Harwich to Southampton

We are planning on sailing on the Celeb. Infinity in May, ending in Harwich on May 24. We'll board the QM2 on the 25th from Southampton.

We'll have been in London for 10 days before the Infinity:cool:

Big question - What's the quickest way from Harwich to Soton? I know there's a train into London from Harwich, but is there a more direct, without having to change in London? I sure hope so:D

we were going to do something similar to this a few years ago so I looked into it then...there were no direct trains.

I checked the UK site http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ and there still is no direct train.

It appears you have to go from Harwich to London and then change train stations in London. They show the connection by subway, but you could always take a cab to cut down the discomfort.

We are planning on sailing on the Celeb. Infinity in May, ending in Harwich on May 24. We'll board the QM2 on the 25th from Southampton.

We'll have been in London for 10 days before the Infinity:cool:

Big question - What's the quickest way from Harwich to Soton? I know there's a train into London from Harwich, but is there a more direct, without having to change in London? I sure hope so

Boy, you sure can pick 'em.:rolleyes:

As an Irish friend of mine would say, the easiest way to get to Southampton is not to start at Harwich.:D

You arrive Harwich on a friday, & sail from Southampton on the saturday, right?

If you wanted to avoid London, you'd have to change trains at Manningtree, Ipswich, Peterborough, & Birmingham. And you'd probably miss your sailing from Southampton next day.:p

Train or Nat Express coach, the only sensible way is via London.

Private transfer by car would miss London but cost towards £200.

Trains to London from Harwich (International) station, right alongside your ship :)

Broadly an hourly train service to London.

Journey time about 1 hr 30. There's a change of train at Manningtree, about 20 minutes out of Harwich. But there are extra trains 7am to 8am, and they are direct, no change of train. Fares to London £15 to £29, depending what time train. You can buy tix at the station.

In London you will need to cross to London (Waterloo) station

Two ways of crossing London:

By taxi. Take the train from Harwich/Manningtree all the way to its terminus at London (Liverpool Street) station. Taxi from the rank at the station about 2.5 miles to Waterloo station. Don't know the cost, mebbe £15 to £20

By tube. If you choose to cross London by tube, it's easier to alight the train from Harwich/Manningtree at London (Stratford) station, which is by the Olympic Park. From there, it's a direct tube train (Jubilee line) to Waterloo station. Both Stratford & Waterloo stations are wheelchair-friendly, thus presumably luggage-friendly.

Two to three direct trains per hour from London (Waterloo) to Southampton (central), journey time about 90 mins, regular fare about £36. You can buy at the station.

But, a money-saving complication:

You can pre-book tickets over the internet for a Waterloo to Southampton train for as little as £1 from http://uk.megabus.com/megatrain.aspx

Megatrain rent carriages on selected trains, so your choice is restricted to half-a-dozen trains per day, and you must travel on the train that you select - no amendments, no refunds.

A through ticket Harwich to Southampton, including your cross-London by tube, will cost around £55.

A ticket Harwich to London (Stratford or Liverpool Street) plus a pre-booked megatrain ticket Waterloo to Southampton will cost less than half of that.

Megatrain tickets/vouchers/codes/call-them-what-you-will can be printed off when you book. So if you're a little unsure about Megatrain, or unsure about which train to select, you can wait, and book while in London pre-cruise.

But it does make sense to book megatrain tickets - they can save you £££. If you don't make that train, you've only thrown away a dollar & a half per person.

Hellfire, its worth buying tickets for two of the megatrain times & throwing away the one you don't use, rather than paying full-fare at the station.

A taxi from Southampton central to your cruise terminal will cost about £7

Useful websites:

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search

The station codes are:

Harwich HPQ

London (Stratford) SRA

or

London (Liveroool Street) LST

London (Waterloo) WAT

Southampton central (SOU)

http://www.tubemap.com/

http://uk.megabus.com/megatrain.aspx

http://www.londontoolkit.com/mnu/london_airports.htm

lots of useful info about London on other pages of this website too.

http://www.visit-southampton.co.uk/

Best pour a large drink, then read again. But, as usual, I've made it look more complicated than it is.

JB :)

Dammit - too late to edit :(

The train websites will not give train times for your dates, because they're too far out.

