I popped into Stena Line's duty free shop and came out with bags of bargains

There’s usually not the same fuss and bother that can sometimes set the nerves jangling at an airport when factors you have no control of conspire against you.

You also have plenty of choice regarding where and how to spend your time onboard, depending on your views of how close you prefer to be to strangers.

Then there’s the opportunity to relax and just let yourself by carried on the waves to your destination, which sea travellers have done in one form or other for centuries.

Surprisingly, the journey can also present an enjoyable opportunity to save some money, which I’m always interested in!

I’d never given much thought to duty free shopping on a ferry until I took a trip with Stena Line from Dublin to Holyhead this summer.

My preconceived idea that the onboard duty free shop would offer little more than booze and giant Toblerones was soon dispelled and I was more than pleasantly surprised at how much choice there was. In fact, there are more than 450 premium brands to choose.

My challenge was to see what bargains I could find with a spending limit of £150 and it soon became apparant that serious savings could be notched up with some savvy shopping.

Although I hadn’t planned on buying alcohol on the trip, it was clear there were some very attractive prices, especially if you make use of the special onboard ‘mix and match’ offers.

For instance, one-litre bottles of The Famous Grouse, Beefeater London Dry Gin, Bacardi and Absolut Vodka were on sale at £15 each which, compared to supermarket prices, is definitely a good deal. For example, the same size bottle of Absolut Vodka would normally set you back more than £20 on dry land. Where the duty free shopping experience really comes into its own is when you buy more than one bottle as two cost £25 and there’s even more to be saved if you purchase four for just £40.

There were also some very neat deals on double packs of spirits such as two one-litre bottles of Jack Daniel’s for £39; two one-litre bottles of Bombay Sapphire for £29 and two one-litre bottles of Captain Morgan for £25.

I was quite taken aback by the wide choice of fragrances and body care products from many of the big names. Again, there are some really good prices to be had but like all duty free shopping it pays to do a little homework in advance so you know how much you’d pay for your favourite items elsewhere, especially taking into account if there are any special offers to be had.

For example, during my browsing I spotted Versace Crystal Emerald Eau de Parfum 50ml on sale for £72. Considering this can cost upwards of £90 elsewhere, buying it duty free could make for decent savings.

I love brands like Rituals, L’Occitane and Molton Brown and spotted quite a selection of these in the Stena Line duty free shop along with many other top names. One of my favourite products is Rituals’ foaming shower gel, although I’m pretty reluctant to spend the normal price of £10-plus for it. The duty free price was £8.50 so that made me feel a little less indulgent.

I also spotted quite a few body care gift packs, offering products at a bigger saving to what they would be individually, but again it’s well worth knowing the price of items in advance so you can be a confident duty free shopper.

There are plenty of opportunities to spoil both yourself and others with a visit to the Stena Line duty free shop, with not only the more usual items but also a decent range of electronics, gift items and family favourites like Lego. I did find it a bit more tricky to work out if confectionery items were big savers or not as some were travel exclusive items which I hadn’t come across in normal shops.

However, it was good to see a fair selection of the luxury Irish Butlers chocolate brand, with both gift-packaged options and individual bars for sale and I did indulge in a few of these.

Armed with a variety of goodies, my check-out balance came in at just under the £150 limit and I was more than happy at both the range of items to choose from plus the savings to be had.

Stena Line has made it super easy for everyone to grab bargains like I did with its special duty free day trips which cost from just £10 per person. All you have to do to bag those great duty free deals is book a foot passenger round trip between Dublin and Holyhead or Rosslare and Fishguard.

You obviously won’t spend the entire trip in the duty free shop, but there’s a variety of options on how to pass your time onboard. You could take advantage of the Stena Plus Lounge, the Hygge Recline Lounge, The Living Room area or just sit back in a comfortable seat in one of the main areas and enjoy the view with a coffee. You can also pop into one of the comfortable Movie Lounges to enjoy some screen time, while if you’ve got younger travellers on tow they would enjoy some time in the Game Zone or Happy World areas.

However, if you are doing some duty free shopping, it is always worth remembering to check out your allowances before you go too mad at the checkout.