Southampton to London to Gatwick

[shertwo]

Appreciate the information and advice on this site, especially John Bull's input, etc., what a nice person to provide the information and lots of timing doing so.

We arrive on Ship on April 30th, would like to do a day tour Salisbury, Stonehenge, Windsor, drop at central (reasonable, is there such a thing) hotel and "do" some London things, the one part is we have to get to Gatwick for return flight home, does the Bank holiday on May 2 shut everything down, or just banks and businesses -- are tourist attractions and stores and transit working? Is it as difficult/far as it seems to be the majority of info to get to Gatwick with luggage? Appreciate all info/advice/recommendations. Cheers!

[Twickenham]

Shall let others talk of tours - although one possibility would be to rent a car and do it yourself. Would drop off at LHR however - even I won't drive in Central London! LOL

 

In terms of getting to LGW, would definitely take the train, Gatwick Express or Southern rail from Victoria (if taking Southern Rail, I think you can also get a train from London Bridge).

[Bob++]

There is a reduced service on Bank holidays but there will still be trains. All the tourist destinations will be open and very busy.

 

I see from http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx?TravelDate=02%2F05%2F2016&TOC=gx that there will be "No Gatwick Express service from Saturday 30 April until 04:00 on Tuesday 3 May" due to works at Clapham Common.

 

You can however catch a train from St Pancras, Victoria or London Bridge. http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search You should allow ample time for the journey as they may well be delays.

 

If you are planning to visit the Tower of London, you need to be there early to beat the rush. Buy tickets in advance too.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Bob++

[shertwo]

There is a reduced service on Bank holidays but there will still be trains. All the tourist destinations will be open and very busy.

 

I see from http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx?TravelDate=02%2F05%2F2016&TOC=gx that there will be "No Gatwick Express service from Saturday 30 April until 04:00 on Tuesday 3 May" due to works at Clapham Common.

 

You can however catch a train from St Pancras, Victoria or London Bridge. http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search You should allow ample time for the journey as they may well be delays.

 

If you are planning to visit the Tower of London, you need to be there early to beat the rush. Buy tickets in advance too.

 

Thank you very much, probably have a Noon flight out of Gatwick, the carrier only flies from there, on May 2, need to see how early trains are available to get to airport for International flight, hopefully doable.

[John Bull]

There is a reduced service on Bank holidays but there will still be trains. All the tourist destinations will be open and very busy.

 

I see from http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx?TravelDate=02%2F05%2F2016&TOC=gx that there will be "No Gatwick Express service from Saturday 30 April until 04:00 on Tuesday 3 May" due to works at Clapham Common.

 

You can however catch a train from St Pancras, Victoria or London Bridge. http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search You should allow ample time for the journey as they may well be delays.

 

If you are planning to visit the Tower of London, you need to be there early to beat the rush. Buy tickets in advance too.

 

I can't do better than Bob's advice.

Rail schedules for bank holidays are usually the same as - or very similar to - the more limited sunday service.

 

But commuters are the rail network's main users, so rail operators use sundays to carry out track maintenance, which further affects services. Bigger jobs mean that Saturdays are also affected. And the biggest jobs are done over bank holiday weekends. Murphy's Law says you'll be using Gatwick at the same time as a major track job.

 

Immediate post-cruise tour-transfer Southampton to London via Salisbury, Stonehenge, Windsor is easier to advise.

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_to_london_shared_bus.html

Do buy your Stonehenge tickets with your transfer ticket, to avoid the potential problem of delayed admission without a timed ticket. Like the Salisbury-based ho-ho, those who buy from the operator have dispensation to be admitted immediately. I don't think the same applies at Windsor castle, perhaps others can comment.

 

JB :)

Edited March 8, 2016 by John Bull

[sddsddean]

Just checked the National Rail site for future engineering works and although it says about the Gatwick Express and Southern services being disrupted out of Victoria (as per Bob's post), there is apparently no change to the Thameslink service out of London Bridge, so this might be your route of choice. The train journey can be done in 29 mins for £7.90 and as it is a Bank Holiday Monday, your best bet will probably be to jump in a black cab to London Bridge station rather than mucking about with luggage on the tube.

