Transportation from London to Southampton England

[Jenny2121]

My husband and I will be sailing on Princess next year out of Southhampton. We would like to stay in Southampton for a couple of days before getting onto the ship. Can anyone suggest the best way of traveling from London to Southampton. There are many companies on the web. Buses? Private Car? Train?

Also, is the Holiday Inn Southampton within walking distance of the pier to get to our ship?

This will be our first time on a large ship. We have sailed on Viking and Grand Circle in the past.

[6rugrats]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=233

[WatchHill]

http://www.discoversouthampton.co.uk/visit/cruise

 

Lots of helpful information about getting to Southampton, hotels, dining, etc.

 

Darcy

[John Bull]

Heading to Southampton from central London?

Or Heathrow or Gatwick airports?

Makes a big difference to the choice of transportation.

 

HI on Herbert Walker Avenue is right alongside City Cruise Terminal.

But Princess sail out of Ocean Cruise Terminal and Mayflower Cruise Terminal.

There are a couple of hotels closer to Ocean, from HI it's vaguely walkable (about 20 minutes) depending on you, your luggage, and the weather.

There are also several closer to Mayflower, though with luggage very few would walk to Mayflower.

Here's the port schedule for this year, next year's won't be out til around Christmas.

http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/live_information/shipping_movements_and_cruise_ship_schedule/cruise_ship_schedule/

 

Here's a précis of most of the central Southampton hotels, together with a little thumbnail map showing those hotels, the rail & bus stations, and the cruise terminals.

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm

(lots of info about London and Southampton on other pages of that website)

 

Which hotel is best-located depends on your choice of transportation to Southampton, your cruise terminal, and whether you plan to spend your time in Southampton itself or to use Southampton as a base to explore other places such as Stonehenge, Salisbury, Bath, Winchester, Portsmouth, by public transport (train is best for all those places).

The good news is that any taxi journey in central Southampton is reasonably compact, many places are walkable, and a taxi will only cost £6 to £10. So if the central Southampton hotel you book isn't ideally located it's no big deal.

 

 

The Rugrats have linked you to the Britain forum. Lots of info on there.

 

JB :)

[SuiteTraveler]

Holiday Inn is air conditioned - other hotels in the area may or may not be. But it's right next to the dock that Celebrity used the year we were there - not sure where Princess docks.

 

What we did for transportation was get on our roll call for our ship and made arrangements with some nice ladies from our ship whose flight literally landed within minutes of our flight to share transportation from the airport. As it turned out we recognized each other in the immigration line and it was very quick after that for us to find our driver! The driver met us with a sign with our names on it and had a nice mini van - plenty large enough for 4 of us and our luggage. We had plenty of time and made a planned stop at Stonehenge along the way to Southampton and the route the driver took us on from there was through lovely small towns and quite scenic. We stayed at the Grand Harbour Hotel. As I recall, we were so tired, we had sandwiches in the bar and then went to bed at 7pm and did not awake until the next morning at 10:30. That let us completely adjust to the time for our cruise.

[Scrapnana]

Easiest (but not cheapest) way to get from airport to Southampton is by car. I have used used Smiths for Airports a number of times and they have been prompt and efficient. http://www.smithsforairports.com/index.html

[pris993]

Easiest (but not cheapest) way to get from airport to Southampton is by car. I have used used Smiths for Airports a number of times and they have been prompt and efficient. http://www.smithsforairports.com/index.html

 

We too have used smithforaport... booked on line, very professional... need to pay in English pounds, on day of service. We have also simply picked up a taxi at the airport and negotiated a price... what ever works for you.

[Flatbush Flyer]

My husband and I will be sailing on Princess next year out of Southhampton. We would like to stay in Southampton for a couple of days before getting onto the ship. Can anyone suggest the best way of traveling from London to Southampton. There are many companies on the web. Buses? Private Car? Train?

 

Also, is the Holiday Inn Southampton within walking distance of the pier to get to our ship?

 

This will be our first time on a large ship. We have sailed on Viking and Grand Circle in the past.

 

 

Concierges of the better London hotels recommend Silver Fleet transfers. Excellent operation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[marylou29]

We took a train to Southampton-easy and not expensive.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[warspite]

Marylou29

 

How did you get from the train station to the berth?

 

We are thinking taxi.

[John Bull]

Marylou29

 

How did you get from the train station to the berth?

 

We are thinking taxi.

 

From Southampton central rail station or coach station (taxi stands at both) a taxi will cost no more than £10 to any cruise terminal. Nearest is City cruise terminal, if you prefer to walk it's 15 minutes, on level ground. Mayflower and Ocean terminals can also be walked, about 25 minutes. QE11 terminal is deep in the docks, definitely take a taxi.

