Cruise beginning in Dover

[alidor]

Will be on a cruise beginning in Dover next August (hopefully).  Would anyone recommend staying there the night before we board or would you suggest just staying in London?

[John Bull]

The choice is yours.

 

If you travel down the previous day, you can visit excellent Dover Castle on the morning of your cruise -  when you check-out most hotels will happily hold your luggage til later in the day. And Dover hotels (Premier Inn and Best Western are well-located) are significantly cheaper than their central London counterparts.

 

But it's perfectly normal to travel down to Dover from central London on sailing day. By train (depart from choice of 4 or 5 central London stations, destination station is Dover Priory) or by bus (from Victoria coach station). Or by car, tho it'll be no quicker than by train

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

 

JB 

[PhilbeachTraveller]

Oh, do come down and stay in Dover. In August, there (hopefully) be a lot of things happening to see/do/take part in. Dover Castle is well worth visiting and there a private tours of the area you can hire if you want (includng boat tours). As John Bull says, it's a lot cheaper than London as well. 

[gnome12]

Deleted. On wrong topic.

Edited September 19, 2020 by gnome12

[phabric]

I took 2x National Express Coach www.nationalexpress.com from LHR switch coaches at London Victoria Coach station to Dover Ferry Terminal.  I took a short taxi ride to our hotel from there.

 

 I stayed both times at Premier Inn Ferry Terminal.  This hotel has a restaurant, you can book a meal plan - breakfast or breakfast/dinner, bar, no A/C there was a table fan in the room (window only opened a few inches).  First time, I took just the breakfast plan, thinking we would find a place to eat dinner somewhere but found we were too tired to go back into town so ate at the hotel.  Second time, took breakfast/dinner plan. If you go through their parking lot you are at the water front.  You will be able to see your ship in the morning.  When there ask if possible for a room at the front, back rooms back on to a road.  They will call a taxi for a short taxi ride to the ship.  You can walk along the water front into the town.
 

If visiting Dover Castle, take a taxi both ways.  Make arrangements for a return taxi or ask at entrance if they can/will call a taxi when you are finished before they close. The taxi are not waiting there. We left at closing with no taxi around, no phone and had to walk down many, many stairs to the main road then to hotel.  Visiting the war tunnels, you line up for a free guided tours so it can take time.  If you are like my sister who reads every sign/notice, we were there all day.  There was a trolley train you can take while inside.
 

We were staying in London post cruise, we took International Friends www.internationalfriends.co.uk from Dover dock, stopped along the way and dropped off at our London hotel.  They only go on embankment/disembarkment days from LHR hotels, certain London hotels.

I prefer Dover over Southampton.

Edited September 19, 2020 by phabric

[memfris]

Are there any hotels where you can park your car for the duration of the cruise?

[PhilbeachTraveller]

14 hours ago, memfris said:

Are there any hotels where you can park your car for the duration of the cruise?

Try the Holiday Extras website, they have a search for hotel + port parking. Could only find one in Dover that offers this, but HE also can give you quotes for port parking. Kent based company - I use them often for airport/hotel bookings.