Southampton to Manchester

We will be arriving May 21 via RCL TA Navigator into Southampton and wish to travel to the Manchester area. What would be the easiest mode of transportation?

Anyone travel this in the past? How did it work ?

Thanks for any information.

You can get a direct train from Southampton to Manchester.

The easiest way would probably be to take the train from Southampton Central to Manchester Piccadilly. It looks like there's basically one direct train every hour, and it takes something like 4¼ hours.

 

I find it hard to imagine any alternative that's as good as that.

You can fly between Southampton and Manchester. Flybe fly this route, depending upon dates, there may be up to 4 flights per day. Take care on the weight of your luggage, as they are very strict on this.

Flybe have several flights a day from SOU to MAN. But I'd probably take the train (depending very slightly on what "the Manchester area" means) :)

 

EDIT: SNAP!

Edited July 28, 2015 by Cotswold Eagle

You can fly between Southampton and Manchester. Flybe fly this route, depending upon dates, there may be up to 4 flights per day.

Flybe have several flights a day from SOU to MAN.

Except that BE has not filed timetables for any flights from SOU to MAN beyond 26 March 2016, and there is no guarantee that it will do so. (It has filed timetables for flights on other routes, so it's not as if all BE schedules stop on that date.)

 

In addition, at the end of the period for which there are scheduled flights, there are two on Saturdays: 1035 (arriving 1140) and 1530 (arriving 1635).

 

It would be a brave passenger who would book the 1035 flight. However, a train at 1120 is probably perfectly feasible. That would arrive in central Manchester by about 1535, a whole hour before the 1530 flight arrives at MAN.

 

So I still find it hard to imagine any alternative that's as good as the train.

So I still find it hard to imagine any alternative that's as good as the train.

 

 

...and you can watch the countryside go by!

 

Simon

It would be helpful to know where in the Manchester area the OP wishes to go.

We took the train from Southampton Central to Manchester Airport via Picadilly at the end of our Eclipse cruise in May. We had a leisurely disembarkation that morning and a relaxing train ride. For most of the journey there was room to spread out except from Oxford to Birmingham when our car was full. It was easy to transfer to the airport line in Picadilly.

 

It was a bit more challenging navigating our way to the car rental bus stop at MAN. We picked up a rental car from Enterprise at the central car hire hub and then had two lovely weeks in Yorkshire and the Lakes district before returning to MAN for our flight back to the US via Reykjavik.

 

We opted against renting a car out of Southampton and driving direct to Thirsk to save wear and tear on my DH as the sole driver.

Thanks to everyone for the help. We actually are planning to get to the MAN airport car rentals to pick up a car for two weeks then return to MAN and fly to Amsterdam.

It sounds as though we will be repeating your trip TMLAalum...... notice you are from the south shore of Lake Erie. We live in Sandusky, where are you located?

We will continue with our plans..........thanks

We actually are planning to get to the MAN airport car rentals to pick up a car for two weeks then return to MAN and fly to Amsterdam.

Can't you pick up your car at a central Manchester location, and then return it to Manchester airport?

Thanks to everyone for the help. We actually are planning to get to the MAN airport car rentals to pick up a car for two weeks then return to MAN and fly to Amsterdam.

It sounds as though we will be repeating your trip TMLAalum...... notice you are from the south shore of Lake Erie. We live in Sandusky, where are you located?

We will continue with our plans..........thanks

 

We are 4 towns east after Sandusky and 3 towns west from Cleveland! I think I figured it right to get you to where we are- just past the Cuyahoga County borderline.

 

Globaliser has a point, but for us, rather than pick up a rental near Picadilly which would entail DH navigating through a major metropolis while becoming re-acquainted with driving on the left, we opted for the airport location with quick access to the motorway.

I would let the train take the strain. Flights from Southampton to M/cr a bit iffy as there are often delays because of mists and fog (as I have learned from experience). Have a look at a site called 'red spotted hankey' or 'thetrainline' as they seem to do cheaper train fares. Have used 'thetrainline' for journeys down to London but not 'red spotted hanky'. We often travel down to Southampton by car to join a cruise and it takes a steady five hours using the M6 toll road, but we are obviously used to the journey. Hope you get sorted.

I see that Hertz have a depot near Manchester Piccadilly and also at the airport. That would save the additional trip to collect the car.