Gatwick or Heathrow?

[BPCruiser]

I am doing some early organizing/research for our 2018 British Isles cruise. Looking for information on reasonably priced transport Bus options to get from either Heathrow or Gatwick to Southampton Hotel for our pre-cruise overnight. I am familiar with options for private transfer but since we are traveling as only 2, cost of private transfer is more expensive. Is there a Direct Bus from London Heathrow to Southampton Cruise Port. Would the Bus end in Southampton near Grand Harbor Hotel or near PI Southampton Quay which is where we will likely book.

Appreciate your help....

[John Bull]

I am doing some early organizing/research for our 2018 British Isles cruise. Looking for information on reasonably priced transport Bus options to get from either Heathrow or Gatwick to Southampton Hotel for our pre-cruise overnight. I am familiar with options for private transfer but since we are traveling as only 2, cost of private transfer is more expensive. Is there a Direct Bus from London Heathrow to Southampton Cruise Port. Would the Bus end in Southampton near Grand Harbor Hotel or near PI Southampton Quay which is where we will likely book.

Appreciate your help....

 

 

There are direct buses from both Gatwick & Heathrow to Southampton coach station.

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

They're not particularly frequent.

Give yourselves at least 90 minutes from flight arrival to bus stop, You're advised to pre-book. Your ticket is good for the time that you book, but (for journeys from airports only) you can switch to a later bus subject to seats available (theoretically a £5 admin charge to do that, often waived)

 

By train from Heathrow is complicated because it involves an included bus service to a mainline station, & it's relatively expensive - but quite frequent & no need to book, so useful as a Plan B if Plan A goes belly-up.

 

But from Gatwick the train is a very good option - hourly direct service, Gatwick station is inside South Terminal, quicker journey time than the bus, about the same cost. Your destination is Southampton central station. Only snag is that there's no direct service on sundays, it involves one change of train - so for a visitor the bus is probably the better option on sundays

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

 

That info relevant for this year, timetables probably won't change & fares will probably be marginally higher next year. Check back & book a couple of months out.

 

Coach station is no more than a 15 minute walk to Premier Inn West Quay, rail station is another five minutes (you walk past the coach station). For Grand Harbour add 5 minutes. Easy level ground, OK if the weather's OK otherwise there are taxi ranks at both stations.

 

This simple thumbnail map is probably easier than googlemaps or Bing.

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

Useful information on other pages of that website - but don't bother reading about Megatrain or other special offers, they don't apply to airport routes.

 

JB :)

[BPCruiser]

Thanks for the immensely helpful info! [emoji4]

 

 

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