Southampton as a port stop, not embacation port

[John Bull]

I'm a local, but don't know Blue Keys.

It's in a reasonably quiet residential area between the city centre and the Common (huge park).

A 15 - 20 minute walk to the nearest part of the city centre, more like 30 minutes (or a taxi ride) to the best-known restaurant areas of West Quay, Town Quay or Oxford Street.

So not a convenient location, but I don't know the hotel itself.

 

The city centre hotels, including the three Premier Inns as mentioned by Wowzz  (Premier Inn West Quay is also convenient to cruise terminals & very popular with cruisers), are on the thumbnail map at the bottom of the page on https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm

Not trying to put you off Blue Keys cos I don't know it, but it's some distance north of that map - and I think they have a cancellation policy with 48 hours notice.

 

JB 

[Marie454]

Has anyone stayed at the  Jury Inn in Southampton the night before a cruise?  Is it a walkable distance from the train or bus stations?  There will be  6 adults and one 15 year old in our family who will be going on the cruise.  Is the Jury Inn close enough to the cruise ships to walk or should we take taxis or are there shuttle buses that we could hire to take us there?  We arrive at Heathrow the previous morning on June 25 and our cruise departs Southampton at 5:00 on June 26.  Is there enough to see or do in Southampton on the day of the cruise or  would be be better off to stay in Winchester on the 25th and then travel to Southampton the following day?  I would like to stay in Winchester but I'm wondering if we would actually get to see much if we don't arrive there until middle of the afternoon on the 25th and would have to leave probably by noon the next morning?

[phabric]

I am flying in from YYZ to LHR in May. I plan on taking National Express Coach from LHR to Winchester. I am staying at Mercure Winchester Wesses hotel. I stayed there in 2018 for 3 nights.  The hotel is on the grounds on Winchester Cathedral.  You would have time to see the Cathedral and walk around the town.  I plan on taking a car service to Southampton (about 3/4 hr).  If National Express Coach offers a direct route to Southampton, I will take that, then a short taxi ride to the dock.

 

The first time, I took National Express Coach from LHR direct to Winchester.  The Winchester Coach stop was around the corner to the Mercure. We checked into the hotel. We saw that the Tourist Office offered a 5 GBP/pp walking tour of Winchesterso we did that.

 

Walking around and seeing the Cathedral and town would help with the jet lag.

 

You would probably need a couple of cars from the car service.  They might have  something bigger than a car but for 7 persons and with luggage for 7, you might fit.   I think I paid 35-40GBP ( in 2018) for the car service.

 

At the present time, National Express Coach is not offerring routes to Winchester. 

 

Southampton does not have much to see as it is a working port.

 

I have not stayed at Jury.  I have stayed 4x at Premier Inn West Quay and 1x at Holiday Inn Hubert Walker and then taken a short taxi ride to the port. 

 

www.nationalexpress.com

www.westquaycars.com

Edited October 29, 2021 by phabric

[John Bull]

June 25th 2022 is a saturday & not a holiday weekend, so no worries there.

 

Jury's Inn is a good hotel, but it isn't the best-located of the city centre hotels - altho it's less than a mile from the train & coach stations, it includes a steep hill - no fun with luggage. And by train is about the worst option from Heathrow to Southampton (or Winchester).

Jury's Inn is on the north-eastern edge of the city centre, so shopping streets & malls, pubs, restaurants, cruise terminals, old-town sights & anything else of interest is all in one direction. Most of those are an easy walk of 15 minutes, but you'd certainly want a c£10 taxi ride from the coach station and to any cruise terrminal. Taxi ranks at both rail & coach stations, ask hotel reception to call a taxi to any cruise terminal. Jury's Inn is also in the centre of a traffic gyratory system, though nobody has yet been killed while crossing the road 😏

 

Much more convenient are Holiday Inn ( on Herbert Walker Avenue, not one of the H.I.Expresses), Premier Inn West Quay, Leonardo Royal, Moxy (quirky, not to everyone's taste), boutique Pig-in-the-Wall or Ennio's, and mebbe Room2. All are a level walk from the coach station, close to city centre shops, restaurants, pubs, the few old-town sights, and for the tolerably-fit some are walkable with luggage to City cruise terminal and/or Ocean cruise terminal.

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

See the useful thumbnail map at the bottom of that linked page.

 

There's more than enough in Southampton to interest you during your 24 hours in the city, and it has a much, much broader range of hotels, eateries & shops than Winchester. 

But Winchester is more iconic, and its 12th Century cathedral is magnificent.

It's 15 minutes from Southampton by frequent train, or 12 miles by bus or taxi.   

 

From Heathrow it's the same Nat Express bus for Winchester as for Southampton, but only a fewl of them call at Winchester, so that may not be an option if timings don't suit. Unfortunately the Nat Express website  https://book.nationalexpress.com/ is a mess at the moment.

