Pre-Cruise stay near HARWICH-need help

We would like to stay one-night in the Harwich area before our Baltic cruise next July. Anyone have any suggestions as to a nearby area and hotel. I was looking at southend-on-sea as a possiblitiy(40 miles away). thanks in advance for help.

Don,

My information may be a little outdated as our Scandanavia/Russia cruise was back in 1996, but at the time I did a lot of research on Harwich and I must tell you, after seeing the area, it is a very small, almost industrial type area, with a train station and the cruise pier. This is just my opinion from my memory, but I don't think you will find a local motel/hotel in Harwich, itself. We stayed in the Sheraton by Heathrow airport, which is the airport we flew in and out of, did a two day sightseeing, by taking the El downtown and then on the day of the cruise, since I had made arrangements and paid for the RCI transfers, had the hotel shuttle us back to Heathrow and rode the 2 hr bus ride to Harich to catch the cruise on the Splendor of the Seas. Did the same on the debarkation.

I did a lot of research on staying in London proper at hotels, but they were double the price of the Sheraton by the airport, which was $119 a night!

Be prepared for costly, as England is that to those of us who are used to paying half for food and lodging in the U.S.

Hope this was of help and if you put Harwich in a search engine as I did you might find some information on how small this area really is.

Enjoy your cruise. We have fond memories of that cruise, as it was a once in a lifetime for us and our very first balcony, which we have only enjoyed once after that.

Cruisldy, thanks for the response. Upon further research, you are right there is not much in Harwich (2 hotels I could find). Since we have seen just about everything we want to see in London, I think I have found an option in Brighton-"london by the sea"- its more or less on the way to Harwich and has some interesting sights like the Royal Pavillon. The only down side is the cost of the hotels-wow.

Brighton-"london by the sea"- its more or less on the way to Harwich

If you really want to stay out of London, one sensible place might be Ipswich. There are a few sights around and about. Have a look at the National Trust website (search for Suffolk, which is the county in which Ispwich is) - one very interesting place is Sutton Hoo.

Or if you want a country house hotel experience, try Maison Talbooth, which is linked to a very good restaurant called Le Talbooth. Or you could just stay at their sister establishment at Harwich, The Pier at Harwich.

We also did an extensive search for places to stay close to Harwich and there is one place that really caught our eye. It isn't too far away, you can get transportation to the pier from there, and the sightseeing is really very marvelous there. You can write to their Chamber to get informtion on hotels, and sights. "Colchester" is steeped in military history and has a lovely town! The hotel prices are much less than London too!

:D

:eek: Sorry, but I think you need an atlas or a map. I'm afraid that Brighton is nowhere near either Harwich or the way from London to Harwich. You go south from London for about 50 miles to get to Brighton, but Harwich is about 80 miles eastnortheast of London - a completely different direction altogether.

 

If you really want to stay out of London, one sensible place might be Ipswich. There are a few sights around and about. Have a look at the National Trust website (search for Suffolk, which is the county in which Ispwich is) - one very interesting place is Sutton Hoo.

 

Or if you want a country house hotel experience, try Maison Talbooth, which is linked to a very good restaurant called Le Talbooth. Or you could just stay at their sister establishment at Harwich, The Pier at Harwich.

Thanks for the suggestions, I dont know why I thought that Harwich was south of London obvioulsy its not. Yes, Brighton would be way out of the way.

We also did an extensive search for places to stay close to Harwich and there is one place that really caught our eye. It isn't too far away, you can get transportation to the pier from there, and the sightseeing is really very marvelous there. You can write to their Chamber to get informtion on hotels, and sights. "Colchester" is steeped in military history and has a lovely town! The hotel prices are much less than London too!

 

:D

Thanks, it looks like Colchester would be a perfect 1 1/2 day pre cruise and only 20 miles from Harwich. They have a very good web-site, showing plenty to do and see.