry check-in. Tickets + document check. Cutoff is 01:00
~01:10	Transfer bus takes ~30 foot passengers into the ferry’s vehicle deck
01:30	Cast off, dead on time
01:30–05:00	~2 hours’ sleep in a reclining seat with USB power
05:00	Arrive at Dublin Port, on time
05:15	Immigration and customs. No passport stamp
~05:50	€3 cashless shuttle into the city — around 25 minutes to Connolly

Frequently Asked Questions

Keep Going

The Full List 8 Ways To Avoid UK Air Passenger Duty Every legitimate workaround for the UK departure tax, including the ones that do not involve a 1:30 AM ferry. READ THE GUIDE

Go Deeper Europe Non-Rev Planning Playbook Hub-by-hub strategies, partner carrier tips, and everything you need to crack Europe on standby. GET THE PLAYBOOK ($15)

Free Download The Non-Rev Flight Checklist Every step from listing to landing. Plus the weekly email: routes, loads and travel hacks like this one. GET THE CHECKLIST

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. If you book through them, Passrider may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. It helps keep the lights on. Prices and schedules quoted were correct at the time of writing. Always confirm before you travel.