For planning purposes use a friday/saturday for October this year. The info will probably be the same next May, plus annual fare increases.

But you'll have to re-check a month or two out.

JB :)

Not the answers I wanted, but it gives me what I need! As I was reading your response,I started to think about booking multiple Megatrain tix before I got to your suggestion to do so:D -makes great good sense. Since we don't leave Soton the same day, at least we have ample time to make connections.

Thanks to both for your quick response/suggestions

We are going to be on the QM2 on 25 May also. We are flying into the London City Airport. We arrive at 3:30 pm on the 24th and we are trying to find a tour of London, a hotel or bed & breakfast there or further down the road after our tour and then transportation to South Hampton on the 25th. We are finding it very difficult to find something like that. There are 4 of us together.

Harwich is a logistic nightmare unless the cruise train into London is convenient or you have car.

For the switch to Southampton another option is train/bus to a near town with car hire places. 24hr one way is around £50-£60 and the drop of in Southampton is near the port(depends on berth if this also needs a taxi)

This gives a lot of other options for the rest of the day to visit other places or stay somewhere other than London or Southampton.

The drive is easy. eg Colchester->Southampton 150ish miles 3 hours.

A bit of research needed to find the best train/bus station car hire locations allthough some do have a pickup service.

I think people are making this sound worse than it is! This month we did a cruise out of Harwich. We live on the Waterloo - Southampton railway line, so it is a similar, though shorter journey. We caught the train to London Waterloo. Got a taxi to Liverpool Street (under £10) and from there got the train to Harwich International, changing at Manningtree. Booked ahead online and thus had free seat reservations from London. Same in reverse.

The reverse route, which is what you will do is the easier of the two trips, since at Manningtree returning to London, you only have to cross from one side to the other of the platform, just three or four steps. Going to Harwich, you have to change platforms using the subway under the rail lines with steps at each end, which is a pain with luggage. We booked a train leaving Harwich at 9.33am. This was cheaper than the early morning trains and meant we could have breakfast and leave leisurely.

If they are running the special 'cruise train' then there is no change at Manningtree and it is even easier though more expensive.

We are going to be on the QM2 on 25 May also. We are flying into the London City Airport. We arrive at 3:30 pm on the 24th and we are trying to find a tour of London, a hotel or bed & breakfast there or further down the road after our tour and then transportation to South Hampton on the 25th. We are finding it very difficult to find something like that. There are 4 of us together.

Barjolov,

You might consider contacting International Friends (•info@internationalfriends.co.uk), a smaller tour co. out of London. They do transfers from London to Soton with a short stop at Stonehenge. They get very good reviews at Tripadvisor and might be able to assist re an afternoon/evening run around London as well. Arriving one day sooner you could use a hop on hop off bus to see briefly the major sights -Just a thought

We will making this journey as well,but back to Gosport/Portsmouth,the train details should be available 3 months before and the tickets prices as well, weve got the fare down to 96£ for 2 return by making dummy bookings,it looks a daunting journey but shouldnt be to bad :):)

Boy, you sure can pick 'em.:rolleyes:

As an Irish friend of mine would say, the easiest way to get to Southampton is not to start at Harwich.:D

 

You arrive Harwich on a friday, & sail from Southampton on the saturday, right?

 

If you wanted to avoid London, you'd have to change trains at Manningtree, Ipswich, Peterborough, & Birmingham. And you'd probably miss your sailing from Southampton next day.:p

Train or Nat Express coach, the only sensible way is via London.

Private transfer by car would miss London but cost towards £200.

 

 

Trains to London from Harwich (International) station, right alongside your ship :)

Broadly an hourly train service to London.

Journey time about 1 hr 30. There's a change of train at Manningtree, about 20 minutes out of Harwich. But there are extra trains 7am to 8am, and they are direct, no change of train. Fares to London £15 to £29, depending what time train. You can buy tix at the station.

 

In London you will need to cross to London (Waterloo) station

Two ways of crossing London:

By taxi. Take the train from Harwich/Manningtree all the way to its terminus at London (Liverpool Street) station. Taxi from the rank at the station about 2.5 miles to Waterloo station. Don't know the cost, mebbe £15 to £20

By tube. If you choose to cross London by tube, it's easier to alight the train from Harwich/Manningtree at London (Stratford) station, which is by the Olympic Park. From there, it's a direct tube train (Jubilee line) to Waterloo station. Both Stratford & Waterloo stations are wheelchair-friendly, thus presumably luggage-friendly.

