Heathrow-London & London-Southampton alternatives
 

Have been collecting some data for traveling between Heathrow and London and then going from London to Southampton to catch a cruise ship.

London-transfers.com charges per vehicle Heathrow-London 39GBP & London Southampton 150GBP total including VAT.

www.airport-transfers-uk.com Heathrow-London 50GBP & London Southampton 125 GBP

Justairports.com Heathrow -London is 27GBP & not sure if is per person or for vehicle & London W1 area to Southampton 95GBP

Londontown.com is 19GBP from Heathrow-London + 17.5% VAT & London-Southampton 65GBP per person + 17.5% VAT

Taking the train (Southwest trains) leave London Waterloo statio0n to Southampton is about 1.5 hours and cost is about 49 GBP per person. www.swtrains.co.uk

Taking the bus i.e. National Express.com from Heathrow to London Central for 2 seniors over 60 years of age is between 10-13 GBP total for two people. Almost seems hard to believe. Maybe I read it wrong. I don't think so, however. Bus leaves from Victoria Coach station on Buckingham place. An example would be if leave London's Victoria Coach Station at 10AM and get to Heathrow at 10:45AM and to Southampton at 12:30 PM. Total trip is 2 hours and 30 min

So, what do you think of all these? Pros and cons! Bus seems to definitely be the chaepest way.

Comments please!

We did just this two months ago. I used Just Airports to get from Heathrow into London and would call it some of the best trip money we've ever spent! Spouse had had hernia surgery just a few weeks earlier. No way he could do ANY luggage hauling. Reservation and then meeting up with our driving went smoothly.

To get from London to S'hampton, we opted for the coach (bus). Picked up the tickets one nite at Victoria Coach Station (about a 20 min wait in line), and then, on the day of our departure, we stopped back in to the station midday and were able to move our departure to an earlier bus for just 1GBP per ticket.

We taxi'd to the station with our luggage and taxi'd from the Southampton bus station to our hotel (Jury Inn). Found this to be a smooth journey and highly recommend it.

..that wouldl be "meeting up with our driver."

Incidentally, the ATMs at Heathrow, in the currency exchange area, were about 10 steps before we met up with our driver (we'd opted for the $$-saving cash payment over cc). Very handy!

From London to Southampton, there are trains every half hour, taking about an hour and 20 minutes - half the time of the bus and more comfortable. There are cheaper fares than £49 unless you're travelling in the peak commuter time which is not to be recommended anyway. Tickets are not tied to a specific departure so, if you miss one train, you can just get the next one.

I fairly regularly travel down to Southampton from London (waterloo). I have never paid anything like £49 for a return – from memory, the walk up fare is about £25. It takes and hour and 20 minutes.

There are plentiful cabs at the station. Also please don’t get off at the Airport station (aka Southampton Parkway) – it’s not in Southampton it’s quite a long way outside. You want Southampton Central station

The bus really is that cheap and there are cheaper options still (try Megabus), but as you’re on holiday why make yourselves uncomfortable just to save a few quid?

Are you going straight to the ship?

Hi David,
I went onto the rail site again (southwest trains) and put in info for one way for cheapest and fastest and it came up 49GBP. Because we are going in July 2006 and the train schedule only goes out 3 months I put in November 10, 2005 just so I could see a price. Any thoughts about this dilemma?
Thanks for your reply.
Jay

How about £10 from Victoria (change Tube lines at Hammersmith)?

<b>http://go-ahead-ecommerce.com/sndaysave/TicketDetails.do</b>

Just to note: Although I'm a fan of rail travel, we didn't find the coach at all uncomfortable. And maybe a tad less 'hauling' of luggage from the cab to the coach departure gate than for a train. I'd call it more of an apples/oranges decision with about a half hour of time in the balance, but - all things considered - not a bad place to save a few quid.

I assume you're looking at the cheap day single fare of &pound;24.50. Return (round trip) fares will work out cheaper and are often only slightly more than the one-way fare.
The train from Victoria to Southampton takes two and a half hours - twice as long as the direct line from Waterloo, and trains are less frequent.

Consider getting a taxi (a local mini cab will be cheapest) from Heathrow to Woking train station (on the line from London Waterloo to Southampton) and then catching the train from there. I live near Heathrow and can get you a local minicab number if you wish. This journey should take you about 30 to 40 mins.

Currently there is only one direct train from Woking to Southampton but it leaves every hour on the hour and takes 50 minutes. A single ticket booked in advance will be &pound;32. You may be able to get an open return if you are booking in advance for cheaper than 2 x single fare if you are returning along the same route. Book on www.southwesttrains.co.uk.

