Places to visit from Southampton

We will dock in Southampton at 9AM & have to be back onboard at 7:30PM Friday, October 5th.

We enjoy seeing the countryside, exploring the culture, etc more so than visiting museums & architecture.

We rarely if ever book ship excursions but since London is so far from Edinburgh we thought about booking NCL's Bus & Boat Tour but it is not showing availablity anymore.

We 'thought' we needed to see London but I am not sure we would enjoy spending most of the day on a bus anyway.

Do you have any suggestions for us? We are not really interested in Stonehenge.

Thanks,

Juli

I have not been, but I would love to visit Osborne House, Queen Victoria's home on the Isle of Wight. I tried to figure out how to fit it in when we disembark from our cruise next month, but it didn't make the cut when prioritizing. You can get there by ferry from Southampton.

Well, I clearly didn't read carefully since you said you prefer other things to museums/architecture, but I'll leave the comment in case it helps someone else reading this thread. The Isle of Wight seems like it's a very pretty place to explore, so maybe it's a possibility anyway for just seeing the countryside.

The train would provide you with many opportunities to see the countryside and experience some English culture. Winchester is a lovely place to visit and easy to get to by a short train ride. Perhaps research what it has to offer .... check out the water meadows and beautiful walks along the river between the mill and cathedral. Wonderful restaurants --we had a wonderful locally sourced meal in the Chesil Rectory.

https://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/

https://www.thetrainline.com/book/results?journeySearchType=single&origin=59e737c644fa11e61c0708a76458e76894b0b942&destination=473218b5892fb7214f3611a2a8be949e775a233b&outwardDate=2018-08-14T11%3A45%3A00&outwardDateType=departAfter&passengers%5B%5D=1988-07-31&selectExactTime=true&selectedOutward=cCvmWUpOjBO6uSQtbDPTow%3D%3D%3AlrEv4anyQ%2FRdzvKtKYp7Ww%3D%3D&temporalDirection=previous&transitDefinitionDirection=outward&searchId=5f6175c3-1285-49ca-91f8-2d130fb09610

We were lucky to overnight at this port so were able to take the train to Salisbury and visit the cathedral there as well as Stonehenge and then took the train to London where we stayed the night. It is very easy to get a train from Southampton to London if you wish to visit the city for a couple of hours. The train station is a 5 minute taxi ride from the port or 20-30 minute walk. There are a lot of trains going from Southampton to Waterloo station in London. We got on a fast train from Waterloo back to Southampton in less than 1 hour and 15 minutes. I would also recommend visiting Salisbury. I wish we had more time to spend at the Cathedral as well as doing a little shopping in this cute little town which is only 30 minutes from Southampton by train.

Your date is out-of-season for several options like the New Forest and Isle of Wight ho-ho buses, and visiting the countryside by service buses or trains has serious limitations.

Southampton isn't a tourist city, coach excursions are geared to locals & I can find no suitable coach excursion on your date.

So for a real countryside day you need a car - a rented car or car plus driver.

This gives you flexibility to visit coastal & rural places like the New Forest with Salisbury, or the Dorset Downs and villages, or Weymouth with Portland & the Jurassic coast, Glastonbury with Cheddar & the Somerset Levels, or the South Downs with Arundel or Chichester. Google those places.

Without a car you're limited to cities, but Southampton is a rail junction with a number of direct train routes - and Southampton Central station is just a 15 minute walk or £6 to £7 taxi ride from your ship.

And importantly your early arrival and 7.30 pm back-on-board time means you have more options than most port-of-call visitors. Because this is out-of-season, even places which attract tourists are more typically English if you get my drift. But do check whether attractions are open on your date.

By train, consider (more googling ;)) .............

Salisbury. 35 mins away, half-hourly train service, round-trip fare about £10. Attractive, historic and laid-back city with magnificent cathedral and friendly locals.

Winchester, Just 15 mins away, 3 or more trains per hour, fare under £10. An older city with an even older cathedral. According to your tastes, Winchester is rather more "crowded" or more "vibrant" than Salisbury.

Bath. About 90 mins, hourly or better, £27. Bath is a Georgian spa town with a Roman Baths. The one place that will feel touristy, even out-of-season.

