Dumb Airport Question

[Puffinater]

:oDoing some prilimary research for a TA departing South Hampton. I find airfare into South Hampton but it is rather pricey. Air into London is much less. Is London a viable option? Sorry but I am a bit geography challenged:o Thanks Looking at a map it seems it may be a bit of a distance.

[KarenR_UK]

:oDoing some prilimary research for a TA departing South Hampton. I find airfare into South Hampton but it is rather pricey. Air into London is much less. Is London a viable option? Sorry but I am a bit geography challenged:o Thanks Looking at a map it seems it may be a bit of a distance.

 

where are you flying from?

 

Southampton airport is a regional/european airport - it has a budget airline (flyBe) which are generally quite well priced, so I am wondering if you are flying internationally and pricing an indirect flight changing at Heathrow or Gatwick.

 

London is about 75 miles away, so quite feasible to transfer from there to Southampton, but it depends which of the London Airports you travel into.

 

The main ones are Heathrow and Gatwick, both on the west side of London

 

Southampton is about 1.5 hrs by road from Heathrow, 2hr from Gatwick.

Trains and coaches are available from either. We've done both by private taxi in the last 6 months and were charged (prebooked) between £70 & £80 each way (with a £5 surcharge for meeting a flight - due to needing to pay for park I presume).

 

Also be aware that Stansted, Luton and even Southend (& I'm sure others) seem to be deemed 'London Airports' - these are much further away and would cost considerably more, as well as taking a quite a bit longer.

 

If you are travelling from within the UK or Europe, you could also consider Bournemouth airport - its about 20-30 miles from southampton so transfer costs should be lower and times shorter.

 

There always used to be quite a lot of discussion about London-Southampton transfers on the Ports of Call \ Britain board - you could have a look here http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=233

 

:)

[John Bull]

:oDoing some prilimary research for a TA departing South Hampton. I find airfare into South Hampton but it is rather pricey. Air into London is much less. Is London a viable option? Sorry but I am a bit geography challenged:o Thanks Looking at a map it seems it may be a bit of a distance.

 

As Karen's answer, Southampton has decent eurpoean flights, but no long-haul. If you've been quoted from the US, it will involve a flight to a european hub such as Paris or Amsterdam, and an onward flight to Southampton. Then a £20 taxi to the ship. An expensive way of doing it & usually no quicker than below:

 

Most trans-Atlantic cruisers fly direct into a London airport (Heathrow or Gatwick, makes little difference), then onward by private transfer (£90 plus) or National Express bus (best choice from Heathrow) or train (best choice from Gatwick) around £18 to £35 per person. Then a £5 to £7 taxi to the ship. Transfer time from Heathrow about 90 mins, from Gatwick about 2 hours.

Those who fix their own flights usually fly in a day or three early & do some sight-seeing, usually in central London.

 

Note: Southampton is one word, and just one "h"

 

Plenty of threads about London or London's airports to Southampton on the Britain forum

 

JB :)

[Puffinater]

Thanks for the in depth responses. My appologies for the misspelling.:o

[Nigella]

Seeing the creative spellings of Southampton on here, I'm just glad that Northampton is very much inland and no hope of having a cruise terminal there! :eek: I see this so often and pointed it out to someone on another board just the day.

 

Puffinater, it's a common mis-spelling on here, you're not the only one! ;)

[John Bull]

Seeing the creative spellings of Southampton on here, I'm just glad that Northampton is very much inland and no hope of having a cruise terminal there! :eek: I see this so often and pointed it out to someone on another board just the day.

 

Puffinater, it's a common mis-spelling on here, you're not the only one! ;)

 

Occupational hazard.

Harwich, Le Havre, Laem Chabang, Civitavecchia, are amongst ports that suffer similar indignities ;)

 

Needs correction for web-ferreting, where a spelling error can present a blank search or, worse, show a location hundreds of miles away. :D

 

JB :)