London to Southampton Cruise Terminal by Taxi: What It Costs, and When It Wins

The Quick Answer: The Two Ways to Do This Journey, Priced Honestly

There are two sensible ways to cover the 80 miles. The train: Waterloo to Southampton Central in about 1 hour 20 minutes, trains running frequently through the day, then a short taxi at this end to your terminal. The car: picked up at your hotel door, cases in the boot, and set down at the terminal door about 2 hours later, timed to your ship's check-in window.

On price, here is the honest version. We do not publish a single London fare, because the run from a hotel by Heathrow and the run from central London are different journeys, and an 8-seater for six people with cruise cases is a different vehicle from a saloon for two. What we do is quote the exact fare for your pickup, your vehicle and your time of day, and confirm it before you travel. Once confirmed, that is the fare: there is no surge because London is busy, and no meter.

An app car quoted on the day works the other way round: the price moves with demand, and the large vehicle you need may simply not be available at the kerb when you want it.

The Train Case, Conceded Properly

If there are one or two of you, your cases are manageable, and your London hotel is handy for Waterloo, take the train and save the money. We mean that. About 1 hour 20 minutes to Southampton Central, a straightforward run, and at this end the station to terminal leg is short: train station runs in the city are priced from £8 to £10 on our fares page, or we can have a car waiting at the station to take you and the cases to the terminal door.

For a couple travelling light, the train total is hard to beat, and no honest taxi firm should pretend otherwise. Where the train case weakens is everything around the train itself: getting across London to Waterloo with cruise luggage, the Underground or a taxi at that end, the lift and platform changes, and then doing the luggage handling again at Southampton. Each piece is small. Together they are the journey.

The Car Case: No Changes, Cases Stay in the Boot

The car's argument is not speed; on a clear run the train is quicker into Southampton. The argument is that the journey has no moving parts. We collect you from your hotel, or any London address, at the time we agree. Your cases go in the boot at the hotel door and come out at the terminal door.

There are no changes, no platforms, no Underground with a suitcase in each hand, and the arrival is planned backwards from your ship's check-in window rather than forwards from a departure board. If traffic on the day is heavy, that is our problem to manage, and the fare does not change while we manage it, because it was confirmed before you travelled.

Groups and Families: Where the Per Vehicle Maths Flips

A car is priced per vehicle. A train is priced per person, and so is every extra that comes with a family: the taxi to Waterloo, the fares for three or four of you, the second taxi at this end. At three or four passengers with cruise luggage, the per vehicle fare is competing against three or four sets of tickets plus the trimmings, and the comparison stops being one sided.

Add children, grandparents, or anyone for whom the changes are a genuine effort rather than an inconvenience, and the door to door run usually wins on the whole picture rather than on the ticket price alone.

• One fare covers the whole car, however many of you are in it
• Child seats are available on request for the run down: tell us the children's ages when you book
• Vehicles up to 8 seats, so a family group travels together in one car

Booking the Run Down, and the Way Back

Book by phone on 02380 333 000, online, or by email at bookings@sotoncars.co.uk. Tell us the London pickup address, the date, the ship and its check-in time, how many of you there are and how much luggage, and we quote the exact fare there and then.

If you are also coming back to London after the cruise, book the return at the same time: the pickup at the terminal is then set by your disembarkation, and both halves of the journey are settled before you sail.

One last piece of honesty: if the sums are close, choose on the journey rather than the difference. Two hours in a car that collects you from the door, with the cases handled once, against the same morning broken into four or five handled pieces. On sailing day, the unbroken version is usually the one people thank themselves for.