Gatwick or Heathrow for Southampton sailing?

[Marcys]

Aer Lingus gives us the choice of flying into either of these two airports. We would rather go by train to Southampton than use cruise transportation. Which airport gives us easier access to the trains. Any tips on the trains would also be helpful.

[HeinBloed]

Aer Lingus gives us the choice of flying into either of these two airports. We would rather go by train to Southampton than use cruise transportation. Which airport gives us easier access to the trains. Any tips on the trains would also be helpful.

 

Gatwick provides direct trains to Southampton

Heathrow provides direct coaches to Southampton

 

Either is good.

 

Depends what you like more.

 

Check:

 

http://www.southernrailway.com/

http://www.nationalexpress.com

 

Regards,

HeinBloed

[handfordr]

As said above there is little in it.

Both options, train from Gatwick or Bus from Heathrow run about hourly and take around 2 hours - the bus from Heathrow being slightly faster and normally much cheaper.

There are no direct trains between Gatwick & Southampton on Sundays

[Globaliser]

My first priority, in your shoes, would be to look at the times of the flights. Aer Lingus has relatively few flights to Gatwick (only four a day, I think) compared to the number of flights to Heathrow. So you have more schedule flexibility going to Heathrow.

 

Otherwise, I think that there is really little to choose from in travel terms. Both the coach and the train generally run at hourly intervals during the day on weekdays from Heathrow and Gatwick respectively, and they both take just under two hours to get to their respective stations at Southampton. And you need to get a taxi to the port yourself from either.

[Marcys]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

A night flight would get us into Dublin Thursday morning. I think it's cutting it too short to fly from Dublin to London Friday morning and then have to catch the bus/train to Southampton for a 5 p.m. sailing. All we need is fog or some other hold up and we miss our transatlantic crossing. So, I guess we'll fly into one of the London airports Thursday morning and travel to Southampton. While Southampton may not be a nice as Dublin, at least my mind will be at ease.

[handfordr]

Flybe fly direct from to Dublin to Southampton and Ryanair fly from Dublin to Bournemouth which is much closer to Southampton than London's airports

[scottbee]

Aer Lingus gives us the choice of flying into either of these two airports. We would rather go by train to Southampton than use cruise transportation. Which airport gives us easier access to the trains. Any tips on the trains would also be helpful.

 

Neither;

Fly Aer Lingus to Dublin and get a ticket on FlyBE from DUB to SOU/Southampton. From there to Southampton Central is 7 minutes, 5GBP by train, and from there you're a VERY short (1 mile) cab to the ship. Walkable if you don't have a huge amount of luggage.

 

Of LGW or LHR, someone else posted. LGW offers a direct train, LHR a direct coach. I also offer the idea of BHX/Birmingham which is also a direct train, and only an extra 15 minutes over LHR or LGW

[scottbee]

Flybe fly direct from to Dublin to Southampton and Ryanair fly from Dublin to Bournemouth which is much closer to Southampton than London's airports

 

BOH/Bournemouth, while only 30 miles from Southampton has extremely limited transportation options.

[handfordr]

BOH/Bournemouth, while only 30 miles from Southampton has extremely limited transportation options.

 

A taxi from Bournemouth Airport to Southampton is about 45 GBP and takes less than an hour with immediate departure. The train from Gatwick has a cheap fare available at off peak of 18 GBP per person to Southampton Station taking 2 hours and runs every hour, then 6-8 GBP taxi ride to Cruise Terminal.

 

There is also an hourly bus shuttle to Bournemouth Station from the airport from where there are several trains an hour to Southampton. Not as convenient as taxi but still faster and cheaper than the Gatwick rail option.