London Boat Show - Getting there

[Mavis]

I plan to visit the show this year and travel up from the West Country after work on Friday (4hr+ journey on M4), stay the night in a Travel Lodge, Premier Inn type place for the night to refresh and then see the show on Saturday travelling home in the evening.

Do I moor up for the night somewhere close to the M4 with easy train/tube access say Heathrow or Kew and travel in next morning on the train - Or do I take the magic roundabout number 25 round the back of London to somewhere closer to Excel and drop the hook for a night close by ??

Its a god awful place to get to and some of you ought to be experts by now. Please pass on your travel tips.

 

[Woodlouse]

Do you not have any friends in London you can impose yourself upon for the night? Then it's a simple case of train up, underground to the show followed by train back.

 

[activesail]

I am travelling from the South Coast and tend to leave the car at a convenient tube station and get a day travel ticket to all London areas.. Rickmansworth is a cost effective tube station because they have a fairly low priced multistory car park close to the tube station

That has always been cost effective for me

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

I am travelling from the South Coast and tend to leave the car at a convenient tube station and get a day travel ticket to all London areas.. Rickmansworth is a cost effective tube station because they have a fairly low priced multistory car park close to the tube station

That has always been cost effective for me

You go to Excel from the South Coast via Rickmansworth???

Have you never heard of rhumb lines?

 

[Lady Campanula]

You go to Excel from the South Coast via Rickmansworth???

Is that on the Great Circle Line...?

 

[VicS]

magic roundabout number 25

Carpark number 25 I take it you mean. If only there was something magic about it.
Avoided like the plague by those of us who live near it.

Travel by train all the way from your nearest station or you will be shagged out of your mind by the time you get home again. ... unless you have a chauffeur.

 

[DaveS]

Carpark number 25 I take it you mean. If only there was something magic about it.
Avoided like the plague by those of us who live near it.

Travel by train all the way from your nearest station or you will be shagged out of your mind by the time you get home again. ... unless you have a chauffeur.

+1

London has excellent public transport. Why anyone would want to take a car anywhere near it is a mystery to me.

To the OP:
From the West Country an alternative option worth considering is the overnight sleeper. Departs Plymouth 2351 arrives Paddington 0501, but you don't need to get off then. Starting across London at say 0630 you'll be in front of the worst of the morning peak and arrive at Excel for a leisurely coffee and read of the paper while waiting for the doors to open.

 

[rotrax]

I plan to visit the show this year and travel up from the West Country after work on Friday (4hr+ journey on M4), stay the night in a Travel Lodge, Premier Inn type place for the night to refresh and then see the show on Saturday travelling home in the evening.

Do I moor up for the night somewhere close to the M4 with easy train/tube access say Heathrow or Kew and travel in next morning on the train - Or do I take the magic roundabout number 25 round the back of London to somewhere closer to Excel and drop the hook for a night close by ??

Its a god awful place to get to and some of you ought to be experts by now. Please pass on your travel tips.

A convenient Travelodge is the one at Barking-if you can find it! Only10 mins from Exel. As most places in London parking is a bit of a lottery.

 

[ithet]

For the last few years we have stayed at Travelodge docklands (East India docks) - to the west of Excel. We travel from the S. Coast via M25 south, and either Blackwall or Dartford tunnel. Normally we arrive Sat afternoon, check in, go into town by DLR for evening, then drive to the show on Sunday. We use Travelodge docklands rather than the nearer City Airport one as I have always got a better deal there - this year it is £23.50 for a family room for four of us (booked a couple of months ago). There is also a Premier Inn at Excel.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Is that on the Great Circle Line...?

Thats my favourite of the year.

 

[timmygobang]

I recommend parking up around tower hill , around the back of St Katharine Docks which is free at the weekends http://g.co/maps/29dxf

or this car park

http://g.co/maps/x64qk

(though I've never parked there so dont know how much it is a day)

They're both right next to the DLR which is then a 20 minute journey to the excel center

 

[uxb]

We're taking the sleeper train to London village - after a night out in the last outpost of civilisation....

Once in the grate (sic) metropolips we'll have brekkie somewhere greasy before setting out for deepest , darkest docklands on the horrors of the underground.

After the show we'll arrange air and artillery support before heading to the west end for the most excellent Greek food - if we can remember what eatery it was last time we went sarf.

Then it'll be a tactical retreat to Euston and the sleeper back to civilisation.

I fear this will be our last London boat show - unless they wise up and get back to Earls Court.

 

[PhillM]

A few of the south coast marinas are doing coaches up, why not make it a pleasant weekend to, say Southampton, and coach up from there?

 

[uxb]

A few of the south coast marinas are doing coaches up, why not make it a pleasant weekend to, say Southampton, and coach up from there?

'Pleasant weekend' and 'Southampton'

In the same sentence. You ARE having a laugh aren't you?

Edit - I'm being unkind, I did , once upon a time, have a some very pleasant weekends in Southampton but she is probably married and fat by now.

 

[PhillM]

a tad harsh me thinks ....

 

[uxb]

a tad harsh me thinks ....

Harsh but fair- she always was a wee bit on the hefty side - 'speshly up top.... 'Dead heat in a Zeppelin race ' type girl.

 

[LadyInBed]

I have had http://www.parkopedia.co.uk/ recommended to me.

 

[CalmSkipper]

I've never had a problem driving straight there though I didn't go last year in the snow. There's cheaper parking just before you enter excel, just a few minutes walk

 

[st599]

Anyone know which tube lines are shut that weekend? Knowing Tfl it'll be the dlr and the jubilee.

 

[Keen_Ed]

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/livetravelnews/planned-works/calendar/default.aspx