Travel
Going There
A number of airlines operate regular services to the Isle of Man from regional airports throughout the British Isles such as Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, London (Gatwick, Luton, London City) and Birmingham. The Isle of Man Airport is located at Ronaldsway, near Castletown, in the south of the island. There are regular bus services from the Airport to Castletown and Douglas. There are many flights operating from the island's Ronaldsway airport to several destinations in England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands. A ticketing agency based on the island, Manx2 operates flights to Belfast from £15 one-way including tax.
The six airlines offer direct schedule services from 20 airports in the UK and Europe with the following options:
- Aer Arann / twice daily from Dublin | thrice daily from London City
- Blue Islands / once daily from Guernsey | once daily from Jersey
- Eastern Airways / twice daily from Birmingham | once daily from Newcastle
- Flybe / twice daily from Belfast City | once daily from Birmingham | once daily from Edinburgh | 4xs daily from Liverpool | 4xs daily from London Gatwick | 4xs daily from Manchester
- Manx2 / thrice daily from Belfast City | twice daily from Belfast International | 4xs daily from Blackpool | once daily from East Midlands | twice daily from Gloucester | once daily from Jersey | twice daily from Leeds Bradford
- VLM / once daily from Antwerp to London City to Isle of Man
Besides flying, you can also choose to take a ferry operated by Steam Packet Company to Douglas from:
- Liverpool, England - 2h 30m (Fast craft) / 4h (conventional ferry)
- Heysham, Lancashire, England - 4h 30m (conventional ferry)
- Belfast, Northern Ireland - 2h 45m (Fast craft)
- Dublin, Ireland - 2h 50m (Fast craft) / 4h 45m (conventional ferry)
Going Around
The Isle of Man has a very extensive road network which is passably well maintained. Congestion is low (outside Douglas at rush hour). Rules of the road closely mirror those of the United Kingdom with the exception that there is no overall speed limit for private vehicles (in other words, in a derestricted zone there is no blanket 70 or 60 mph limit like there is in the UK). Drive on the left. It is illegal to use a hand held mobile phone whilst driving. Petrol is expensive, even by UK standards. Many of the country roads are narrow with substantial stone walls on each side, making evasive driving potentially tricky. Despite the absence of speed limits outside urban areas, caution is advised.
The Isle of Man has a quite extensive public transit system using mostly buses. With a bit of planning, it is possible to get almost everywhere on the Island using this transit system.
The island's capital, Douglas, has horse drawn trams operating along the Promenade (linking with the Manx Electric Railway). This is really a novelty available during the summer rather than a serious way of getting anywhere in particular.
Outside of Douglas, railways can operate from Douglas. In the south of the island, the Isle of Man Railway is a historic narrow-gauge steam railway operating between Douglas, Castletown and Port Erin except during winter months. In the north of the island, the Manx Electric Railway runs between Douglas and Ramsey using the original historic tramcars from the 1890s. Additionally, the Snaefell Mountain Railway (to the summit of Snaefell) starts from Laxey, where connections with the Manx Electric Railway are available.
Caravans (camper trailers) may not be brought to the island.
Weather
The Isle of Man has temperate cool summers with overcast about one third of the time. Bringing an umbrella or raincoat .
Phone
The international dial code for the Isle of Man is the same as the United Kingdom and as part of the UK telephone system has the dial code 01624 Prepaid SIM cards are readily available in mobile phone shops around the place.