Southampton Port to Ireland Need assistance

[Debinnova]

Arriving by cruise ship. Plan to go directly to Ireland. First destination is Killarney.  Can I fly into Ireland from Southampton instead of going to London airports? Most nonstops seem to go to Dublin, but thinking Shannon would be closer to Killarney? We are not renting a car.. Thoughts?  Also any luggage storage close to cruise port? Will be cruising QM2 back two weeks later and we don't want to carry all of our cruise wardrobe around Ireland. Thanks for any insight.

[wowzz]

Eastern Airlines fly direct to Dublin from Southampton.  There are no flights to any other Irish cities. 

You might ask this question in  the Ports of Call section, where more people will be able to advise you.

[John Bull]

As an Irish friend of mine would have said, the easiest way to get to Killarney is to not start from Southampton 🙃

 

Direct flights to Shannon from London Heathrow or London Gatwick

Direct flights to Dublin from Southampton. 

 

Short taxi hop from ship to Southampton central station.

The direct train journey from Southampton to LGW (in the airport) is hourly & takes about 2 hrs, or the direct National Express bus to LHR (in the airport) also about 2 hours, limited frequency.

Fly to Shannon.

You'll need a bus or taxi from Shannon 14 miles to either Ennis or Limerick train stations, from there the train journey to Killarney  is  2 1/2 hours with two changes. Frequency every 2 hours.

 

Or taxi from ship to Southampton airport, 7 miles. (with luggage, a taxi to Southampton central then train to Southampton airport isn't worth the small saving)

Fly to Dublin

Express bus from Dublin airport to Dublin Heuston train station takes about 30 minutes.

The train from Dublin Heuston to Killarney involves one change, journey time 2 hours (further but simpler & quicker than from Shannon) , frequency every two hours.

 

We find Skyscanner the simplest, most informative and most comprehensive website for flight times & costs

https://www.skyscanner.net/

But you'll need to make dummy flight bookings on the relevant airline websites to see the total cost - luggage add-on charges in particular make a big big big difference

 

https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search

(pre-booking train tickets from about 6 - 8 weeks out often saves a significant amount, but those pre-booked tickets are restricted to the train time that you've chosen)

https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

(pre-booking is advised)

https://journeyplanner.irishrail.ie/webapp/#!P|TP!histId|0!histKey|H95062

(sorry. no personal experience of Irish trains)

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Most hotels anywhere in the UK will happily hold luggage  for guests free-of-charge for a few hours, mebbe even overnight, before check-in or after check-out. Two weeks would probably prove difficult but you could e-mail a few.

 

Left-luggage facilities other than in central London are rare in the UK, storage companies offer larger storage units than needed for luggage.

But you could try https://www.mbe.co.uk/southampton who I believe offer luggage storage altho it's not mentioned on their website - worth an e-mail.

Left-luggage at UK airports, including Southampton (SOU) , LHR and LGW, but would be expensive for two weeks.

Or ask your cruise line/s.

 

A juggling act to figure the cost of London - Shannon or Southampton- Dublin, and whether/where to store luggage. 

 

JB 🙂

Edited May 16, 2022 by John Bull

[swcruise]

You could also look at Cork airport approx 50 miles from Killarney. Train service with one stop/car hire 1.15 hrs drive /bus from city cente with around bus/taxi option from airport to town.