Southhampton to London Tour

Looking for a tour company that can drive us from Southhampton to Portsmouth (tour HMS Victory) then drive to Dover then to hotel in London. Any recommendations?

Zouave

There is no one offering The Royal Dockyard as a tour. You could take a taxi to Portsmouth and another to London, or if you can cope with the luggage, take the much cheaper option of a train.

The problem is luggage. The only place that will take left luggage is the ferry terminal, which is some way away from the Royal dockyards. I would expect that if you used a Portsmouth taxi (Aquacars or Smiths for airports) they would hold your luggage while you explored.

http://www.aquacars.co.uk/

http://www.smithsforairports.com/index.html

If you do get there, please do not miss The Mary Rose. http://www.maryrose.org/.

Where does Dover fit into all of this? :confused:

Seems like a lot to fit into one day. :eek:

For a private transfer, Smiths or Aqua as Bob's post, or http://www.westquaycars.com

But it'll be quite expensive with waiting time at Portsmouth, then via Dover (plus waiting time again?) and on to central London.

That totals about 245 miles, about 5 hours driving plus waiting time - with the diversion to Dover responsible for 145 miles / 2hrs 15 of that.

Southampton to Portsmouth to central London is tolerably doable by public transport.

As per Bob's post, the only luggage storage in Portsmouth is at the International (cross-channel) port. No facilities at the historic dockyard/travel interchange.

So National Express bus from Southampton coach station to Portsmouth international port, drop your luggage there, a short taxi hop (about £7) or shuttlebus if there's a conveniently-timed one to the Historic Dockyard, adjacent the IoW ferry/train/bus/taxi interchange at The Hard.

HMS Victory is just one part of the Historic Dockyard & Ships - you could look over Victory in about 90 minutes but you'd miss so much else.

Then taxi or bus back to the International Port, collect bags, taxi (again about £7) or shuttlebus either back to Portsmouth Harbour station at the travel interchange or to the main Portsmouth & Southsea station, for a direct train to London Waterloo.

For Portsmouth to Dover to London, the quickest & simplest is that same train line to London Waterloo, use the left luggage facility there, two minute walk to Waterloo East station for a train to Dover. And the same train line back to Waterloo East to collect you luggage.

By which time you may be into the next day :p

http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

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

(spell Southampton with just the one "h")

JB :)

The Dover thing is a massive curve ball. More details would help on this one :)

The Dover thing is a massive curve ball. More details would help on this one :)

Looking at a map it seems simple to drive east from Southampton/Portsmouth along the coast to Dover, then north to London. :)

But it ain't :(

You & I (& googlemaps) know that the south coast road thro' East Sussex & Kent to Dover is horrendously slow - it's far the quicker to take the motorway loop up to the London orbital, then back south to Dover.

Hence the "curve ball"

JB :)

<goes to check map>

North? It's almost west! :D

OP - all our joking aside, Dover makes little sense in a Southampton-Portsmouth-London itinerary. If you want to view the Castle, I'm not convinced it's worth it. If there's another reason, who are we to judge, but note JB's point that the most sensible routes are on dull, busy motorways, not cross-country or by the coast.

 

North? It's almost west! :D

 

.

I'm sorry, I have a cold

:p

JB :)

I'm sorry, I have a cold

 

:p

 

JB :)

I totally missed the Dover reference in my reply. It is a real shame that The Historic Dockyard does not have a left luggage facility. I will suggest it to them as it would make a visit there, en route from Southampton to London with cruise luggage, a great deal more attractive and less complicated.

I totally missed the Dover reference in my reply. It is a real shame that The Historic Dockyard does not have a left luggage facility. I will suggest it to them as it would make a visit there, en route from Southampton to London with cruise luggage, a great deal more attractive and less complicated.

There was talk at one time of one of the pubs on The Hard offering a left-luggage facility.

Worth buying a pint at each to find out?

JB :)

Stopping in Southampton from 9am until 8pm. Any way we can get a tour of London or is it too far away to have any time there? If possible, tour operator?

You would do best to go by train. There are frequent services in both directions and the journey is around 1½ hours. If you caught a 9:30 train there and a 5:30 train back, you would have six hours or so to see the sights. You arrive at Waterloo, so a trip down the river to see Tower Bridge and the Tower of London would make a good start.

It will be very superficial, but no more so than a tour from Rostock to Berlin or Le Havre to Paris.

I broadly concur with Bob - let the train take the strain.

By road is an hour or so longer. Probably more because of the time of day that you'll be travelling - mixing it with morning and especially evening commuters who work in London. Double that grief in one direction or the other if it's a Monday or a Friday.

That rules out the bus.

By private car (plus knowledgeable driver, not self-drive rental because you really don't want to be dealing with navigation, traffic and parking :eek:) would work well on a Saturday or Sunday, when traffic is much lighter but would be expensive. If you want to consider that option, get quotes from www.smithsforairports.com and www.westquaycars.com and www.aquacars.co.uk who are all based in the Southampton area and frequently recommended by CC members.

The journey by train is simple. Depending on the weather and your time in hand, Southampton Central station is walkable from some cruise terminals (quote your ship or cruise line) or its no more than a five minute £10 taxi ride from any cruise terminal.

There are 2 - 3 direct trains per hour to London Waterloo & the journey takes 80 to 100 minutes. Waterloo is the terminus, so no risk of missing your stop.

The complicated bit is the ticketing and fare-pricing.

