Startup company "Holland Norway Lines" will launch a new passenger and car ferry service linking the Netherlands and Norway from April 2022.
Holland Norway Lines' route connecting Eemshaven (port to Groningen City, Netherlands) with Kristiansand (Norway) will take 18 hours and provide an option for traveling between northern & western Europe without flying.
The ferry service will depart Eemshaven at 3 pm (on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays), arriving in Kristiansand at 9 am the following day. The return crossing departs from Kristiansand at 3 pm (on Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays). Early bird tickets are now on sale for trips starting April 7, next year, starting at EUR 200 per person.
Kristiansand is a popular tourism travel destination, with the best summer weather in Norway, good beaches, the Dyreparken zoo and theme park.
The new route will open up brand-new self-drive options for voyages in southern Norway, and the company hopes Norwegians will embrace the route. Out of Eemshaven, it is a 2-hour drive to Amsterdam (Holland), 6 hours to Berlin (Germany), and 7 hours to Paris (France).
This route is also an interesting indirect option for traveling between the UK and Norway. Since the closure of the historic route from Newcastle to Bergen and Stavanger in 2008, the 2 countries have lacked the direct ferry connection despite several attempts to restart.
Holland Norway Lines is now hedging its bets at launch via chartering out the Tallink Romantika ferry from Tallink Group's subsidiary Tallink Latvija for a 3-year period. The ferryboat has max capacity 1500 passengers and 350 cars.