Transportation from Southampton to Dover

[Stelladoro]

We're planning on taking 2 cruises next August, British Isles cruise on the Crown Princess , following by a Baltic cruise on the Carnival Liberty. Unfortunately, this involves 2 different ports. Can anyone comment on distance and transportation availability? We would disembark on Aug. 24th in Southampton and embark on Aug. 25th in Dover.

Appreciate your input!

[Globaliser]

The main question, I suppose, is what you want to do with your day (almost 1½ days) between cruises. Do you want to go to London to overnight, and see or do some things there? Do you want to stay near Southampton and see/do things there? Or do you want to head straight over to Dover to wait for the ship the next day? Or perhaps go in that direction, for example to Canterbury, and then go to Dover the next day.

 

There are all sorts of options, but what is best really depends on what you want to do.

 

In total, expect it to take about 4-5 hours to get from one to the other by public transport, or 3-4 hours by car.

[Stelladoro]

Thank you Globaliser for your suggestions. We're just at the beginning stage of our planning, so haven't gone into details. I like the idea of going to Canterbury (by train), overnighting there, and continuing by train to Dover the following morning.

[Canuker]

You can travel cross country to Dover, by train, but it's a multi-change operation; not recommended with baggage.

So, the best way to go is through London. Take the train to Victoria (every hour most of the week), not the more frequent service into Waterloo. Check into a hotel near Victorai station (lots), spend your time seeing the big city then into a train next day, also from Victoria, to Dover.

Perfect!