Simple as that really!! Looked into national express - but that's a long time to be on a coach.... Has anyone driven it - what's the journey like (would be travelling late Saturday night).

Any help appreciated.

I'd drive it, but then I like driving and I do about 40-60,000 miles a year.

If you're not too confident at driving all that way it depends why you're going and for how long, i.e. how much luggage are you dragging down there? If it's a lot then coach might be best, if it's not a lot then train might be an option.

I drive that run many mnay times a year.

Road is by far and away the quickest option. To go by rail, consider changing somewhere other than London.

Basically you have two choices, leave the M1 for the M42/M40 and head down the M40 and pick up the A34 near oxford then M3 M27 M275

or Leave the M1 at the Northampton A43 junction and head cross country via silverstone to oxford and then the same route.

Should take you around 4 hours with a short stop, traffic generally not to bad except M42 can be iffy round rush hours.

You might be able to fly from manchester to eastleigh.

I think you can make a rail connection via Southampton Parkway or even Birmingham.

Coaches are nice if you like sitting in traffic getting DVT.

Being from the South i have travelled via coach and car... I would say the best way would be to drive... takes me approx 4 hours 8/10 via coach (talk about a drag! *yawn*)

The drive is very straight forward... I'm not a keen long distance driver... but i've got used to it and find it easy :)

Best of Luck

Flybe (http://www2.flybe.com/) do Southampton flights from Manchester (takes an hour). Train to Portsmouth is about an hour from there. Bit of a messy journey from Sheffield though.

I beg to differ. I would take the train from Doncaster, and upgrade on a weekend first ticket. GNER first class travel is the best way to go! Okay, so you have to change in London, but the GNER service makes this worthwhile.

You can either catch the train from Sheff-Donny or drive to donny and park in the long stay carpark :thumbsup:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/time_table/journey_requirements.asp?&T2ID=226_200541119346

I too would be tempted to go on the train. I got stuck on the motorway for almost 5 hours doing this journey once. Nightmare! :rant:

I've driven it and trained it before.
Since you're travelling late on a sat and the traffic will be nice i'd say drive. If you had to go though rush hour i'd have said train (despite it being nasty, long and probably not having a seat unless you book).

Thanks for all of your help everyone.

I'll let you know how we travel, and submit a full report afterwards!