nat

Could someone please help me with information on getting to the Hampton Court (going to be in London Nov 22-27). We will be staying in Covent Garden area. Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

jill

You can take a train or you can take a boat down the Thames. The boat on the Thames is a longer ride but fascinating, and you can take a train back if you want to cut out the long boat ride back.

nat

Where do I take a train from? I just need some info so I can do a search on it. I am absolutely clueless about territorial location of train stations in London.
Thanks again.

Lori

Take the train from Waterloo Station. They run pretty often, about every 30-40 min. You can buy a combined ticket for Hampton Court itself and the train and a pound or two. The train station at Hampton Court is right across the river from the castle itself. It's about a 5 min. walk - you cannot miss it, trust me! I would not take the boat, it takes way too long and while it is a nice ride in Nov, it can be pretty cold and gloomy.

nat

Thanks a lot

Lori

I meant to say "and save a pound or two".
Enjoy your day there, it's a truly lovely place - not sure how it would be in Nov. tho, we've been a couple of times in the Spring.

nat

Thanks.
Do you think it will be to cold to go there in November?

Christina

I can't see how it will be too cold as most of what you will be seeing is inside at Hampton Court. I would also recommend the train, especially in November, because it will be cold.

I took the boat last August one way and thought it was very boring and a waste of time. It took a real long time (3 hours or so) and the scenery wasn't that interesting nor the boat very comfortable, to me. Obviously, others like it.

jill

We took the boat in Oct and while it was chilly, we still enjoyed the ride. You get to see London from a totally different perspective. There are homes and things that you cannot see otherwise. Homes on the little islands also. But we took the train back.

Lori

It's not going to be any colder at Hampton Court then anyplace else in the London area. While the gardens were lovely in the Spring I don't think they will be too attractive in Nov (anyone been there in Nov to verify this one way or the other?). Remember it gets dark pretty early, like about 4:30, so your days will be "short".
Plan you activities accordingly.

nat

Thanks again to everyone for answering.
Counl you tell me how long is to get there by train (you mentioned 3 hours by boat) and also I am again at loss which train to take. I understand that it from Waterloo but would like to look up the schedule before we go so we can plan accordingly. So if you can mentionde the name of the company (or how it called) of trains I would appreciate it.

curiousx

OK, I am a former resident of East Molesey, the village nearest to Hampton Court. I commuted into London everyday from the Hampton court train station(to Victoria via Waterloo). Unless there was a strike (and that was often), the trip never took more than 45 minutes to an hour.

For a taste of something different,when you leave Hampton Court, you might take a taxi to the Bell Inn on Bell Road in East Molesey - a 16th Century pub that time forgot.

Enjoy your trip.

janis

All the informtion posted so far has been good. But - IF you do decide to take a boat, do not take it TO Hampton Court. Take it on the return trip to London. The reason being - because of the river current, the trip up river takes almost 1 hour longer than the return trip down river.

So, take the train to the Palace and IF the weather is nice you can always take the boat back to London. If the weather is nasty, take the train back.

karen

nat


Go to www.railtrack.co.uk and click on timetables - there you can enter the relevant information, in this case starting station is London Waterloo and destination is Hampton Court. Then enter the time you want to travel and you will get a list of the train times. In the morning there appears to be about 2 trains an hour, taking 31-32 minutes.
If you take a train after 9.30am on a weekday then you can get a cheap day return ticket (unless you already have a travelcard covering zone 6). The train company which operates this service is South West Trains, although that information isn't particularly relevant. When you get to Waterloo, you just need to look at the board for your train (e.g. the 09:56) and it's platform, double check on the destinations that Hampton Court is listed, and off you go!

karen

p.s. If you look at an underground map you will see all the Mainline train stations are marked with the little red National Rail sign (most of which are on or close to the Circle line). That might help you get your bearings!
http://www.thetube.com/content/tubem...s/tube_map.gif

bettyk

We bought our ticket for the 9:26 AM train to Hampton Court and waited for the board to show us what platform the train was departing from. The info finally came up about 2 minutes before the train departed, so be ready to RUN!

Geoff Hamer

The boats to Hampton Court only run in summer - the last trips were on 27 October and they resume next April. See www.wpsa.co.uk for details. Trains run every half hour from Waterloo station via Vauxhall, Clapham Junction and Putney. Hampton Court is in Zone 6, so the cheapest way from central London is to get a Travelcard for six zones; there are various alternatives such as a train or tube to Richmond, then a bus (R68).

Lynn

Nat, You have had so much good advice here that this additional information might not add any thing of value, but Hampton Court has a website http://www.hrp.org.uk/webcode/hampton_home.asp that under planning your visit includes a how to get here section with details on buses, trains etc. This is how I found my way there. The website also includes information on upcoming events in the Palace so you can see if anything is planned during your trip.

Laoghaire

Is Hampton Court worth a day's trip either by boat or train? We (husband and I) will be in London in early June of next year, and will hve 4 days there (coming from 3 wks in Ireland). We have been to London several times and have done the Library, Museum, Thames, etc. Will go to Paris for a day on the "chunnel" (forgive me!). I am looking at Hampton Court--is it worth the day trip? I would appreciate any advice. Thank you in advance....Helen

Geoff Hamer

I think Hampton Court is certainly worth a visit. The gardens are superb and are free. I'm not sure whether the royal appartments are worth it, but it is only half an hour from the centre of London by train, so you can go to Hampton Court for a morning or an afternoon - you don't need to set aside a whole day.