Covid: Temporary Holyhead to Belfast ferry service set to start

Passengers will travel on Stena's Estrid ship on the new north Wales to Northern Ireland route

A temporary weekend ferry service will run between Wales and Northern Ireland throughout the summer.

Operator Stena Line will operate a Holyhead to Belfast leisure and freight route between 25 June and 18 July.

UK travellers to Northern Ireland are not required to take a Covid test or quarantine, something that's needed if you travel to the Republic of Ireland.

The Wales to Northern Ireland route will replace weekend services between Holyhead and Dublin during that period.

The eight-hour sailings to Northern Ireland will be overnight and depart from Holyhead at 23:30 BST on Saturdays and Sundays.

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The services to Wales will depart Belfast at 09:30 on Saturdays and Sundays.

"The current travel restrictions between Britain and Ireland have created a lot of pent-up travel demand," said Paul Grant of Stena.

The new temporary route from north Wales adds to Stena's other services between the UK mainland and Northern Ireland. Leisure and freight passengers can use the Belfast to Cairnryan in Scotland and Belfast to Liverpool routes while Belfast to Heysham is freight only.