Hotel recommendation in Southampton

[Piggy Cruiser]

Dear all,

 

We would like to arrive one day earlier before the Cruise Ship sail away from Southampton. Any hotel recommendation in Southampton which is convenient to the Cruise Terminal or Shopping Centre?

 

Thanks in advance for your kind recommendation!

[John Bull]

Dear all,

 

We would like to arrive one day earlier before the Cruise Ship sail away from Southampton. Any hotel recommendation in Southampton which is convenient to the Cruise Terminal or Shopping Centre?

 

Thanks in advance for your kind recommendation!

 

Hi Piggy, :)

 

There are 4 cruise terminals in Southampton, all 4 are a short taxi hop from the shopping centre and city centre hotels, but only City Cruise Terminal is walkable with luggage.

A good number of mainly modern no-frills hotels within walking distance of the shopping centre & the city's few historical sites. The most popular are:

Etap, Ibis & Novotel share a site between rail station & coach station along West Quay Road. They have limited in-house facilities but very close to eateries etc. Walkable to City Cruise Terminal with luggage.

Holiday Inn, Herbert Walker Ave is immediately adjacent to City Cruise Terminal, which makes it popular with cruisers. It also has excellent views down Southampton Water, though it's rather dated & in need of a facelift. NB there are also two "Express" Holiday Inns in the city, but both are on the city outskirts & inconvenient without a car.

De Vere Grand Harbour is opposite Holiday Inn & also has excellent waterfront views, its the only major 5-star hotel in the city (there are many excellent country hotels just beyond the city).

Southampton Park Hotel (more traditional), Jury's Inn & Premier Inn (New Road) are at the top of the city centre.

The White Star Tavern (5-star boutique hotel), the Dolphin & the Star (coaching inns) are at the bottom of the city centre below the historic Bar Gate.

 

All are in walking distance of the shopping & historic parts of the city.

Southampton is not a tourist city, but there's certainly enough to occupy you for a day.

 

The traditional main shopping street is named Above Bar & extends down past the Bargate into High Street, and East St off High St. There is a large & fairly new shopping mall (West Quays) and surrounding retail park between Above Bar and City Cruise Terminal.

Historic sights are the Bargate & adjoining city walls & various sights incl Tudor Merchants house, Medieval Merchant's house, the Wool House (now a small maritime museum) & Gods Tower (now archaeological museum) off High St between Bargate & the port gate for QE2 & Ocean Cruise Terminals. They can easily be walked in a morning on a circular tour, perhaps ending at the shopping centre.

 

These websites may be useful:

For cruise ship schedule (usually up-dated in the new year)

http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/cruise_ship.asp

(For terminal locations, click on the Port Maps header)

For city background & links to hotels

http://www.visit-southampton.co.uk/

John Bull

[Bruin Steve]

This past summer for our cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse, we stayed at the Holiday Inn on Herbert Walker...absolutely perfect...

 

There is a large enclosed shopping mall within walking distance...also lots of restaurants...and the rental car return places were right there as well (we had rented a car for nine days prior to tour Cornwall, Devon and Dorset) ...When we woke up in the morning, our ship loomed, larger than life, right outside our window...One could not stay any closer to the ship unless one was already on the ship...

 

We left the hotel and walked onto the ship...the gate to the cruise terminal area was adjacent to the parking lot of the hotel...the total walk had to be less than 100 yards...

 

Of course, those staying at our hotel for the Princess cruise needed to hire a taxi to get to their ship...but, for Celebrity, it could not have been any more ideal...

 

Below, if I did this right, is the photo of the Eclipse taken from our hotel room window at the Holiday Inn...You can also see the Avis rental return office in the foreground:

[Globaliser]

Any hotel recommendation in Southampton which is convenient to the Cruise Terminal or Shopping Centre?

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[FritzG]

We were at the HI on Herbert Walker on Oct. 29,30, and it was horrible. Our rooms were very worn and in bad repair. The headboard actually fell on DH as he took a nap. Every time the person in the room next to ours flushed the toilet it made a screaming sound like a siren. When they showered or when we showered the pipes made a sound like a jack hammer--and at the same volume.

The desk staff was not at all helpful with questions about the area. We were told to walk 3 blocks to the tourist bureau even though we were obviously seniors, and it was pouring rain.

 

Surprisingly, the restaurant was very good. The breakfast buffet had a good variety of well cooked, tasty food. It was clean with a friendly efficient staff.

[Bruin Steve]

We were at the HI on Herbert Walker on Oct. 29,30, and it was horrible. Our rooms were very worn and in bad repair. The headboard actually fell on DH as he took a nap. Every time the person in the room next to ours flushed the toilet it made a screaming sound like a siren. When they showered or when we showered the pipes made a sound like a jack hammer--and at the same volume.

The desk staff was not at all helpful with questions about the area. We were told to walk 3 blocks to the tourist bureau even though we were obviously seniors, and it was pouring rain.

 

Surprisingly, the restaurant was very good. The breakfast buffet had a good variety of well cooked, tasty food. It was clean with a friendly efficient staff.

 

It's sometimes funny how two people's experience can be so different...

 

Our room was very nice and in good repair...

We had no issues with noise, furniture or plumbing...

