Transportation-Heathrow to Southampton

[seesea]

We are booked on the 8/30/06 British Isles Golden Princess cruise and would appreciate information on taxi fares from Heathrow to Southampton.We are also interested in any other private transportation that could be rserved in advance.

 

Thanks

[English Tim]

Its about 80 miles from LHR to Southampton and so will cost about £150-£200, about $350. I would suggest searching the internet for chauffeur or limousine services at Southampton and pre-booking a car, which should be much cheaper and more comfortable than taking a London Black Cab.

 

There is no easy rail service, but you may be able to take a coach.

 

I found this website http://www.britishairportcars.co.uk/index.asp

 

I hope it's allowed to post links

[phillipahain]

There should be a National Express Coach service from Heathrow to Southampton

 

They are reliable and very reasonable indeed

 

I do know of a 7 seater private hire guy who is excellent and took 6 of us from Heathrow to Dover ........he is pretty reasonable

 

With typical USA luggage even in a 7 seater vehicle 6 people is pretty much the max it will take in comfort

 

Taxis from Heathrow would cost an arm and a leg

[Pam in CA]

How much are the Princess transfers from Heathrow to Southampton?

[Toto2Kansas]

The Princess transfers this summer were $76 per person. But, if you can find others (possibly on a roll call) that are arriving about the same time, you can reserve a private transfer to share the cost. The private transfer is more than Princess but they price it 'per car' and not per person. We shared a private transfer back from Southampton and it was 40 pounds per couple to Heathrow, which is about half of what Princess charges.

 

If you read this thread on the Britian Forum it will give you an idea of what service others have used. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=211093

[Pam in CA]

Thanks for the info. The others I'm travelling with are coming in from the West Coast so I doubt we'll arrive at the same time to share a van. For just me, the $76 doesn't sound bad compared to having to find a bunch of other people I don't know to share a van. But I've got time to make that decision.

[Toto2Kansas]

Pam, We took the Princess transfers on arrival and they really weren't that bad. Only problem we ran into is that there was a really bad accident on the way to Southampton that held up all the traffic for over an hour. The private cars (at least through the company used for the return) have GPS and they find away around the bumper to bumper traffic. But we just used the time to catch a nap on the bus before we arrived at the ship.

Another thing was that our luggage was loaded onto a huge semi for transfer which meant our luggage arrived quite late in our stateroom, around 5:15 while those that checked in their luggage had it within an hour.

So, if you don't mind riding on a bus and luggage arriving a bit late doesn't bother you, it is about the least expensive way for the transfer compared to two in a private car.

[Cruiseteach]

We, too, took the Princess transfer when we did the Scandinavia cruise a few years ago. It was a good choice. Someone else handles your luggage, transfers it directly to your stateroom, etc. You don't need to hunt for roads or wonder if a cab driver is driving you all over creation, knows where he is going, etc. Also, if you are using the Princess bus, you know the ship will wait for you. We were held up by construction quite awhile. If we had been using private transport, we might well have missed the ship. It is well worth the few dollars you might save by using private transportation or cab. I mean, if you're paying all this money for the cruise anyway, why risk everything to save a few $$ ?

[seesea]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We are considrering arriving a day early and overnight in Southampton so the Princess transfer probably would not work.We have been pleased with ship transfers on past cruises but will feel better with an extra day at this time.

 

Botham, The British Airport Cars site worked fine and we might call them next week. Do you have any suggestions for a hotel in Southampton?

[hrob777]

http://www.nationalexpress.com/home/hp.cfm

 

We used it 2 years ago. Very cheap and comfortable. Discounts for seniors.

 

We arrived one day ahead of sailing, took taxi to Holiday Inn which is by the water and an easy walk to old town. Taxi needed to port and from port to bus station on return.

[English Tim]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We are considrering arriving a day early and overnight in Southampton so the Princess transfer probably would not work.We have been pleased with ship transfers on past cruises but will feel better with an extra day at this time.

 

Botham, The British Airport Cars site worked fine and we might call them next week. Do you have any suggestions for a hotel in Southampton?

 

 

Sorry, but I have no experience of Southampton hotels. The Holiday Inn or the Ibis are probably as reliable as any.

 

Try this thread!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=91001&page=2&pp=25&highlight=hotels+southampton Post #36

[Globaliser]

There's a lot of discussion on Heathrow-Southampton transfers, and some discussion about Southampton hotels in both the Britain forum and the British Isles forum.

[grandmaa]

Hi...we did the transatlantic crossing this past May on the Golden Princess and we had a wonderful lady pick us up at the ship..but she also does this trip in reverse from London/Heathrow to Southampton in a van and took us (with another couple we met via the cruise board) with all our luggage on a tour of the English countryside and to many historical sites (Stonehenge, White Horses, Cotswalds, etc.) to a pub for lunch and then dropped us off after 7+hours of touring. Her name is "Denise Ryeland" and you can reach her via: http://www.toursoftherealm.com or via e-mail: enquiries@toursoftherealm.com. Hope this info helps...

[bmwman]

A good hotel in Southampton is the Jurys inn and its near to the port.

 

Unless you arrive early the traffic in the summer down to Southhampton can be bad as it is also on the major route to a major holiday destination. National Express is good but you may be delayed.

 

Consider also a taxi to London Waterloo Station and then it is just 1 hour by train and a very frequent service to Southampton.

 

Have a good one

[Desert Nurse]

I used Ray's Transfers http://www.london-transfers.com/ and it was less expensive than the Princess transfers for the three of us. We had Ray waiting when we got off the plane in Heathrow and went straight to Southampton. Ray's also picked us up after the cruise and transported us to London for our post cruise stay, then one more time from London back to Heathrow. As far as I am concerned, it is the only way to go. I dislike transfers due to waiting for a bus to be filled before I can leave as well as having my luggage transported in another truck and not with me.

 

In Southampton I stayed at the Holiday Inn by the bay which was a huge mistake. Unless they have had an extensive rehab in the past couple of years including sound proofing, avoid this hotel. It was old and worn, not particularly clean, nothing worked well including the plumbing and the elevator and the noise from the hallways, ajoining rooms and outside was very annoying.

[SF]

Is that Holiday Inn the one on Herbert Ave or hopefully a different one? If you don't mind can you tell us what you paid roughly for your transfers?