Phabric's Mercure Wessex is ideally located for the cathedral, the city centre and the Nat Express buses. But there are few others in the city centre, and they're usually much more expensive than Southampton.

 

For 7 passengers + luggage from LHR to either Winchester or Southampton a van (we call them minibuses) makes a lot of sense. Regular taxi licences are good for vehicles with up to 8 passenger seats, but be sure that's 7-8 seats plus ample luggage space.

Best-known in the Southampton area are http://www.travel-gemini.co.uk/ and  https://www.airlynx.info/  and  https://www.angelacoaches.co.uk/ 

 

JB 🙂

[Cotswold Eagle]

13 hours ago, John Bull said:

From Heathrow it's the same Nat Express bus for Winchester as for Southampton, but only a fewl of them call at Winchester, so that may not be an option if timings don't suit.

Not at the moment, JB, as Phabric said. They have pulled the service because the stopping place has been deemed unsafe.  

[John Bull]

2 hours ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

Not at the moment, JB, as Phabric said. They have pulled the service because the stopping place has been deemed unsafe.  

 

Many thanks for that, my feathered friend.

 

Yesterday the Nat Express website wasn't even offering me a service to Southampton for June 2022  - it insisted on telling me that there was no service for any dates in 2025 🙄

Today it's not offering me any services to anywhere -

We are currently experiencing technical issues.

Please bear with us, we are working to fix this as soon as possible.

Please try again, using the journey search tool below.

 

But you've prompted me to track down a local newspaper which reports "a spokesperson from National Express said a recently revised risk assessment criteria has determined that the stop at the King Alfred Statue in Winchester is no longer suitable as a National Express stop because of local traffic and the vehicle manoeuvre required."

 

The stop, and the traffic & manouvre to access it, is the same for tour coches which still use it and there have been no changes to the layout. Not a fun place to manouvre, but I've done it hundreds of times and a former colleague tells me the layout hasn't changed. 

Methinks a Health & Safety zealot 🙄 at Nat Express has put a spanner in the works, which will likely impact at dozens of similarly-challenging stops nationwide.

 

Nat Express & Winchester City Council are in talks about it, and I'm sure that after interminable discussions they'll work out a solution - a change of heart by Nat Express, or the Council closing the parking places in the middle of the Broadway or prohibiting entry by cars, or them all agreeing to a different location for the stop.

 

Since the OP's journey is 8 months away, something to check back on closer to the date.  

 

JB 🙂

 

[phabric]

If National Express is not going to Winchester from LHR in May, we will reserve a car service.

 

I have used Westquay Cars from Winchester to Southampton before.

 

Does Westquay Cars  pick up at LHR?  Or, is there another car service?

 

 

 

 

[Post Captain]

On 10/29/2021 at 8:01 AM, Marie454 said:

Has anyone stayed at the  Jury Inn in Southampton the night before a cruise?  Is it a walkable distance from the train or bus stations?  There will be  6 adults and one 15 year old in our family who will be going on the cruise.  Is the Jury Inn close enough to the cruise ships to walk or should we take taxis or are there shuttle buses that we could hire to take us there?  We arrive at Heathrow the previous morning on June 25 and our cruise departs Southampton at 5:00 on June 26.  Is there enough to see or do in Southampton on the day of the cruise or  would be be better off to stay in Winchester on the 25th and then travel to Southampton the following day?  I would like to stay in Winchester but I'm wondering if we would actually get to see much if we don't arrive there until middle of the afternoon on the 25th and would have to leave probably by noon the next morning?

 

Just to piggy-back on John Bull's earlier reply... I've not stayed at Jury's Inn, but I know it from the outside and am familiar with the location.  Indeed, a few years ago I considered booking a room there for a night before a sailing out of So'ton.  However, when I discovered that it was situated on a large, busy roundabout, I decided to look elsewhere.  IMO, the places that JB recommended are all better located.

 

However...  I would happily stay in Winchester for the night; indeed, given my druthers, that would be my preference.  Winchester is relatively compact, and if you arrive there mid-afternoon, you would have time to visit the cathedral and have a nice wander around the town.  (Yes, I know it's officially designated a city by virtue of its cathedral, but it really is a small-medium-size town!)  There are (or were, pre-pandemic; I'm not sure what the situation currently is) quite a few mid-range and upscale restaurants in Winchester, not to mention the pubby places.  You'd also have time to explore the next morning as well, before departing for Southampton.  (There are several trains an hour from Winchester to Southampton; the trip only takes around 20 minutes or so.)   

[Cotswold Eagle]

22 hours ago, Post Captain said:

Yes, I know it's officially designated a city by virtue of its cathedral,

A common misconception, which was never really true and certainly isn’t now. Having a cathedral is neither necessary nor sufficient for city status, which is officially granted by letters patent from the sovereign. There are cathedrals in towns, and cities without cathedrals 🙂

 

None of which detracts from your excellent advice on the practicalities of visiting, of course!