Cotswold Eagle

Absolutely agree that you want to be on the Jubilee at Waterloo for this one. OP - as you will find when you get there, Waterloo is a large station, with a complicated Underground element. Different lines have different exits and, as Globaliser says, the Jubilee exit is right on the road for your hotel. Other exits are up a level and across the concourse. Not so bad when you are out and about sightseeing, but not when you first arrive with luggage. But being a maverick, I’d do the Heathrow Express, and then Bakerloo tube from Paddington and try to remember to do an Baker Street shuffle (an almost cross-platform change - it’s a short passageway) on to the Jubilee! But since the £5-50 advance tickets on the HEX went away, this is a more expensive option. This game is endless for those of us who spend a lot of time travelling around London, I’m afraid. I worked at LHR for a few months a million years ago and spent literally weeks of my life on the Piccadilly line, so will happily pay a small premium not to use it now…. But at least you see you have many public transport options 😀

The only rail service with actual luggage racks serving Heathrow is the Heathrow Express. The Elizabeth Line trains are 'metro style', but perhaps more comfortable than the stock on the Piccadilly tube line (they are air conditioned, as you say). The picture half way down this page will give you an idea of a moderately busy Elizabeth line train. The Elizabeth Line is not the panacea to travel into central London from Heathrow that some folk would have you believe (for a start that is not its primary purpose). It makes most sense if you are heading right across London or somewhere close to an Elizabeth Line station in town. Changing at Bond Street suggests to me this might not be an optional routing... 😀

There is a direct service twice an hour from London Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside. [There are two 'Windsor & Eton' stations close by each other - Central, which is the one you are referring to, and Riverside]

And every Train Operating Company that I use has a banner across their website with details of forthcoming industrial action, so it's really very simple to check in advance, just as you would for flights.

Good shout, I didn't think of that.... The Queen's Arms has a full breakfast on its menu for £16, which isn't too bad by airport prices, I suppose 😀

Indeed it does 😀

Once landslide, pop up to T2 Departures and there's a large pub, The Queen's Arms, which serves breakfast from early morning. https://www.queensarmsheathrow.co.uk I don't know when you last flew in, but I'm pretty sure the Giraffe landslide at T3 is no more. The only Giraffe listed at LHR is the one airside T5.

A more useful local link might be this from Dutch Customs. They list an office in Amsterdam for those leaving by sea, but it's nowhere near the PTA as far as I can see. Maybe contact them for more info, unless someone with direct experience in Amsterdam pops up! https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontenten/belastingdienst/individuals/abroad_and_customs/luggage/leaving_the_netherlands/contact-customs-offices

As always on this board, there'll be as many opinions as posters, but you'll see a few 'favourites' emerge at various price points and some factors to take into account 😀

Wow, what an adventure you'll have! Definitely no value in using up days on the short and cheap journey to/from Southampton, then 😀

No sticky, but plenty of previous threads....

What is your definition of this? It’s a phrase that causes some difficulty. 😀 There’s plenty of information to get you started in this thread from a year ago, though!

As I said in an earlier post, it’s in the Eurail journey planner…..the map can’t possibly show every station in Europe 😀

I’m still not clear what you mean by this. What site did you book your tickets on? I wonder if you mean the ‘Railcards’ drop down, which is standard on most U.K. train booking sites - you wouldn’t expect to find Eurail there, it’s something else entirely (railcards in this sense are cards that give discounts of various types). To book a Eurail journey you would not go through this process - it’s done on their own app or by filling in the details on a paper Eurail pass.

I don't know very much about Eurail, but London-Southampton does come up on the Eurail journey planner, so I would think you could use them, but it may not represent good value for two of your travel days, depending on the pass you have bought? That's currently the cheapest option for those journey times. They are 'Advance' tickets, which means they are only valid for the service (train times) shown, but for two people return that's a very good price. Yes 😀

It seems this experience was in Copenhagen, not Amsterdam,

No need at all to take a cruise line excursion, just follow the earlier advice about walking up and taking a canal cruise when you feel like it - you can pick which one you like the look of! The price of that excursion seems to be about three times what the canal cruise actually costs.

Still there 🙂

There was a brief thread on this a little while back. Predictably, opinion here was divided between not doing HOHO in Amsterdam, doing the HOHO bus, doing the HOHO boat, doing the HOHO bus/boat combo or doing the HOHO Bus with standard canal cruise (so basically all the City Sightseeing options). Are there one or two sights you particularly want to see - as always, HOHO is good for an overview, but terrible for point-to-point transportation? The HOHO bus does stop at the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, so that is something to be said for it, if you are docking there. Personally, I think that Amsterdam is so easy to get around on foot and tram that I wouldn't bother with the HOHO (but definitely do a canal cruise). But as I say, opinions vary!

Consensus here is that would be quite tight- how's your risk appetite and what's Plan B ?😀 See this fairly recent post from JB (the query here was about a flight about 55 minutes later than the one you are considering). Definitely walk off and book a local car service.

As Globaliser says, Westminster station is definitely more convenient for the Park Plaza across the bridge. Not sure where you read this about stairs - there are flights of stairs at various entrances to the station, but there is a lift at the Bridge Street north entrance (opposite 'Big Ben' on the bridge foot) and then lifts or escalators down to the platforms. The bridge itself is a gentle slope. It can get quite busy with pedestrians, particularly when there are teams of 'cup and ball' scammers blocking the way!

Premier Inn breakfast menu is online here, if that helps. I wouldn’t book in advance - try it the first morning and see how it goes, maybe?

Good point, but I wonder if that’s on a per passenger basis 😀 Given its service record, you might think TfL would want to take some of the load off the EL…

It’s what the TfL journey planner throws up (I was curious, so I checked….) It will only show the much preferable Piccadilly/District Lines route if you specifically exclude the Elizabeth Line….They reckon it’s about 10 minutes quicker, hence the suggestion, and nothing to do with revenue at all 🤣

Fortunately, as this is one of the main purposes of the EES, they have this covered…. https://travel-europe.europa.eu/ees/tools-and-services_en