Driving from Bournemouth to Southampton

[muchlovex]

Hi,

My wife has been offered a job in Southampton and we are thinking of living in Bournemouth. Would anyone be able to advise of what the car journey would be like from Bournemouth to Southampton please?

Thank you

[lslowry]

try google earth muchlove, or try the AA site and download a route

[Prudie]

Most of it would be on the M27 but there are some famous bottlenecks at peak times. It would take the best part on an hour with heavy traffic and regular hold-ups (in my opinion)

[MarkRae]

Is driving compulsory? The train journey takes less than half an hour...

[VHG]

I have just done a quick distance check in Google maps and it says it is around 33 miles (depending where exactly you live and work it may be a bit more or less).

The obvious route is the A338 and A31, but as this is about the only route for traffic coming from the west (Bournmouth / Poole) and this can get very busy.

Looking at a map an alternative may seem through the New Forest via Lyndhurst but I have a relative who lives near Lyndhurst and the traffic is a NIGHTMARE in that town.

I visited him once and was in Lyndhurst during evening rush hour and it was gridlocked (as you can see from a map Lyndhurst is at the meeting of a number of roads) and traffic CRAWLED through the town. You would not want to go through there every morning and evening.

One nice place I visited was Hythe (just the other side of water from Southampton) and a lot of people live in Hythe and work in Southampton.

In fact there is a ferry that goes across from Hythe to Southampton and many people use it to get to and from work in Southampton.

http://en.wikipedia.o...er,_Railway_and_Ferry

Maybe you can live in Hythe Marina Village

http://www.mdlmarinas...yArticle.asp?ID=52654

[Prudie]

Google maps does say about 33 miles but gives journey time as 46 mins. As has been said it would depend where your start and end points are. I can tell you that the A338 (Bournemouth Spur road) is locally famous for queues and accidents despite being dual carriageway. Mark's idea of the train is a good one.