Southampton Transportation

[Bbeach16]

Will be in London for a couple days before sailing on Independence of the Seas in mid June. What’s my best transportation option from central London hotel to Southampton?

[CruiserBruce]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Come over to the British Isles portion of Cruise Critic, located here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=233

 

for many discussions on your questions.

[kctwinmommy]

Yes, check over on the British Isles section, lots of posts about this. We opted for a private car service, Smiths, to get us from the airport to Southampton. We just wanted something easier and low key, not on a big tour bus. It's certainly more expensive, but it was worth it. Our driver was amazing, gave great advice, and even took us somewhere else for our day in Southampton. Just a great company!

[taglovestocruise]

We used Blackberry cars. Kensington to Southampton port was $155.00 for 2 in a Mercedes 4 door coupe.

[JMorris271]

We took National Express. About half of the price of a car.

[Ashland]

We used Blackberry cars. Kensington to Southampton port was $155.00 for 2 in a Mercedes 4 door coupe.

Did you use the same service for your return ?

[Velvetwater]

National express is the best deal out there. Clean airy coach and the driver will store the luggage away for you underneath even large cases. Its around $15 per seat and one case I think but can be as cheap as $9.

 

They go from all London airports and about 4-5 different sites in London. London Victoria Coach station is the usual but research the others too.

 

For a slightly higher price but a quicker route there are also regular trains to Southampton also.

 

We have done both and found other cruisers with us out of Southampton happy with the services.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Velvetwater

[taglovestocruise]

Did you use the same service for your return ?

No it was just one way as we were doing a transatlantic to FLL. I did notice that several people were approaching our driver as he unloaded our luggage. Not sure if he took a group back or not. We did use their service for airport to hotel, about 50.00.

[Ashland]

National express is the best deal out there. Clean airy coach and the driver will store the luggage away for you underneath even large cases. Its around $15 per seat and one case I think but can be as cheap as $9.

 

They go from all London airports and about 4-5 different sites in London. London Victoria Coach station is the usual but research the others too.

 

For a slightly higher price but a quicker route there are also regular trains to Southampton also.

 

We have done both and found other cruisers with us out of Southampton happy with the services.

Does the National Express go directly from the Southampton port to LHR without the need to make any changes.

[Velvetwater]

Does the National Express go directly from the Southampton port to LHR without the need to make any changes.

 

 

Yep, and it only costs around $25 per person if you book in good time(including a large case stored underneath)...sometimes even less than that. This is from the Coach station which is very near the port.

 

National express are particularly good with airports all over the country to be honest as its big business for them. With the larger airports they drop off people at each terminal individually too.

 

Google national express UK and you will be able to search times.

 

We are using them this summer to get from our home city to Manchester airport and we use them to go on city breaks...I highly recommend them especially when they are often half the cost of train travel over here.

 

A taxi from Southampton port to the Southampton coach station is very quick and cheap too (less than a tenner and around 10 minutes). We did this last summer after our NCL cruise.

[John Bull]

Yes, it's a direct service, - no changes and just a couple of stops en-route.

https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

Your bus journey starts at Southampton coach station - at worst that's a £10 taxi ride from any cruise terminal,

 

You'll need to know your Heathrow terminal number when you book

https://www.heathrow.com/airport-guide/which-terminal.

 

JB :)