Portsmouth. Portsmouth & Southsea are con-joined cities, take the train past the main station (Portsmouth & Southsea) to its terminus at Portsmouth Harbour. About one hour, direct trains hourly (more, with just one simple change), about £11. Portsmouth Harbour station is right by the historic dockyard and ships - there's enough of interest in the dockyard for a full day, but much more to offer as well - Gunwharf Quays & the Spinnaker Tower (worth going up only in clear weather, and you'll also see it as your ship sails out), or just a 5 min taxi or bus ride away are Old Portsmouth and a waterfront walk past the harbour entrance & fortifications to Southsea seafront - small (free) Henry V111 castle, D-Day museum, lots of minor sights, views across the Solent to the Isle of Wight.

Brockenhurst. 15-20 mins, 2 to 3 trains per hour, under £10. Only a small village but a jump-off point if you want to hike a corner of the New Forest or rent cycles. Bear in mind that the weather may not be great in October.

Lymington. 30 mins, half-hourly, under £10. Involves a change of train at Brockenhurst, New Forest views en-route. A yachties town at the mouth of the Lymington River. Not a lot to offer, but good for a lazy day.

Weymouth. 1hr 40, half-hourly, about £28. Victorian seaside town. Quaint & interesting, but there will be an out-of-season feel to the place.

London. Yes, perfectly feasible!!!! Not normally recommended for port-of-call visitors, but with your hours in port it can be well-worthwhile if it's likely to be your only chance to visit London. About 90 mins journey time.

For any of the frequent (about 3 per hour) trains the fare is around £40 each way but if you pre-book it can be as cheap as £18.20 round-trip for a limited number of those trains. For instance the 8.30 or 9.30 from Southampton (arrives London Waterloo 9.53 or 10.49) and the return train at 16.35 (that's 4.35pm) or 17.35 (5.35pm) (arrives Southampton central 5.49pm or 6.46pm). You do have to pre-book (available now & there's a limited number of those cheap tickets so best to make a decision soon), and those tickets are only good for the train time that you book - miss it & you pay the £40+ walk-up fare. So miss your train both ways & the walk-up fare will cost you over £80 each. :eek:

That gives you between 6 hrs and 7.5 hrs in London, depending how brave you are with your timings.

Even 6 hours will give you a very good flavour of London. There's a ho-ho stop near Waterloo station, and a full round-trip takes about 2 hrs 15 mins. https://www.theoriginaltour.com/p/tickets/the-original-tour/ Add a short Thames cruise (included in ho-ho ticket) and mebbe hop off to explore a sight or two or to walk up Whitehall from Big Ben / Westminster Abbey to Trafalgar Square. If time is short you can get back to Waterloo station in well under 30 mins from any tube (metro) station in central London.

Train details at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

For all those destinations the train stations are anywhere from slap-bang in the middle of town to a max 20 minute walk. No other transportation needed.

Two other options, by ferry from Southampton Town Quay (10 min walk from your ship).

Isle of Wight car ferry to East Cowes and 10 mins by bus or taxi to Queen Victoria's Osborne House. IMHO because of the limited public transport at that time of year there's nowhere else on the island worthy of a visit.

Or the little Hythe Ferry across Southampton Water then a 6-mile taxi ride across a corner of the New Forest to Beaulieu.

https://www.beaulieu.co.uk/ is a complex which includes the National Motor Museum, the Bishop's Palace and the ruins of the abbey which like many abbeys was sacked during Henry V111's dissolution of the monasteries. A very full day if that sort of thing is your scene.

Post again for more detail about any narrowed-down choices

JB :)

oops. Re London I mis-read your ship arrival time. But there are later cheap trains to London

Thanks so much for all the advice & JB you outdid yourself giving us so many in-depth options! Hopefully we will get time to research soon & come up with a plan.

We are doing an 8 day land trip before the cruise; 2 nights in Dublin, 2 nights in Belfast; 3 nights in Edinburgh & 2 nights in Copenhagen before our 14 day cruise that stops in Gothenburg, Southampton, Cobh & Azores before ending in NY so we have been doing a LOT of planning. I think all we still need to come up with a plan for is Southampton & Cobh/Cork.

Thanks again,

Juli