post cruise out of southampton

We will be on a cruise from Southampton to Ireland and Scotland in September on Princess. We plan to overnite in Southampton before the cruise. Any recommended Hotels?

After our cruise we would like a tour of Bath and Port Isaac(Doc martin locale) wich will take a couple of days. Are there any private tour companies offering this type of tour?

The only practical way to visit Port Isaac and Bath would be to hire a car.

Port Isaac to Bath is pretty straightforward and mostly (boring) highway, but driving from Southampton to North Cornwall is more complicated, although mostly on dual carriageways. Google maps says four hours, but with likely traffic and a stop for lunch, it could easily take six or more. I would book the night in Port Isaac and a possibility is The Slipway Hotel, right on the sea front http://www.portisaachotel.com/.

Port Isaac to Bath is about a four hour drive, so an early start would get you there mid morning. How long you have will depend on flight times but Bath to Heathrow (all motorway) takes a couple of hours.

All of these times are subject to traffic delays so you would have to check ahead and modify your plans accordingly.

You should give us the dates and times of your arrival and departure for better advice.

I have stayed at the Premier Inn West Quay 2 times, walking distance to a shopping mall, restaurants, and a short taxi ride to the port. They have a restaurant for their Meal Deal (for buffet breakfast and or dinner). This hotel is popular with cruisers.

There are other hotels mentioned in different threads for Southampton hotels.

Here are a couple of threads about hotels in Southampton

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2377044

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2374444

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2338979

found by typing "Southampton hotel" into the search box at the bottom of the British Isles forum - plenty of other threads via that route.

And the map at the bottom of this page shows a useful location map.

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm

There are very few organised tours out of Southampton because it's not a tourist city or a port-of-call, it's very much a port city & a cruise turnaround port.

But public transport is excellent, for instance there's a direct hourly train service to Bath. Journey time is about 2 hours & costs from only £7.50, so it could be a day-trip from a Southampton base.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Port Isaac is some distance & quite remote - 177 miles / 4 hours from Southampton, 167 miles / 3 hours from Bath.

And 25 miles from the nearest rail station (probably Lostwithiel) but no direct service to either Bath or Southampton so by train involves a change of trains.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/css/Network_Rail_national_map.pdf

For a private tour you could try http://discoverthesouth.co.uk/

This is the touring arm of West Quay Cars, a well-respected Southampton transfer service. Their drivers aren't guides, but are specially selected for their general knowledge & customer-orientated demeanour.

Or try http://www.smithsforairports.com who are frequently used by CC members for transfers and offer a good and relatively -inexpensive service - but this is transportation only.

I don't see Port Isaac as worth a long day-trip from either Bath or Southampton, and making it a 3-leg trip with a transfer operator would be inordinately expensive and, over two days, pretty impractical too. Even renting a car would be pretty impractical for those two places in two days.

For Port Isaac you really need both days, perhaps with a rented car. You could include some of the wonderful north Cornwall & Devon coast or one or two other local attractions.

But unless you make it part of a much longer tour of the south-west I recommend you forget Port Isaac.

Mebbe include Salisbury & Stonehenge with Bath, either by train or private transfer or rented car. Or private transfer from Southampton via Salisbury & Stonehenge (or lots of other places en-route), overnite in Bath, spend the next day in Bath & return to Southampton by train that evening.

Or consider direct to Bath from the airport, next day in Bath, next day train or private transfer to an overnite in Salisbury (Stonehenge en-route if by private transfer or by ho-ho from Salisbury if by train), then Salisbury to Southampton (direct train or private transfer) on the morning of your embarkation.

That would minimise your travel & maximise your sight-seeing. (edit - ooops. for post-cruise, work that the opposite way round)

Here's a map with the places mentioned, it shows how Port Isaac is out-on-a-limb

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Heathrow+Airport+(LHR),+Longford,+Hounslow+TW6/Bath/Stonehenge,+Amesbury/Salisbury/Southampton/Port+Isaac/@51.0645956,-3.7630981,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m38!4m37!1m5!1m1!1s0x48767234cdc56de9:0x8fe7535543f64167!2m2!1d-0.4542955!2d51.4700223!1m5!1m1!1s0x487178a6743ee12d:0x138b27d0d66d9a09!2m2!1d-2.3599039!2d51.375801!1m5!1m1!1s0x4873e63b850af611:0x979170e2bcd3d2dd!2m2!1d-1.826215!2d51.178882!1m5!1m1!1s0x48738c5536009bb7:0xda3e080f25eaa06!2m2!1d-1.794472!2d51.068785!1m5!1m1!1s0x48738957be152909:0xa78c5a6a4cda71f0!2m2!1d-1.4043509!2d50.9097004!1m5!1m1!1s0x486b7604a4fc53f1:0x1314d5fec594a36e!2m2!1d-4.829978!2d50.59382!3e0

JB :)