Best Airport & transfer to Harwich

[Jimx2inDC]

Hey there. On Jewel of the Seas out of Harwich end of September. Which is the best airport to fly into and what is the best way to get there?

 

Thanks!

[Globaliser]

What do you mean by "best"? Cheapest, fastest, most private? How much luggage do you have? Would you be content to do it by public transport?

[handfordr]

Harwich is perhaps the most inaccessable port compared with Dover or Southampton.

The 'normal' way to travel to Harwich independently is by rail from London's Liverpool Street Station - a journey of about 90 minutes.

Liverpool Street itself is in the City of London, not somewhere that visitors usually stay and it doesn't have direct links with Heathrow or Gatwick the main gateway airports for London, so either is as good.

The airport physically closest to Harwich is Stansted, but that is primarily a low cost budget airport serving Europe. From Washington there is a summer only service to Stantsed by Maxjet the business class service

From Stansted there is an hourly bus service to Colchester, where its a 30 minute train journey to Harwich.

 

If you prefer private transfers then Stansted is by far and away the best entry point as its about 80 miles closer to Harwich than either Gatwick or Heathrow.

[birders]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=380977&highlight=heathrow

 

Here's a link to my post from last year. Several "cruisecritics" have since used Darren for transport from Heathrow and have been very happy.

ENJOY your cruise! We loved it.

[SelectSys]

I was on this cruise a couple of years ago and took a private van to Harwich from LHR in both directions. It was pretty expensive, but not too much more than a family of 4 would pay using the line's transfer service. As was noted before, Harwich is not really close to anything.

[kmilycoco]

We did the baltic cruise on the Jewel last year, beautiful ship with an excellent crew, you will love it. We flew in and out of Heathrow, but, Gatwick is closer. After doing a vast research, we also ended up using Darren from Adelphi Executive, who met us at the airport upon our arrival and was waiting for us on our return. We stayed at the Sheraton by Heathrow airport and we were there by 10:00AM. Also, the RCCL bus was still boarding, when we left Heathrow and we had arrived at Harwich and were on board the Jewel by the time the bus arrived. Our driver was such a gentleman and gave us a small tour on the way to the port and back. In my opinion for the most comfortable and efficient transfer, you need to hire a private car.

[nny92825100]

I agree about getting a private transfer. If you can share a minivan with some meet and mingle people, you could save a lot of money. We used a company called londontown.com for our transfers from airport to hotel, hotel to port, port to hotel and hotel to airport. It was the only way to go. For three of us just for the port portion since we bought a round trip ticket, it was only about $20 more than RCI's shuttle.

[nny92825100]

I agree about getting a private transfer. If you can share a minivan with some meet and mingle people, you could save a lot of money. We used a company called londontown.com for our transfers from airport to hotel, hotel to port, port to hotel and hotel to airport. It was the only way to go. For three of us just for the port portion since we bought a round trip ticket, it was only about $20 more than RCI's shuttle.

[SelectSys]

Hey there. On Jewel of the Seas out of Harwich end of September. Which is the best airport to fly into and what is the best way to get there?

 

Thanks!

 

Given that you live in DC and you aren't hung up on a particular airline, you could fly MaxJet out of DC to Stanstead. All seats are traditional business class - i.e., no lay flat seats, for about $1700 / person. It is another 50 miles to the port which is much closer than either Heathrow or Gatwick.

[MacThespian]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=380977&highlight=heathrow

 

Here's a link to my post from last year. Several "cruisecritics" have since used Darren for transport from Heathrow and have been very happy.

ENJOY your cruise! We loved it.

 

If you don't mind, could you let us know the approximate cost of this service? We'll be staying in London for a few days before our cruise this summer, and had planned to take the train from Liverpool Street Station to Harwich, but if the private car is comparable, we'd have to consider that.

 

Thanks.

[birders]

If you don't mind, could you let us know the approximate cost of this service? We'll be staying in London for a few days before our cruise this summer, and had planned to take the train from Liverpool Street Station to Harwich, but if the private car is comparable, we'd have to consider that.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Hi - (hadn't checked the board in a while)

I don't feel comfortable quoting a price; I think I should leave that for Darren to let you know - it's a year later, petrol is higher, and I'll let him quote you a price. HOWEVER: I can tell you that we booked him because his price was so much more reasonable compared with other private drivers we had researched - and he turned out to be terrific, as "kmilycoco" also posted above.

 

Here's the website - http://www.adelphiexecutivehire.co.uk/

Give him an email and tell him you heard about him on the Cruise Critic board from "birders."

 

Have a wonderful cruise!

[MacThespian]

Hi - (hadn't checked the board in a while)

I don't feel comfortable quoting a price; I think I should leave that for Darren to let you know - it's a year later, petrol is higher, and I'll let him quote you a price. HOWEVER: I can tell you that we booked him because his price was so much more reasonable compared with other private drivers we had researched - and he turned out to be terrific, as "kmilycoco" also posted above.

 

Here's the website - http://www.adelphiexecutivehire.co.uk/

Give him an email and tell him you heard about him on the Cruise Critic board from "birders."

 

Have a wonderful cruise!

 

I understand about your not wanting to quote a price, especially with the volatile nature of costs. Thanks for the site detail; I'll email him.