Here’s a guide to the not so easy route of getting from Liverpool Airport to Birkenhead Port, and thus Belfast (or Dublin if you fancy).
I’ll leave my disdain for Wizz Air (worst airline in the world) for another time, but I was charged 35 Euro for my boarding pass (even though their app did not work), and they tried to bump me from their overbooked flight.
Rant over. Liverpool AirPort AKA John Lennon is a nice small affair, and transport from here is relatively easy. A taxi to Birkenhead port would cost $50 plus, so the cheapest option is bus and train.
There are a couple of direct buses to Birkenhead from the airport, but all at importune times. The top tip is to take the 86A all the way to Liverpool First from where you can take the train from Moorfields Station to Hamilton Square in Birkenhead. The bus is about $3, train about $4.
When I arrived at Hamilton Square and asked the (very) friendly lady how to get from Hamilton square to the Stena-Line ferry port she asked if I was taking a cab, and when I said no she declared me somewhat crazy and said it would be a 20-minute walk!!!!
She was about right, and the walk was easy enough, and I arrived 2 hours before boarding.
Is there anything to eat at the Birkenhead ferry terminal? The quick answer is there is not, there is also nothing to do at all at the Stena-Lina ferry terminal, although you are allowed to “go through” an hour before boarding where there is an expensive café type thing, and vending machines that charge a quid for a packet of crisps (have I been away that long?).
You are allowed to board the Birkenhead to Belfast ferry about an hour before departure, and it is fit with your cabins, and as you’d expect overpriced food and drinks. I enjoyed the ferry ride, so that will get its own blog, and as for getting from Belfast Port to Belfast City, that is the whole story to itself.