Expert: Michael - 6/13/2007

Question
QUESTION: I was trying to plan a trip to England to take a cruise. One cruise departs from South Hampton and the other departs from Harwich. Which airports are closer in proximity to these ports?

ANSWER: Hello Eric,

It is difficult to advise accurately on your query without knowing where you are flying from. However, for your purposes I will presume that these are inter-continental flights.
Southampton:
There is actually an airport in Southampton itself, but it is a rather small one, and unlikely to receive many long-haul flights. The nearest international airports are London Gatwick (LGW) and London Heathrow (LHR), both being around 50-60 miles away and about a 90-minute drive from Southampton.

Harwich:
Harwich is in eastern England, and so the nearest international airport is likely to be London Stansted (STD). This again is around 55 miles from Harwich, and hence around a 90-minute drive.

If you are planning to use public transport to travel from airport to port then you may wish to visit the national rail and bus websites at:
www.nationalrail.co.uk
www.nationalexpress.co.uk

You may also find the 'Direct Ferries' website useful for travel directions to the ports:
http://www.directferries.co.uk/southampton.htm
http://www.directferries.co.uk/harwich.htm

I hope that this helps you to plan your travel.
Kind Regards
Michael

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your help !! I would be flying in from Florida and was wondering if Heathrow or Gatwick would be closer to those ports.But I guess they are approximately the same in distance. So my follow up question would be if I was going to South Hampton to go to either Gatwick or Heathrow, but if I was to choose Harwich I should fly into Stansted ? Once again thanks for the assistance !!

Answer
Hello Eric,

I'd say your final decision between Heathrow & Gatwick should depend on your chosen form of transport from airport to port.

BY RAIL
From Gatwick, there is a direct train service once an hour to Southampton city which takes approximately 2 hours.
From Heathrow, you'd have to take the railbus to Woking to join the train service - again a total journey time of 2 hours or so, but with one change from bus to train.

BY COACH
There are virtually no direct coaches from Gatwick to Southampton, meaning that coach travel would be via London, or oddly enough, via Heathrow.
Conversely, there is a regular service from Heathrow airport to Southampton taking around 90 minutes.

As I said before, there are useful website for finding times & fares for public transport options, which you may wish to use, at:
www.nationalrail.co.uk
www.nationalexpress.co.uk

As an aside, it would appear that there are no coach services from Stansted to Harwich, and so the only real public transport option would be the 2.5 hour train journey,  changing in London itself.

Hopefully that will guide you further in your decision.

Kind Regards
Michael