Arriving into Southampton Cruise Terminal, what to do for another 7-10 days around England?

You are probably going to want to go to London.

I took a cruise from Southampton spending 6 nights in London pre cruise and it was not enough. London is fabulous. And the cruise from Southampton was also very good.

There is The National Express Bus that will take you from Southampton to Victoria Bus Station in London.

I stayed at Hotel 63 on Bayswater Road. It is a very small boutique hotel located right across from Kensington Gardens. I travel solo and I stayed in the least expensive or cheapest single room which I do not recommend if you can go higher. However I highly recommend Hotel 63.

Many members in forum recommend Premier Inn and PI's are in wonderful locations all over London but I have never stayed.

London has many, many exceptional museums and churches / cathedrals.

You could easily spend a week or more in London.

EDIT. Attaching a link to Hotel 63

https://hotel63.co.uk

Two locations, both an easy train ride from Southampton, are Salisbury and Winchester.

Salisbury Cathedral is magnificent and has one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. From Salisbury you can take an easy bus tour to Stonehenge.

Winchester is lovely - another excellent cathedral, just a very pretty small city that’s full of history. There are good Jane Austen connections nearby, too.

Let me also suggest Bristol, a fantastic bigger city, very lively and diverse, but with excellent history. There’s a cathedral, but also the excellent SS Great Britain, which is an exceptionally well-presented ship and museum. Not to forget the Red Lodge Museum, which dates back to Tudor times.

Bristol is a short hop on the train to Bath.

You can easily get to Salisbury for a couple of nights as well as Bath. Salisbury has a fantastic cathedral and a very good smaller museum called oddly, The Salisbury Museum, lolol. It's on the Cathedral Close right across from the church. There is also a very cool "Doom Painting" in a church in the city center called Saint Thomas. It was the church built for the builders of the cathedral because of course they couldn't worship in the big fancy cathedral, lol. The fresco is just awesome and was restored shortly before Covid.

If you have an interest in Stonehenge you can easily take the local bus company's shuttle out to the stones. It leaves from 2 places in town, the city centre and the train station. On the way back from the stones it stops at Old Sarum where you can get off, walk around this historic site and then reboard the next shuttle that comes by. The company, The Salisbury Reds, calls this bus The Stonehenge Tour but to my mind it actually isn't a "tour", just transportation.

https://www.thestonehengetour.info

If you spend 2 nights here you can spend most of a day seeing Stonehenge and still get back to attend Evensong at the cathedral or do Evensong on the day you arrive as well. I've stayed at a number of hotels in Salisbury over the years. My fav. B&B owners retired a few years ago but there are a number of hotels that are good and reasonable if you are interested.

From Salisbury it's a short train ride (an hour or so??) to Bath. The Roman Baths are a museum in and of themselves. This is such a cool setting. I love Bath also for it's Georgian architecture. The juxtaposition of the Roman right next to the Georgian just makes me happy! Bath has the Holborne Museum which is excellent especially if they are having some kind of special exhibition. I saw a Canaletto exhibition there years ago and it was so well done. There is also a wonderful Georgian townhouse that is restored and tour-able at #1 Royal Crescent. I'd also stay here 2 nights at minimum.

From there it's an easy train ride back in to London if you want to spend time there as well.

You can go so many places by train. Are you looking for a big city experience? Spend your time in London. Looking for more experiences in the surrounding areas? Focus on Southern England. Your first step in planning is to decide what type of experience you want. The options are practically limitless.

We visited Salisbury Cathedral and city as well as Winchester Cathedral and city and loved them.

Also, if you don't go to London, consider Avebury, Bath and the Cotswolds.

The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth is outstanding; the most uniquely designed museum I've ever been to. I agree with Salisbury and it's cathedral, and the Roman Baths in Bath. Another place that hasn't been mentioned yet is Canterbury. I really enjoyed its cathedral. I'm not sure of the train situation to there from Southampton though.

Just commenting because I also stayed at 63 on Bayswater Road. Nice place and the location worked fine for me. I also have a trip in the works to Portsmouth and am thinking of visiting Winchester on the way there.

Wow -- lot's of great advise and good ideas!! I'll reread them all and come up with a plan. Looks like 10 or so days on-land may not be overkill with so many options. Thanks to all and Happy New Year !!

OP been going to London since Nixon was President. Spent 6 weeks there this past November. Never bored. Visited and stayed in 2 different neighborhoods; Paddington and Holborn.

In Paddington stayed at 63 Bayswater where I’ve stayed at before. The Mitre Paddington, Sheila’s Cafe, the Victoria Paddington and Tudkin Flavors of Malaysia are close by.

In Holborn enjoyed meeting the pub cat at the Seven Stars pub, strolling about Lincoln Fields. Stayed in an apartment at Club Quarters Lincoln Inn Field. Not an RS type hotel. I splurged.

Other areas of exploration were Waltham Wetlands, Holborn House and Kyoto Gardens, Hunterian Museum, Royal Naval Academy, Parkland Walk from Finsbury to Crouch end.

So the suggestion of London is excellent. Always something to explore such as St Bartholomew’s for Evensong, or a London Walk ( www.walks.com) or theatre or a free museum, or art gallery, or street market or …

Many good suggestions here. We recently loved Bath, Salisbury and Oxford. It seems like a natural path to Heathrow.

Would you consider renting a car for part of it? Have you been to London before? What type of locations are you visiting on your cruise? I guess the advice would depend on what type of experience you would prefer after the cruise. Enjoy!

"Looks like 10 or so days on-land may not be overkill with so many options."

Oh gosh, no, 10 days is NOT too much! With this group we can probably come up with enough for a month without even counting time in London, hahaha!!

10 days definitely isn't overkill. In 2022 we spent 2 weeks travelling from Salisbury to Canterbury which is one of my most memorable trips ever. As close as we got to London was Gatwick Airport.