Bus/Train from Heathrow to Southampton

[jstducky]

I know that you can take either a bus or train from Heathrow to Southampton.

 

As I understand with the bus, you can use National Express from either London itself or from Heathrow and it will take you to the bus station in Southampton for about 20 pounds, roundtrip.

 

From the bus station to the cruise ship pier, how far is it? Would you take a taxi? Approximately how much does that run?

 

From what I understand, you can also take a train. Although you'd have to take a bus from the airport to the train station at Waterloo, correct? Any idea how much a round trip train ticket is to Southampton?

 

Also, from the train station to the cruise ship pier, its easiest to take a taxi, right? Approximately how much does that run?

 

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Globaliser]

Basically, it's about 10 minutes and £5 from either the coach station or the railway station to the dock. It will depend a bit on time of day, traffic conditions, and which dock - some terminals are a bit further away than others. But that should give you a ballpark idea.

 

If you're at the airport, don't even think of trying to get a bus into town to get the train to Southampton. The amount of time and hassle is just not worth it. Neither are any of the alternative ways of getting from Heathrow to Southampton by train or mixed bus/train.

 

But if you're starting from central London, then the train from Waterloo is pretty easy. About £33 for a walk-up round-trip ticket, IIRC (and there are seldom any ways of doing it cheaper, other than by using the megatrain site which is not currently a viable option for people from the US). If you are travelling at the weekend or on a public holiday, you can buy a standard class ticket for that price, and sit in first class by paying a £5 supplement (each way) to the ticket inspector.

[jstducky]

Thanks Globaliser.

 

So you are saying that my best option would be to take a bus, the National Express, direct from Heathrow to Southampton?

 

Where would I likely find a cheaper hotel room, Southampton or near Heathrow?

 

Thanks!

[Globaliser]

If you're starting from Heathrow, then yes - the National Express coach is the best public transport option.

 

I would have thought that Southampton hotels are likely to be cheaper. And there should be plenty of threads on the topic of Southampton hotels in this forum.

[DonLou]

The Novotel and the Hotel Ibis are the closest hotels to the National Express Southampton bus stop. It's an easy ten minute walk - some of it over some clunky pavement. The cost of the taxi from the hotel to the pier was a total of 5 pounds for four of us. The trip took less about 10 minutes.

 

Here is a link to my review of the Novotel.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g186299-d193833-r5913118-Novotel_Southampton-Southampton_Hampshire_England.html

 

We found National Express to be a cheap and efficient way to get to Southampton.

[jstducky]

Thank you so much. That was extremely helpful

[Bramcruiser]

The National Express coaches are probably the most direct and fastest service from Heathrow to Southampton but there is an alternate rail service rarely mentioned on the boards.

 

Southwest Trains operate a Rail/Air service utilizing buses from Heathrow to the Woking rail station for which you can then connect to any destination on the Southwest route. Southwest is the major rail provider from Waterloo Station in London to Southampton. Through ticketing is available at the Heathrow Central Bus Station so you only need to buy tickets once and not have to buy a bus ticket and then a train ticket. This method obviously avoids the need for someone to have to go into London to get rail service to Southampton. However, it is a bit more expensive and is a little longer timewise on average than the one bus service on National Express.

 

It may not be practical for some but since we really never know if the planes arrive on time and how efficient immigration and baggage pick-up will be I made it a point to look at the schedules for both and will choose whichever works best for me when I get to Heathrow.

 

David