 

JB :)

[marylou29]

Marylou29

 

How did you get from the train station to the berth?

 

We are thinking taxi.

Yes, we took a taxi lots of them at station.

[Jenny2121]

Heading to Southampton from central London?

Or Heathrow or Gatwick airports?

Makes a big difference to the choice of transportation.

 

HI on Herbert Walker Avenue is right alongside City Cruise Terminal.

But Princess sail out of Ocean Cruise Terminal and Mayflower Cruise Terminal.

There are a couple of hotels closer to Ocean, from HI it's vaguely walkable (about 20 minutes) depending on you, your luggage, and the weather.

There are also several closer to Mayflower, though with luggage very few would walk to Mayflower.

Here's the port schedule for this year, next year's won't be out til around Christmas.

http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/live_information/shipping_movements_and_cruise_ship_schedule/cruise_ship_schedule/

 

Here's a précis of most of the central Southampton hotels, together with a little thumbnail map showing those hotels, the rail & bus stations, and the cruise terminals.

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm

(lots of info about London and Southampton on other pages of that website)

 

Which hotel is best-located depends on your choice of transportation to Southampton, your cruise terminal, and whether you plan to spend your time in Southampton itself or to use Southampton as a base to explore other places such as Stonehenge, Salisbury, Bath, Winchester, Portsmouth, by public transport (train is best for all those places).

The good news is that any taxi journey in central Southampton is reasonably compact, many places are walkable, and a taxi will only cost £6 to £10. So if the central Southampton hotel you book isn't ideally located it's no big deal.

 

 

The Rugrats have linked you to the Britain forum. Lots of info on there.

 

JB :)

We plan on staying in London for a few days. Then travel to Southampton 3 days before getting on the ship. Thank you for letting me know where Princess docks. I will start looking at hotels near that area. Plenty of time to look at the information everyone has sent.

[warspite]

Thanks for the info folks, just as I thought.

[hancock]

Booked a bus from the Victoria Bus Station to Southampton way ahead of time. The price was very cheap! The closer to travel, the higher the price. Had a wonderful driver named Lorraine. It must have been good as we still remember her name several years later. Felt very safe as we were required to wear seat belts. Would recommend this way of getting to Southampton to anyone coming from London.

[John Bull]

We plan on staying in London for a few days. Then travel to Southampton 3 days before getting on the ship. Thank you for letting me know where Princess docks. I will start looking at hotels near that area. Plenty of time to look at the information everyone has sent.

 

Hi Jenny,

 

From central London your best public transport options to Southampton are:

 

Direct train from London Waterloo to Southampton central.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Two to three trains per hour,

The fare for trains leaving before 9am is a hefty £41, but if you pre-purchase tickets for any direct train which leaves after 9am they'll cost just £13. So buy tickets for - say - the 9.05am, but you can use them for any later direct train. Tickets available from about 3 months out, they're set prices - the price is the same whether you buy them 3 months out or 24 hours out.

Or you can buy even cheaper through the https://uk.megabus.com/megatrain.aspx website. Downsides are that you can only choose from half-a-dozen of those trains per day via Megatrain, and your ticket is only valid for the train time that you selected - miss that train and your ticket is useless. Tickets available from about 6 weeks out, prices are fluid & increase closer to the date.

Journey time about 90 minutes.

 

Direct train from London Victoria to Southampton central

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

An hourly service, fares are dependant on your journey time, but pre-purchased can be as low as £5.

The big downside is that this route goes "the pretty way" ie rather circuitous - journey time is about 2 hours 30.

(no Megatrain option on this route)

 

Direct coach (bus) from Victoria coach station to Southampton coach station.

http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

Hourly service, journey time about 2 hours 20, pre-booked fare just £5.

Pre-booking is strongly recommended.

 

Train or coach may be a matter of whether your London hotel is convenient for Waterloo or Victoria.

 

There's also the option of a cruise transfer-tour bus from your central London hotel to Southampton via Stonehenge

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_from_london_shared_bus.html

You'll not be travelling to Southampton on the day that your ship departs, but I'm fairly sure that if another ship is sailing on the day you travel then you can book this service, but do check with the tour operator. Presumably then you'll need a taxi from that ship's pier to your Southampton hotel.

(on second thoughts, Stonehenge and Salisbury will be cheaper, easier & more fulfilling if you go there as a day-trip from Southampton)

 

A private transfer from a central London hotel to a Southampton hotel will cost around £130.

Several posters have mentioned Smithsforairports, and I don't think you can go wrong with them.

 

All this info is current - prices will doubtless be a shade higher next year but arrangements will be broadly the same.

 

Long way ahead, and no need to rush right now. But if you only take in one thing from this post - it's book your transportation ahead.

 

JB :)