Island2Dweller

Yes, you can get a direct train from Waterloo East to Dover. By way of background. Waterloo station and Waterloo East stations are side by side, connected by a walkway, but operationally entirely separate. Trains from Waterloo head off through south west London and on to Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. Trains from Charing Cross run though Waterloo East and then off through south east London into Kent.

If you've booked the hotel in Southwark, forget Gatwick Express. Thameslink is far cheaper and given you are near the station, will be quicker in overall journey time.

If you intend to stay in central London, consider staying in central London. If you're going to use one day at Hampton Court, then a Gatwick hotel is just as convenient. The £80 on fares is true, but ignores the detail that if you stay in central London you'll be paying fares to travel around London anyway plus a journey to Gatwick - so the additional travel cost is more like £30 not £80

I happily aim for two hours ahead at Gatwick, if that swings your view. If one of the days is devoted to going to Hampton Court then a hotel at Gatwick is just as convenient as central London

At very different price points, there is a Sofitel and a Premier Inn right at the north terminal. If you choose the latter, make sure you take care when booking as there are numerous Premier Inn hotels in the Gatwick area. You want the one right at North Terminal. It's easy to get to Hampton Court from Gatwick. Train to Clapham Junction, change to a train for Hampton Court. Don't buy any tickets, just use a contactless bank card (or phone) to open the platform gates.

Gatwick is not a charter airline airport. The biggest airline (by far) at Gatwick is easyjet. They don't operate any charters. For the original question. Also worth looking at Air France / KLM, who operate from Southampton airport and may have a connecting option. Yes, it involves a change but far simpler/quicker/cheaper to get to Southampton airport than any of the six London airports.

The location is incredibly central, but as the previous post said, you cannot put Marriott and Travelodge in the same sentence. A reasonable budget option, but it is a budget / no frills option.

"I don't think there are any mainstream situations left in which the pay-as-you-go fare using a bank card is cheaper than the fare you'd pay using an Oyster. " True. But a bank card can be used to far more destinations (eg Windsor / Luton Airport) than Oyster. This will become even more extensive from the end of 2023 when contactless will be extended to more stations outside London.

Re the comment on Oyster card. Oyster still works but is now considered "old tech", and you need to pay £7 (not refundable) for the card. The majority of transport fares in London are now paid by contactless bank card or ApplePay/GooglePay - which gives the cheapest fare and has no up-front cost. HopOn-HopOff bus tour is an excellent way of getting an orientation but should not be considered as a transport method. The normal service buses are infinitely more frequent and vastly cheaper.

If you want to get between central London and Paris then Eurostar is by far the best way to do it. But if you want to get between Southampton and Paris, it really would not be my recomendation. The transfer across London is a faff for an able bodied person. There are direct flights between Southampton and Paris

Long distance rail fares. You have to balance price against flexibiity. The cheapest tickets are called "advance" (it's a particular ticket type, not simply that you bought it ahead of time). These can be very cheap but if you miss the train it is worthless, it cannot be used on a different service. With the uncertainties of airport arrival and immigration, if you chose this I would want to pick a departure time a long time after scheduled landing - four hours at least to give breathing room. For the return to London, where you can be much more certain of your plan, an "advance" fare will be the best option. Start searching with LNER now, they sell tickets earlier than other operators. The walk-up single is £69 (valid from 0910 to 1459 weekdays, anytime weekends), much more in weekday rush hours. There are no return fares on this route. As stated above, the simplest way from Heathrow to Kings Cross is Piccadilly line. Direct. Just use a contactless bank card / smartphone / smartwatch top operate the platform gate, do NOT buy a paper ticket for this.

Anywhere within the central loop of the circle line (the yellow line on the London tube map) is central and will have good transport options.

I've stayed in various Premier Inns, and on occasion have been given a Premier Plus room. I've never been able to see any difference between the room types.... The infrastructure is the same, either the whole hotel has air con (all newer properties do) or the whole hotel doesn't - it does not vary by room. I've never noticed a hair dryer in any of their properties, but as I am completely bald I haven't looked very hard!

