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Over the holidays on a North Sea island or on the coast? According to tourism associations, many travelers have this goal. Some ferry companies are reacting and are therefore planning more ferry departures.
If you want to relax over the holidays on a vacation on the coast or on the North Sea islands, you should plan enough time for the arrival and departure. The ferry companies in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony are expecting many holidaymakers and are sometimes planning more ferry departures.
“Wednesday will be the day with the greatest rush,” said a spokeswoman for the shipping company Norden-Frisia, which operates the ferry service to the East Frisian islands of Juist and Norderney. There will be eight additional departures to Norderney alone. In order to get connections on the return journey from the islands on Sunday, rail travelers in particular should plan more time, it said. According to the operators, the trains towards the coast and the car trains to and from Sylt also get full at times.
Increased booking situation also over Pentecost
The operator of the blue car train to Sylt, das Railway company RDC, expects an increased volume of travel to Westerland on Wednesday and also on Ascension Day. On Wednesday, the trains in particular were in high demand from the afternoon to the evening, said an RDC spokeswoman. “For Thursday we have a high booking rate throughout the day, except at off-peak times.” The blue car train also recorded an increased booking situation for the Pentecost days. Extra late trains are therefore offered on the Wednesday evening before Ascension Day and on the Thursday and Friday before Pentecost.
Deutsche Bahn also reports a high level of occupancy for the Sylt Shuttle around Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Anyone traveling without a reservation should switch to earlier or later connections, said a railway spokeswoman. In addition, the trains are particularly busy on the main traffic routes. According to Deutsche Bahn, the long weekend around Ascension Day is one of the busiest times for long-distance travel.
For the Ferry service to and from the island of Wangerooge, which is also operated by Deutsche Bahn, some online tickets are already fully booked. Tickets for individual days are then only available in the local ferry station. “During the narrow tide time window, all ships that are possible are in use,” said the railway.
Transport capacities are sufficient
The Wyker Dampfschiffs-Reederei (WDR) ferries, which run from Dagebüll Mole to Föhr and Amrum, are also well booked. For the Ascension Day weekend and the Whitsun weekend there are still ferry places for vehicles to be booked in the morning and evening, said authorized officer Nick Obert. He pointed out that there is always the option of leaving the car in Dagebüll if the desired departure is fully booked. There is therefore sufficient capacity for the transport of people at all times.
“Many of our customers know the situation and book their ferry trips in good time because they already know who books early has the best choice.” This is almost always the case around public holidays with long weekends. “Nevertheless, it can sometimes happen that we reach our limits and are no longer able to accept any further car bookings for certain days.”
On the Lower Saxony North Sea coast, tourism professionals are satisfied with the booking situation for the holidays – even if accommodation is still available. According to a survey of hotels, guesthouses and other accommodations by the North Sea Tourism Agency (Tano), half of the companies surveyed indicated an occupancy rate of more than 90 percent. In another large proportion, it was over 75 percent. The bottom line is that the utilization is at the previous year’s level, it said.