 

Two to three direct trains per hour from London (Waterloo) to Southampton (central), journey time about 90 mins, regular fare about £36. You can buy at the station.

 

But, a money-saving complication:

You can pre-book tickets over the internet for a Waterloo to Southampton train for as little as £1 from http://uk.megabus.com/megatrain.aspx

Megatrain rent carriages on selected trains, so your choice is restricted to half-a-dozen trains per day, and you must travel on the train that you select - no amendments, no refunds.

 

A through ticket Harwich to Southampton, including your cross-London by tube, will cost around £55.

A ticket Harwich to London (Stratford or Liverpool Street) plus a pre-booked megatrain ticket Waterloo to Southampton will cost less than half of that.

 

Megatrain tickets/vouchers/codes/call-them-what-you-will can be printed off when you book. So if you're a little unsure about Megatrain, or unsure about which train to select, you can wait, and book while in London pre-cruise.

But it does make sense to book megatrain tickets - they can save you £££. If you don't make that train, you've only thrown away a dollar & a half per person.

Hellfire, its worth buying tickets for two of the megatrain times & throwing away the one you don't use, rather than paying full-fare at the station.

 

A taxi from Southampton central to your cruise terminal will cost about £7

 

Useful websites:

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search

The station codes are:

Harwich HPQ

London (Stratford) SRA

or

London (Liveroool Street) LST

London (Waterloo) WAT

Southampton central (SOU)

 

http://www.tubemap.com/

 

http://uk.megabus.com/megatrain.aspx

 

http://www.londontoolkit.com/mnu/london_airports.htm

lots of useful info about London on other pages of this website too.

 

http://www.visit-southampton.co.uk/

 

Best pour a large drink, then read again. But, as usual, I've made it look more complicated than it is.

 

JB :)

JB,

I've been on Tripadvisor for advice about staying near the National Archives and connecting in to catch the train to Harwich, and the advice perfectly dovetailed in to your advice. In fact, what I got from you made it a lot easier to process the new advice.

Just wanted to let you know and give an add'l word of thanks

JB,

I've been on Tripadvisor for advice about staying near the National Archives and connecting in to catch the train to Harwich, and the advice perfectly dovetailed in to your advice. In fact, what I got from you made it a lot easier to process the new advice.

Just wanted to let you know and give an add'l word of thanks

Always good to hear from a satisfied customer.

My invoice will be in your stateroom ;)

Have a good one

JB :)

We booked a one-way car rental from Thrifty (they deliver car to Harwich port).

We have used the National Bus service extensively in England between Dover - London - Southampton and places inbetween. The nice thing about the bus service is that you get to see the countryside a little slower than having it pass by in a blur. Also, and very important to us, is that you stow the luggage below and when traveling with cruise luggage rather than a small suitcase, it certainly is easier that hoisting it up into a railway car and then trying to find space for it. The buses we've been on have all been very comfortable and if I remember correctly, I think some of them even had WiFi.

Food for thought. . .

WW,

Sounded like a good idea, since we've taken Coach from London to Southampton and found the seats comfortable. Bad news, there is no Coach service out of Harwich:(. And when I checked if we could go thru from Colchester, the nearest with Coach service, we could not get thru service:(:(. So, looks like we'll stick with Rail - probably taxi from Liverpool St. to Waterloo to keep strain down. But do appreciate the suggestion!

We have now decided on a train,taxi coach journey both ways will book the coach next week :)

We have now decided on a train,taxi coach journey both ways will book the coach next week :)[/q

 

And we have about decided to do train, taxi, train(from Waterloo St.) to Soton. Esp. if we can get a deal on megatrain. Just curious why you chose the last leg on coach rather than train:confused:

We are travelling to portsmouth so its a cost thing,as the cheap train tickets will take as long as the coach,the train from Waterloo to Portsmouth are faster but we wont get any specials

The coaches also go to Southampton so it could be an alternative,we are also travelling up to Harwich on the sunday so will get a really good deal on the coach for the return

The mega train doesnt run to Portsmouth so we cant use it :(