If your flight is booked by a third party (which this is), the airline will not talk to you directly. Any change has to be arranged through the agency that booked the flight. As mentioned above, at some time (varies between 24-48 hours) before departure, the "control" is handed over the airline. Don't assume that a change at the airport will be easy. Some European airlines (British Airways being a leading example) will not allow you to make any changes on tickets (unless you had bought a full fare ticket directly from them) unless there is disruption of some sort

It's almost 100 miles from Nice.... Taxi will need a mortgage. Also, I'm not sure whether a Nice taxi driver is licensed to take a fare into Italy. In comparison it's only 30 miles from Genoa.

To emphasise the point above about Christmas day itself. Folk from other countries are often astonished at how much the UK totally closes down on that day. Many folk arrive into Heathrow and are shocked to find no public transport whatsoever - only a few taxis with a surcharge. You'll have a great time visiting around then so long as you don't book any travel for Dec 25 and you book eating arrangements for that Christmas Day long in advance (like now).

Windsor is ten miles west of Heathrow. You can visit easily. Option 1 - go direct from Heathrow to Windsor (short taxi ride) and stay there for the first night. Then head into central London for the next day. Option 2 - stay in central London, visit Windsor as a (most of a) day trip. It's a really easy and cheap (about an hour) trip by train. Train fare is £9.50 each way (or £14.10 in weekday rush hour), don't buy a ticket, you simply tap a credit card (or smartphone / smartwatch) on the platform gates to get in and same one on exit.

The BA short haul fleet is the same, whether it is a five hour flight to Amman or a 40 minute hop to Manchester. Nothing different about a domestic flight. The only comfortable BA short haul flights are the Cityflyer services from London City, which have much more generous legroom (all the way down the plane) on Embrarer E190. But these aircraft are never used on Heathrow services

I would not recommend the walk from Writtlesford Parkway to the museum. You would walk along the side of a busy major road, then need to cross the junction with a motorway! There is no protected pedestrian crossing - you would literally take your life in your hands. (I am astonished that there is no safe provision for pedestrians - but there we are) The suggestion to take a fast train to Royston then a taxi from there gets my vote

Using public transport to get to your hotel will be vastly cheaper than taxi or car service. But the devil is in the detail - how easy/difficult that is depends on which hotel you book. When you know that, we can advise further on public transport options and whether they are easy to that location

The ship may be due to dock at 0500 but will immigration staff be available for that hour? I don't know the specifics of your arrival, but it's often not until 0700 that immigration is in place to enable you to get off. A private transfer is the only option that I would be comfortable with to get to you to Heathrow in time to check in for a 1250 flight. You haven't said which airline. British Airways is notorious for changing their schedule quite regularly, so you also need to think about your back up plan if the flight gets retimed after you have booked it.

As above - more details please. Assuming you meant Heathrow, that's over 60 miles from Southampton on roads that can be congested. Although most long haul flights use Heathrow, you should be aware that London has six airports, and four of them have some long haul flights

It depends what you mean by "near". The only hotel within walking distance (5 minutes fast / 10 minutes relaxed) is the Greenwich Ibis. There are also a couple of pubs with rooms - I would not choose to stay in those due to noise - the core of historic Greenwich can be lively. If you're happy to use the DLR (which stops at "Cutty Sark", adjacent to Greenwich Pier) then any hotel on the Isle of Dogs or by Tower Bridge is really convenient.

LNER will be running a service from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh on 2 September but it will be very limited - far fewer trains than usual. This means the few trains that do run are likely to be full and standing. If you do not have a reservation for one of those services you may well not be able to board. Personally, I would not attempt it. I would either change the date of travel or if you must travel that day, take a refund and fly. Loganair fly from Southamton to Glasgow. There are also services to Glasgow from Heathrow - which you can reach by coach from Southampton

The DLR does not go to Victoria, and this really isn't a sensible route. If you want to use the train, take a train from Greenwich station (about a mile from the pier) to London Bridge. Change there to the Thameslink trains to Gatwick, look for services that only stop at East Croydon (as these are much faster than other services). Using a contactless bank card (do NOT buy a paper ticket) as your payment device, this will cost about £10 and take an hour (at most). Road transfer is obviously more convenient but is slower, traffic through south London moves at a glacial pace