bed and breakfast in Dover?

can anyone recommend a bb close to cruise terminal?

we are doing a baltic cruise on the constellation May 21...

thanks in advance...

Amanda,

We have stayed twice at the 'Penny Farthing' .

http://pennyfarthingdover.com/index.html

thank you for the suggestion...I checked it...seems close to pier...and if you stayed twice then obviously you recommend it...

how did you do transfers from airport? Gatwick or Heath....

thanks...

Amanda,

Can't help you there. We live in the UK and were on our way to the continent in our own car.

The place is cheap but clean and really all you want is somewhere to sleep for the night. there are more expensive places but it boils down to what you want. Have you considered hiring a car at the airport and driving to Dover yourself. It is Motorway (freeway) all the way and easy to drive.

Andy

Amanda,

You might also consider the East Lee Guest House in Dover. We have not stayed there yet, but will before our cruise in June. It is highly rated and a number of Celebrity passengers have stayed there and all that I have seen gave it good reviews. You can check it our at www.eastlee.co.uk

Hope you find something to your liking.

Amanda, Gil

These two are next door to each other. 108 and 109

Are there any more "traditional" hotel type places one can recommend for one night? We will be traveling with our kids, and would prefer a place with air-conditioning.

Thanks

The best one I could find is the Best Western Churchill...but, alas...I do not think it has air-conditioning. There is also a Ramada...you could check it out.

We stayed at the East Lee House in 2003 and loved it. The owners were very accommodating.

We hired a car service to pick us up at Heathrow and drive us to Dover. They also picked us up at the dock when we returned and drove us to our hotel in London. I don't remember the name of the service but I found them on the Baltic Ports board on Cruise Critic.

Have a great cruise!

Joanie

Amanda,

We have looked at most of the options for getting to Dover from Gatwick, which are about the same as from Heathrow. Rental car, bus and train from Victoria Station and taxi. Bus service would be the least expensive with the train next but both require luggage haul from airport to Victoria - which may or may not be a problem for you. Service is frequent and all who have used them are complimentary about the service.

We have chosen www.toursoftherealm.com for our pickup at Gatwick and trip to Dover with a tour of the countryside along the way. Denise Ryeland, owner, has been excellent to deal with and we are looking forward to meeting her. On return from the cruise we will use www.centralexectravel.co.uk from Dover to our timeshare in London. These are obviously more expensive but if you are travelling with others the cost can be made more reasonable.

Amanda,

We stayed at the East Lee Guest House in Sept. before the Connie TA. We loved it ... comfortable, clean, lovely antiques. It's a short cab ride to the pier.

Also, it was less than half a block from the bus station, just around the corner, and a short walk to downtown Dover. (We took the bus from Heathrow to London, and then London to Dover. Very inexpensive and pretty fast.)

Many of our Cruisecritic friends stayed at the Churchill, which is right by the water. Large hotel. Don't know if it has A/C or not.

Here's the info for East Lee:

EAST LEE GUEST HOUSE

108 Maison Dieu Road, Dover Kent CT16 1RT

Tele: +(0)1304 210176 Fax: +(01304 206705

email: elgh@eclipse.co.uk web:http://www.eastlee.co.uk

Our room was 55 pounds per night, incl. breakfast and tax.

Hope that helps!

Jan

I think you are the first person who posted that they actually took the bus from Heathrow/Victoria Coach/Dover....so...here is my very important question.

How to take the luggage from bus A to bus B? Is there a trolly (wagon)? Are there porters?

Thanks.

we will have two heavy suitcases...and two carry ons...there are two of us...so no way to share a taxi...

Heathrow to London, London to Dover, you make it sound very easy....

did you go to the Victoria station that everyone talks about...

Both services that I listed above have larger vehicles available that will accommodate more than two people with luggage. They are set up to handle people with lots of luggage and can do groups of two to ten or more so sharing is possible and the service, while costing more, sure is easier than transfers and luggage, especially after a tiring flight. There are often folks on your cruise who can be found to share the service with you. Nice way to meet your "neighbors".

oh yes I agree and I am trying to find others who may be on this itinerary to the Baltic and going to Dover...most go to Heathrow....so we will see...

and cant rely on finding someone to join us at the airport....

amanda,

Let me be the fourth to recommend the East Lee Guest House. We stayed there before boarding the Constellation in 2002. Excellent location, close to the Castle, as well as a short taxi ride to the pier. The hosts will call for a taxi when you are ready to head to the ship. Great breakfast, and our room was perfect. Totally non-smoking, which is hard to find in Europe!

Enjoy!

Kel

Amanda,

You'll love the Baltic. We did this wonderful cruise in late August - early September 2004.

We used Central (link below) for our transportation from Gatwick to Dover. The 6 of us (met on Cruise Critic) had a mini-bus, so we had plenty of space for us and luggage (luggage went in compartment). We visited Leeds Castle for 2 hours in Maidenstone on the way to the hotel.

We stayed 1 night pre-cruise at the Best Western Churchill. It is convenient to many restaurants, shopping, the sights, and the cruise terminal. The cruise terminal is too far to walk to with luggage, but taxis are easy to get from the hotel. The hotel has a restaurant (there are more reasonable places to eat in town) and a fitness center, but I also do not know if the hotel has air conditioning. The rooms are very small, which I understand is typical. The hotel is also waterfront.

Churchill's website:

http://www.churchill-hotel.com/accommodation/index.html

Have fun on this wonderful cruise!

Kathy

Sorry to the OP for sharing in this thread, but thanks for the info. There's been more discussion here than on the ports of call board...

Amanda: My husband and I took the bus (National Express) to Dover this year. We had three pieces of luggage on wheels and decided on the bus rather than the train in order to avoid the stairs at train stations. At the airport you can use airport trolleys right up to the place where the bus stops. Victoria bus station is another story. The arrival and departure terminals are on different sides of the road. It is all at street level but it will take you about five minutes to hustle your luggage out of arrivals and cross the road to departures. Both terminals were mad houses when we were there (Saturday) and I can't remember seeing any trolleys.

There was plenty of room on the bus and the other passengers were very quiet and polite. You also get to see something of London (residential areas, the Thames, Westminster) and Kent (hopfields, oast houses, Canterbury). In fact, we enjoyed it.

We got off the bus at the Ferry Dock in Dover which is a short taxi ride from the Cruise Dock (approx. 5 pounds). You can actually see your ship from the bus stop. Our bus driver kindly walked over to the taxi rank and arranged a taxi for us whilst we were organizing our luggage. (I also heard that a group of cruisers on an earlier bus that day managed to talk their bus driver into letting them off at the Cruise Dock.)

On the way back we disembarked earlier than we had calculated and I had made reservations for a later bus. This turned out not to be a problem as our tickets were cheerfully accepted on an earlier bus.

So really, apart from the five minutes of stress at Victoria, I can wholeheartedly recommend the bus. Maybe you can find out from the bus company whether porters are available.

At the Victoria Coach website, it stated that there are not trolleys, but there are porters.

I would like to verify this, if someone has actually seen and used a porter to cross the street (going from bus A to bus B).

Thanks