 

Simon

[shertwo]

I can't do better than Bob's advice.

Rail schedules for bank holidays are usually the same as - or very similar to - the more limited sunday service.

 

But commuters are the rail network's main users, so rail operators use sundays to carry out track maintenance, which further affects services. Bigger jobs mean that Saturdays are also affected. And the biggest jobs are done over bank holiday weekends. Murphy's Law says you'll be using Gatwick at the same time as a major track job.

 

Immediate post-cruise tour-transfer Southampton to London via Salisbury, Stonehenge, Windsor is easier to advise.

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_to_london_shared_bus.html

Do buy your Stonehenge tickets with your transfer ticket, to avoid the potential problem of delayed admission without a timed ticket. Like the Salisbury-based ho-ho, those who buy from the operator have dispensation to be admitted immediately. I don't think the same applies at Windsor castle, perhaps others can comment.

 

JB :)

Thank you very much, maybe we should just stay an additional day and leave on May 3rd, what a hardship that would be, NOT, Love London and surrounding areas, Hubby's favourite City of anywhere.

[John Bull]

Thank you very much, maybe we should just stay an additional day and leave on May 3rd, what a hardship that would be, NOT, Love London and surrounding areas, Hubby's favourite City of anywhere.

 

You do realise that under Murphy's Law, if you do that those those engineering works will over-run and foul-up tuesday as well :p :D

 

JB :)

Edited March 8, 2016 by John Bull

[mamkmm2]

I can't do better than Bob's advice.

Rail schedules for bank holidays are usually the same as - or very similar to - the more limited sunday service.

 

But commuters are the rail network's main users, so rail operators use sundays to carry out track maintenance, which further affects services. Bigger jobs mean that Saturdays are also affected. And the biggest jobs are done over bank holiday weekends. Murphy's Law says you'll be using Gatwick at the same time as a major track job.

 

Immediate post-cruise tour-transfer Southampton to London via Salisbury, Stonehenge, Windsor is easier to advise.

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_to_london_shared_bus.html

Do buy your Stonehenge tickets with your transfer ticket, to avoid the potential problem of delayed admission without a timed ticket. Like the Salisbury-based ho-ho, those who buy from the operator have dispensation to be admitted immediately. I don't think the same applies at Windsor castle, perhaps others can comment.

 

JB :)

 

And for those of us traveling to the area in July, it looks like central London will be shut to most vehicular traffic on the 30th and 31st for some type of bicycle event. I know for my family this is really going to impact our plans as we return to Southampton on July 31st.

[John Bull]

And for those of us traveling to the area in July, it looks like central London will be shut to most vehicular traffic on the 30th and 31st for some type of bicycle event. I know for my family this is really going to impact our plans as we return to Southampton on July 31st.

 

Thanks for the heads-up, its useful for folk to be forewarned.

 

But although the many events in central London involve road closures and some delays and bus & ho-ho route diversions, don't think of it as being a no-go area for traffic. ;)

Most roads will be open, almost all road closures will be on the saturday & sunday when there are few commuters or business travellers & traffic is comparatively light, taxi drivers know their way around the closed roads, this event has been run before and those involved in the planning have plenty of experience in minimising the effect on traffic.

And there may be extra tube & train services because of the event, so its not all bad news. :)

 

Inconvenient, but not excessively so.

No worries :cool:

 

JB :)

[Globaliser]

But although the many events in central London involve road closures and some delays and bus & ho-ho route diversions, don't think of it as being a no-go area for traffic. ;)

 

Most roads will be open, almost all road closures will be on the saturday & sunday when there are few commuters or business travellers & traffic is comparatively light, taxi drivers know their way around the closed roads, this event has been run before and those involved in the planning have plenty of experience in minimising the effect on traffic.

This is all true, and one shouldn't panic. Nevertheless, RideLondon is one of the more disruptive events. Last year, I had to do a lot of creative navigating to make sure I could get the car from one side of town to the other (which was a necessity given what we were doing that day).

 

Anyone who's simply going from central London to Southampton should be able to work around it quite easily, though.