Luxury Cruising Editorial

For British travellers, cruising from a UK port means not having to arrange a connecting flight. Southampton is by far the largest cruise port in the UK, and there are a number of ways to get there.

One of the quickest options to reach Southampton is to get the train. But is it one of the best options?

Let’s take a look at how to get to Southampton Cruise Terminal by train, so you can decide if that suits your plans.

The nearest train station to Southampton Cruise Terminal

The closest train station to Southampton Cruise Terminal is Southampton Central, the main train station for the city. There are other train stations but they’re on the outskirts and farther from the port, so the central station is your best bet.

This makes things easier, since there are more trains travelling to Southampton Central than to the other smaller stations around the city.

Train routes to Southampton

The downside for a lot of people is that Southampton is on the south coast of the British mainland. So if you live farther north, you need to change trains at London in order to get there.

If your train comes into London Euston or King’s Cross, you need to take the London Underground to Victoria or Waterloo for the train to Southampton. If you’re carrying a lot of luggage, this can be pretty inconvenient!

The train from London to Southampton Central departs from either Waterloo or Victoria stations. Always aim for Waterloo as the journey is much faster (one hour and 15 minutes, compared to two hours and 30 minutes). If you arrived at Victoria, it makes sense to transfer to Waterloo for the time you’ll save, since it’s only 13 minutes on the London Underground between them.

Avoid London if you can

If you live in the north east or south east of England, North Wales or Scotland, you are going to have to change trains somewhere. There are some irregular services from many other parts of the country, including Cardiff and Manchester, that avoid London.

The Manchester service calls at some other major stations on the way. So if you live in the Midlands or Oxfordshire, you can jump on a direct train. But these services are pretty rare, and might not be at convenient times for your cruise.

Obviously, if you already live on the south coast, you won’t need to go via London. There are plenty of trains from Bournemouth, Weymouth and Portsmouth that go straight to Southampton.

How far is Southampton Central Station from the Cruise Terminal?

It’s between one and two miles from Southampton Central Station to Southampton Cruise Port, which has five different terminals. There are paths you can walk along that cut some of these distances in half, if you don’t mind dragging your luggage.

• City Cruise Terminal  – 0.6 miles on foot, 1.1 miles by road
• Horizon Cruise Terminal  – 0.5 miles on foot, 1.0 miles by road
• Mayflower Cruise Terminal  – 1.0 miles on foot, 1.6 miles by road
• Ocean Cruise Terminal  – 1.3 miles on foot, 1.6 miles by road
• QEII Cruise Terminal  – 2.0 miles on foot, 2.2 miles by road

I’ve walked from Horizon Cruise Terminal to the train station with a suitcase, and it was fine. You can even take some shortcuts across car parks, so the route is slightly shorter than Google Maps shows.

Southampton is not a huge city, and the train station is closer to the southern side so it’s not too far from the port at all.

The problem is that Southampton itself is so far from many other cities in the UK, so it’s difficult to get there on time to board a cruise unless you grab a very early train. Getting from the train station to the port isn’t the issue, it’s getting to the train station early enough.

How to get from Southampton Train Station to the Cruise Terminal

There are a few different options to get from Southampton Central to the Cruise Terminal. Your decision will be impacted based on which terminal you’re sailing from too.

Walking

• Estimated time: 10 to 40 minutes
• Cost: Free

It’s hard to say whether walking from the train station to the port is a good idea, because it depends on your cruise terminal.

To get to either City Cruise Terminal or Horizon Cruise Terminal, you’re looking at a walk of around half a mile. This should take you somewhere between 12 and 16 minutes on average. For the last few minutes of those, you’ll have sight of your cruise ship – that will spur you on!

But if you’re sailing from one of the other cruise terminals, your walk is much longer. If you’re sailing from the QEII Terminal, it’s at least 20 minutes and up to 40 minutes. And that’s without accounting for the slower walk of dragging luggage with you.

In fact, if you’ve got some big suitcases, even the shorter distances might feel like too much. If you don’t like the idea of walking with all your bags in tow, you might prefer something a little less strenuous.

Taxi or Uber

• Estimated time: 6 to 16 minutes
• Estimated cost: £6 to £10

The easiest way to get to the cruise terminal from Southampton Central is to take a taxi. Because of the short distances involved, the costs aren’t too high. Ubers are usually always available too, although you may pay more at busy times.

If you pre-book a taxi, it’ll cost you around £6. You tend to pay a slight premium for taxis from the station’s taxi rank, but it’s still not a huge amount. There are normally plenty available.

I’d say if you aren’t on a tight budget and want to be comfortable, this is the best option for getting to the cruise terminal. It’s the fastest, and you won’t have to wait around for long at all.

Bus

• Estimated time: 16 to 20 minutes
• Estimated cost: £2

Bus services can take you from Southampton Central to the Cruise Terminal. There are buses operated by both Quayconnect and Bluestar, but the better options are the Quayconnect ones, specifically the U1C service which takes you to Telephone House.

From here, it’s still around a nine-minute walk to the Ocean Cruise Terminal, and slightly further to the QEII terminal. But it is cheap and much faster than walking.

The buses to get to the nearer terminals aren’t as common, so there might be a wait. A taxi isn’t much more expensive, so I’d still suggest that would be the better option.

Other ways to get to Southampton Cruise Terminal

It’s true that getting the train to Southampton is one of the fastest ways of travelling from a major city, but it’s far from perfect.

For most people in the UK, you cannot get a direct train. You’ll need to change in London, and probably need to travel across London to get to the right station.

In addition, remember that trains are hardly reliable. If you’re relying on trains because they’re quick, you need to be prepared for what happens if there are cancellations. What’s your alternative route? Have you left enough time to get there if you are delayed?

Finally, despite rail being quick, it’s still some distance from much of the UK. So getting to Southampton in time for your embarkation can be a challenge. You might still need to get a hotel the night before anyway, and if that’s the case then is there any benefit to the train?

Instead, a coach might be a better option. Coaches are usually much cheaper than trains, and you can get a direct coach to Southampton from many UK cities. Some may still need a change, but it’s normally one change at most. I find it’s often the best way to get from London to Southampton Cruise Terminal, or indeed from any UK city.

You can also get overnight coaches. If you’re able to sleep on the coach, this is great. Hop on, fall asleep, and wake up close to the city centre.

Coaches will still drop you at Southampton Central, since it’s both a rail and coach hub, but you’ll normally have paid much less to get there.

Read more: Coach Travel to Southampton Cruise Terminal

It’s not for everyone, but it’s my preferred option when travelling from the north. I’ve travelled from Manchester to Southampton by coach for as little as £10, while the same journey by train would have cost me over £100!

Alternatively, if you live near a major airport, you could fly. This is the fastest option, but it is also likely to be the most expensive. You’ll then have much farther to travel once you have made it to the airport, and a taxi will cost at least £20 if pre-booked.

Finally, there’s always the option to drive yourself. There are motorways taking you right into Southampton, so the drive isn’t particularly difficult, although depending on where you live it could be a long one.

I’ve driven to Southampton and it was okay on the way there. But on the way home, I drove for an hour and was only two miles north of the cruise port, thanks to the traffic!

If you do decide to drive, think about parking your car for the length of your cruise. For that, I have a Southampton Cruise Parking Guide for you.

Related posts:

Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.

Read more about me