We found the people at the front desk to be very helpful...We had a group from our cruise critic roll call and wanted to go to a restaurant for dinner...they made recommendations, gave us walking directions, etc. (I guess, at any hotel, it may depend on luck of who you ask at the front desk...Some clerks are knowledgable and helpful, others are not...the clerk we asked even called over another clerk to see if she had any more or different suggestions...I guess it also depends on who is on duty and how busy they are)...

 

We would stay there again EVERY time...

[Piggy Cruiser]

Thanks all for your great comments! We're checking the rate for Holiday Inn and now waiting for our TA to get back to us. Between, originally we planned to spend a couple of days in London before going to Southampton before we go on board the Ship. Now, we have second thought, do we think there are plenty of things to explore if we spend all 3 days in Southampton or its nearby areas such as the Factory Outlets? For transportation, did anyone of you try http://minicab2airport.com. Seemed to me that their price are quite competitive.

 

Looking forward to your kind advice!

 

Warm regards,

[Bruin Steve]

Thanks all for your great comments! We're checking the rate for Holiday Inn and now waiting for our TA to get back to us. Between, originally we planned to spend a couple of days in London before going to Southampton before we go on board the Ship. Now, we have second thought, do we think there are plenty of things to explore if we spend all 3 days in Southampton or its nearby areas such as the Factory Outlets? For transportation, did anyone of you try http://minicab2airport.com. Seemed to me that their price are quite competitive.

 

Looking forward to your kind advice!

 

Warm regards,

 

We had nine nights to explore prior to our recent cruise out of Southampton--so we headed all the way out to Cornwall and worked our way across...

 

The last two or three days before pulling into Southampton, we explored an area that we thought was quite interesting...The "Jurassic Coast", Corfe Castle, Lulworth Castle...

 

All are within about a 60 mile drive from Southampton...but some of these roads can be slow...We stayed those last two nights before getting to Southamptin at the Thistle in Poole...Poole is sort of a working class town, but the Quayside area around the Thistle is nice and they had Fireworks from the Quay at night...Another, slightly nicer town to stay in Dorset is Bournemouth...The folks at the Poole Visitors Center...just down the Quay from the Thistle...were very helpful in planning out our days...

Of course, we had a rental car...

[Bruin Steve]

Some photos...

1) Corfe from Corfe Castle

2) Corfe Castle

3) Corfe Castle

4) The Jurassic Coast

5) The Jurassic Coast

6) Lulworth Castle

7) Lulworth Castle

[John Bull]

Thanks all for your great comments! We're checking the rate for Holiday Inn and now waiting for our TA to get back to us. Between, originally we planned to spend a couple of days in London before going to Southampton before we go on board the Ship. Now, we have second thought, do we think there are plenty of things to explore if we spend all 3 days in Southampton or its nearby areas such as the Factory Outlets? For transportation, did anyone of you try http://minicab2airport.com. Seemed to me that their price are quite competitive.

 

Looking forward to your kind advice!

 

Warm regards,

 

London is number 1 on most folks' pre or post-cruise, and there's nowhere else that gives you so many iconic places to see, all neatly packaged to fit in an awful lot in a short space of time. If this is your first time in the UK you really should consider a couple of days in The Smoke".

 

But if you want to base yourself in Southampton there's plenty of places in the area to interest you, many with excellent rail links. The rail station is a 10/15 min walk from Hol Inn. & just across the road from several other hotels.

 

There's a fair bit of detail of some options on these threads if you breeze past the irrelevant bits:

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1269735

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1203734

and photo of Hol Inn on this one:

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1283384

 

Further afield, also consider Chichester or Arundel or Bath (train or car), the Jurassic coast/Corfe Castle/etc as Steve's post, or deep into the countryside of West Sussex, Hampshire. Somerset or Dorset (all require a car).

 

Or if you have any particular interests ........ pre-history/Roman/Norman/Tudor/Victorian/20th Century history ....... country houses & gardens ..... .. motoring ...... armed forces ......maritime ...... arts & crafts ........ whatever ...... we can mebbe come up with more ideas.

 

The transfer company you quote reminds me of a recent thread - are you reading this HandfordR? :)

I don't know the company, there are many operating out of Heathrow etc, but again its a fairly safe bet that english isn't their first language.:rolleyes:

Their rates are a little higher than south-coast based alternatives, though not a rip-off that I sometimes see on these boards.

Never heard of anyone else charging waiting time from 45 mins after landing (the average time for international pax to reach the arrivals hall is 45 to 60 minutes) but its not a big deal.

 

http://www.westquaycars.com/ and http://www.smithsforairports.com/index.html

both frequently recommended on these boards are currently around the £85 mark for Heathrow, though there's a tax rise in January.

 

JB

[goldencup]

 

...Poole is sort of a working class town, but the Quayside area around the Thistle is nice and they had Fireworks from the Quay at night...

 

I don't think Poole would appreciate this description very much....Poole contains Sandbanks, one of the most expensive places in the world (let alone the UK) to buy property!

[FritzG]

If you're going to stay at the HI on Herbert Walker avoid rooms 303 & 305.

 

We had a lovely day trip to Hythe. The ferry is within walking distance of the HI, and it's a quick trip across the bay. The town of Hythe is a quaint fishing village with good shopping and pubs and restaurants. We highly recommend Hobbits for a great meal. If you have more time you can also visit Beaulieu castle which is a wonderful motor museum and stately manor house with the owners in residence. You'll have to take a cab from Hythe.