I live locally and this is the route I would take. Heathrow is actually south west of London so you are increasing your journey time and cost if you go into London and back out again down to Southampton.

Let me know if you want me to find out anything further for you.

Best wishes
B

Meant to add - Heathrow to Woking is about 17 miles - boyfriend says should take 25 to 30 mins if you are not travelling in rush hour

As posted earlier, if you wish to got straight from Heathrow to Southampto`n, then the combined bus and train ticket Heathrow, Woking, Southampton would probably be best. The Alternative would be Heathrow, Reading, Southampton.

I can quite believe &pound;49 return by train, as it would be an open return ticket, not a cheap day return.

if you really want to save money doing London to Southampton, then you can take an old double decker bus for &pound;1. I am not sure I would want to do this unless I were a poor student - 2 1/4 hours on such a bus may be a tad uncomfortable.
http://www.megabus.com/

Re Bella_Bluebell and willit's posts - I assumed the OP meant they were going into London first, and then later on travelling down to Southampton. (Otherwise she probably would have asked how to get from LHR to S'hampton)

And if it is a cruise - they likely won't be going back into London afterwards - so a cheap day return would work if that was the best fare. After the cruise they'll probably transfer directly back to LHR, or are flying home from some other port.

jaydh42: Please clarify - are you staying over in London, and do you need to get back to London or LHR after the cruise.

Hi Janisi, Bella and all others who have come forth with suggestions.

In July, we initially fly into Heathrow and must get to London to our Hotel where we will be for 5 days. We then leave London for Southampton to catch cruise ship. After cruise, and i know this is neither here nor there, we must get back to Heathrow so that we can catch flight to Vienna where we will be staying with friends for 4 days.

Was discussing trip with my wife this AM and she stated that &quot;at this stage in our lives I don't want to be schlepping and/or rushing to catch trains or tranfering between tubes stops. etc.&quot; OK, I said, then we will concentrate on getting the best deal on a limo type transfer service like the ones we have been discussing i.e. LondonTransfers.com or airport-transfers-uk.com, or justairports.comm or londontown.com. Any others of this ilk that any of you can recommend? Afew more suggestions and I think that we certainly will come to some definite decisions.

Thanks to all for contributing. This has got to be one of the best web sites for picking up pertinent info for traveling anywhere in the world.

Jaydh42

My travel agent had this motto in her shop:

<b>Travel first class. Your heirs will.</b>

So if you've got the disposable income, I say go for it.

<i>p.s.</i> I didn't really understand the &quot;schlepping and rushing&quot; comment. If you take either the hired car or the train, you get assistance with your luggage at both ends; the only difference with the train is the requirement of getting from a taxi to the platform. To my way of thinking, you can buy a lot of baggage help for the difference in cost between the two methods. And you can take your time getting from taxi to train, because there's a departure every fifteen or twenty minutes (and reservations aren't required).

justairports.com seems to be the hands-down Fodors favorite. Don't recall every seeing a negative post through the time I was paying careful attention and making our plans. Ray-something was another popular one, I think. I'm sure a car hire search should turn up quite a few reports. That quote you got from Just Airports should be per vehicle; that's the way ours was priced.

Just curious as to what ship you're headed to....?

Your thoughts well taken Roespierre.Where do you reside. Not London, by chance?

Tuckerdc,
It is Ray Skinner at london -transfers.com. It seems, however that the cheapest so far, Heathrow to London hotel W1 is with JustAirports.com Their webb showed 24GBP with cash payment and do you believe, 43 GBP if using a credit card. I wrote them to ask whether their price is per person or for the vehicle and whether their price includes the VAT tax. No answer yet. Anyone know for sure what the answer is? If it is for the vehicle, then that's not bad for 24GBP is around $42 US dollars. Ray Skinner's price is 39GBP or $68. Something seems amiss here because doesn't seem as though there should be such a difference.
Comments?????????????? Oh, we will be sailing with the Golden Princess for a 10 British Isles cruise. Anyone been on this cruise?

For just airports, Ray Skinner and the other car services - the charge is per car.

And -- BTW do not count on help w/ luggage on UK trains.

&quot;...do not count on help w/ luggage on UK trains.&quot;

I have done this: had my driver unload it onto a luggage trolley I hired at the taxi stand, wheeled it towards the platform, found an urchin to unload it for the &pound;1 trolley return fee.

Same drill at the destination.

Ah! but Robespierre; there's never an urchin around when you need one.

(In all seriousness don't rely on there being a supply of urchins - assume you'll have to lug your stuff about yourselves)