The walk-up fare is something over £40 one way, ie a total of over £160 for two of you.

But by travelling on specific trains with tickets bought in advance that can work out as under £35 return per person - a total of £70 for two of you.

On a random date that means catching the 09.55 train from Southampton central, arrives Waterloo 11.34am, fare £17.20.

An earlier train would probably be possible but on all earlier trains the fare is over £40.

Return on the 5.35pm train from Waterloo, arrives 6.46pm, again the fare is £17.20.

That ties in reasonably well with an 8pm sailing, for which the latest back-on-board time is likely to be 7.30pm. You could push your luck by booking a slightly later train at £24.20 but it's better to have that extra bit of time in hand.

That would give you about 6 hours in central London. Not enough time of course. Even a week isn't enough time. But you'd make a decent fist of it in your day.

Just a five minute walk from Waterloo station are ho-ho routes, the river cruises mentioned by Bob to Tower Bridge & the Tower of London (cruise included in ho-ho fares for London Original or Big Bus) and the London Eye. And from Waterloo by crossing Westminster Bridge you're 15 mins or less on foot from Parliament (Big Ben), Westminster Abbey & a host of other sights .The ho-ho gives a good over-view and a full circuit takes about 2.5 hours.

So you have a wide choice of how to see London.

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

timetables aren't out yet for next summer, for research use a random date in the next few weeks and much closer to your date check for train changes (unlikely), fare changes (likely to be in line with inflation) and those special prices which are available from about 6 weeks out.

https://www.theoriginaltour.com/

https://www.bigbustours.com/en/london/london-bus-tours

JB :)

I have looked at the above websites for private cars but they do not appear to be what we would like. We frequently use the services of Rome-In-Limo for tours in Italy. They provide an English speaking driver/guide and a luxury sedan. They pick you up at the ship, take you to all the interesting sights that time permits and return you to the ship in time for departure. Is there anything like that for Southhampton - London?

Thanks.

I have looked at the above websites for private cars but they do not appear to be what we would like. We frequently use the services of Rome-In-Limo for tours in Italy. They provide an English speaking driver/guide and a luxury sedan. They pick you up at the ship, take you to all the interesting sights that time permits and return you to the ship in time for departure. Is there anything like that for Southhampton - London?

 

Thanks.

http://www.discoverthesouth.co.uk/tours/1184-9387/london.php

Discover the South is the touring arm of West Quay Cars, the Southampton-based operator mentioned in my post.

And, thinking about it, if you'd e-mailed West Quay they'd have probably pushed your e-mail across the desk to Discover the South.

It's about as similar to RIL as you'll find in Southampton - West Quay drivers know their way around London but perhaps more the hotels, airports, theatres etc than the sights, whereas Discover the South drivers are chosen for their more intimate knowledge of destinations.

They can create an itinerary for you, or tailor-make based on your preferences.

These are driver-guides, not qualified guides, and I think they work single-crewed which means in central London the prospects of them being able tto abandon the vehicle and accompany you on any inside visits are slim-to-none.

Is that the same as RIL?

Discover the South will of course be more expensive than their sister West Quay Cars or smithsforairports or aquacars.

If you want to go the whole hog and have a driver + qualified guide, because London guides are almost-exclusively London-based & because of the travel time between London & Southampton the norm. is to separately book a car+driver from Southampton and a London Blue Badge guide who will meet you when you arrive in London. The driver then takes his instructions from the guide, and at the end of your tour you drop off the guide, and your driver takes you back to your ship in Southampton.

https://www.guidelondon.org.uk/blue-badge-tourist-guides/

If you choose this option, it's perhaps a bit pointless to spend the extra to use Discover the South, and smithsforairports will be better value. I have no doubt they can quote you without knowing precise details - just tell them your start & finish times in Southampton and that you'll be touring central London with a guide.

In Rome the itinerary for a port-of-call excursion for an average tourist is pretty self-evident - perhaps the only decision that a tourist would need to make is whether to take an inside tour of the Vatican or Colosseum, because there's usually time for one but not both.

But London has just so many sights that your tour provider is going to need some input from yourself.

Hope this helps

JB :)

Thank you!

This looks much more like what we would like and appears to be very similar to RIL.

It appears that Southhampton is a substantial distance from London. How long will it take to get there and back?

Thank you!

 

This looks much more like what we would like and appears to be very similar to RIL.

 

It appears that Southhampton is a substantial distance from London. How long will it take to get there and back?

About 80 miles.

How long depends partly on luck with the traffic and partly on which day-of-the-week - notionally it can be as quick as 90 minutes on a quiet sunday, but realistically anything up to 2.5 hours during the week.

On a saturday or sunday, not only is the traffic much lighter but such traffic as there is will be going in the opposite direction - heading to Southampton / the coast in the morning & back to London in the evening

But on weekdays you'll be mixing it with commuters heading into central London and again in the late afternoon / early evening when you leave London.

Ditto driving around the sights within central London. The traffic is eerily quiet on sundays, but slow & congested during the week.

What day-of-the-week will you be there?

(in fact, quote the date so that we can factor in public holidays etc)

JB :)

BTW it's Southampton, not Soutthampton.

Common mistake - and at least you didn't cut the city in half, "South Hampton";)

It will be Tuesday, Sept. 18 from 7am till 7pm.

Thanks for your help.

I think you would do better to take the train to London and book a tour guide there.

Have a look here: https://www.guidelondon.org.uk/blue-badge-tourist-guides/