Ferry from Napoli (Naples) to Palermo with a Campervan

What to expect on the Naples to Palermo Ferry

A survival guide for overnight deck passage

Booking

There are two ports in the Naples ‘region’, Napoli and Salerno. Make sure when booking you have checked which one you want to depart from. For us wee went from the main port of Naploli on the overnight ferry on the Tirrenia service which runs up to 10 times per week with a duration from 9 h15 m - 10h30m.

Be mindful that these times do not include check in and disembarkment, the same as an airline flight. We looked around on ferry comparison sites first usually checking 2 or 3 and comparing that with booking directly with the company. Lucky for us there was a deal on campers and motorhomes when we booked direct with Tirrenia so through their somewhat functioning website we went ahead and booked. I recommend using the paypal secure service instead of directly putting card details in - but that’s just the paranoid traveller in me.

After booking you will receive a “Dear Client, Thank for choosing our services!’ confirmation email with your ticket and general conditions attached as pdfs. Check that everything on your tickets is correct and disregard the instructions to ‘print out the ticket and general conditions’ using your smart phone is fine, they even say so in the same email ‘You can also show the barcode of the ticket for your trip directly on your smartphone.’

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Check in

Tirrenia state that the deadline for check in with a vehicle is 90 minutes before departure and we STRONGLY recommend allowing way more time than that as the check in and boarding process in Napoli was, well, Italian in style. Very much seeming to made up as they go along no communication and very disorganised.

Unlike other ferry services where check in is often right near or next to the boat you are waiting to about to board, in Napoles we went to the address listed by Tirrenia to be sent away, in Italian, to a ‘check in’ point. After driving around the round-abouts and looping back and forth through the port we finally found a carpark with one guys standing in the middle and a very small Tirrenia sign leaning on a fence. The man directed us on where to park with a flurry of arm waving and yelling before scanning our ticked on a handheld device (there is no office or structure, just a man in a carpark) and producing stickers for our front window and a ‘receipt’ for you to present when you board to show how many people you have - do not lose this! You also need to have your passport on you in case they check. They checked on the ferry back from Sicily which you can read about here. You then sit and wait.

We were told they have the right to search our vehicle but seemingly no one cared.

Note on cost: Ferry’s with a campervan are expensive BUT we worked out that if we were to drive to Palermo in Sicily, it would be more than 10 hours of driving, around 750 km of fuel and tolls plus the short but expensive (around 50 euro) Messina ferry from the toe of the boot. So at 155 euro for the van and both of us overnight, this way was so much cheaper, more convenient and time efficient than driving. Of course if you have lots of time and want to drive down and take lots of time going though the south of Italy then do it!

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Boarding

Once checked in, you wait to be waived on and usually campers, commercial vans and trucks are loaded on to the boat first. Remember if you are last on, you are first off, but you also may park everyone else in so remember where you have parked and make a note to get back to your vehicle quickly if you have parked everyone in. If 6 weeks of driving in Italy has taught us anything it is that Italians have ZERO patience on the road.

Once you have driven your vehicle up onto the ship (a very easy process with more arm waving) you need to gather your things to head up to the living deck. Not only will you not be allowed to camp in your vehicle, but once the boat departs you can no longer access the garage and there are staff down their all night as well as a bucketload of security cameras so make sure you have everything. You’ll go up a set of escalators and someone will check the ‘receipt’ that you got at check in before you can enter the upper decks.

Overnight Deck passage

Tirrenia overnight boats consist of a couple of decks that passengers can access, there are garages down below, a living deck with bars, restaurants, seating areas, a kids playpen, games room and ‘cinema’ and then the upper decks with a variety of cabins.

We could not afford the cabins. They aren’t crazy expensive, but for what they are and after reading a few blogs, we felt emboldened to attempt what is called ‘deck passage’ . Essentially this gives you a ticket on the boat but no room. We learnt a LOT on our first overnight deck passage and were much better prepared when we we went back and then to croatia. We didn’t pack enough food, or water, we took sleeping bags but should have had eye masks and ear plugs.

When sleeping in the ‘bar’ you are essentially in a huge room with lots of lounge arrangements and VERY loud and competing televisions. During the early stage of the journey, most people are out in the common area as the cabins are small with no entertainment. We noticed around 11.30pm - 12pm most people had gone to their rooms and all that was left were crew, clearly experienced overnight ‘deck passengers’ and us struggling to figure out what we were and weren’t allowed to do. Turns out, it is VERY free and easy. People had brought wine and spirits, packed bags of food, blankets and pillows. We realised that we were free to take our shoes off and sleep across the couches with no one blinking an eye.

We did make the huge mistake of sleeping under a television and waking to 30 or so people sat watching both us and the TV as we wearily woke and packed our stuff up. We also had dinner in the cheapest cafeteria style ‘restaurant’ and it was insanely expensive and absolutely terrible and bland. Lesson learnt see the summary here.

As there is two of us, finding a spot and taking turns going for a walk or to the bathroom was easy. If you are alone however there is no place to securely leave you stuff so you will need to take it with you. There are no showers but toilets are easily accessible, clean and free.

Arrival and disembarkment

Arrival, in contrast to departure, is with little fanfare, staff instruction or interaction. Basically you just drive off.

An announcement comes over the speakers, everyone starts to head to the garages, you hop in you Van and drive off, no check out or document control. We were so tired after listening to insane game show chatter in Italian with the lights on all night so drove off the ship straight to a free park near the port that you can see here and stayed a couple of days to explore Palermo before heading off.

So I hope this helps someone like us. If you want to read how to do overnight deck passage right, check out our return journey, Palermo to Napoli, here!

Did we miss anything? Questions? Post them here!