It it difficult to get oneself from the airport to Harwich to catch a cruise? How long should be allotted to travel? Any tips would be appreciated. How much does it cost, etc.

Thanks.

Harwich trains leave from Liverpool Street. It's quite a good service.

From LCY, you can get a shuttle bus direct to Liverpool St.

From LHR, it depends on how much luggage you have. The quickest way, if you don't have much, is to get the HEX to Paddington, then walk to Lancaster Gate and get the Central Line from there.

If you do have luggage, consider a taxi from Paddington to Liverpool St, or the Circle Line from Paddington. If cost is an issue, you can take the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow, changing at Holborn for the Central Line.

From LGW, hmm. Probably the easiest is to catch the Thameslink to Kings Cross, and get the Circle/Met/H&C from there. Otherwise, you could get the Thameslink to London Bridge and cab or bus it.

From STN, it's a royal pain. Although STN is in the right direction, to get the train (realistically), you'd have to head into London (Liverpool St also), and head back out. There's no direct buses, either.

The trains from London are timed to connect with the boats, and so aren't very regular. Go to http://www.qjump.co.uk/ for details. A standard single is �16.50; a short-period return is not much more.

Note that there is a special port station in Harwich: Harwich International. If your boat is a cruise, it's possible the direct trains won't get you in at the right time, as they connect with scheduled ferries. Don't worry, though, there's a regular connecting service, if you change at Manningtree.

- except that, with very few exceptions, it's not direct. Change at Manningtree.

(Sorry, just noticed you mention Manningtree later on. Should have read your posting all the way through before starting my reply!)

- or you can save some time by taking the airport shuttle to Canning Town (10 minutes), then the Jubilee Line to Stratford and the train to Manningtree (or Harwich, if you're lucky) from there. But if you're not familiar with UK public transport the bus to Liverpool Street is probably easier.

What's wrong with the Gatwick Express?



Much much quicker to take the bus to Colchester and the train from there. The bus goes to Colchester Railway Station. Journey time to Colchester 55 minutes, then 10 minutes to Manningtree, then a further 15 to Harwich.

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The trains from London are timed to connect with the boats, and so aren't very regular.

- but the trains from Manningtree go every hour, so it's really quite an easy journey.



[This message has been edited by Aviatrix (edited Mar 13, 2004).]

What a coincidence!

Just spotted an article on Harwich cruise ships in the (weekly) Harwich & Manningtree Standard.

It says that there will be special trains from Liverpool Street to coincide with cruise ship arrivals!

The article is just talking about arrivals, not departures - but that could just be the usual thing of journalists abbreviating information they are given to fit the article into their "not more than n words" allocation...

Your cruise company may have more information - or you could try contacting First Great Eastern who will be operating the special trains. They have a web site at www.ger.co.uk


[This message has been edited by Aviatrix (edited Mar 15, 2004).]

If you have luggage, want to use the Tube from Heathrow to keep the cost down but don't have time problems, I would actually recommend a two-change trip on the Tube. Piccadilly Line to Barons Court. Cross-platform change to District Line. Change again to the Circle Line at any station from South Kensington to Monument - same platform, just get off and get on again. The amount of physical humping of luggage up and down stairs and escalators, and along corridors, is kept to a minimum this way.

From Gatwick, I agree with Thameslink but would get off at Blackfriars and change to the Circle Line there. (Much longer walk from Gatwick Express to Tube at Victoria.)

In fact, this is the popup information page on their website, reached from a link on the home page.