Picking up our Camper

[Peony]

Hello

I'm visiting the UK for the first time from Australia for Glastonbury.

We have hired a camper for the festival and need to pick it up from Bordon, in Hampshire. I've googled and googled, but have been unable to find the best way to get there - can I please borrow some local knowledge from someone who knows the Hampshire area?

We will be in York the weekend before for a wedding, and are hiring a car for this trip, so can arrange to drop the car back to Southampton, then pick up the van (unfortunately I am the only driver as my husband has injured his knee)...If we caught a cab, would this be very far? Or is there a bus/train we can catch from Southampton to Bordon?

Our other option is to return the car to London, and then catch a train/bus to bordon station, but again, I have been unable to locate any information on timetables/booking tickets etc.

Thanks in advance.

Edited May 9, 2009 by Peony

[parsonjack]

Hello

I'm visiting the UK for the first time from Australia for Glastonbury.

We have hired a camper for the festival and need to pick it up from Bordon, in Hampshire. I've googled and googled, but have been unable to find the best way to get there - can I please borrow some local knowledge from someone who knows the Hampshire area?

We will be in York the weekend before for a wedding, and are hiring a car for this trip, so can arrange to drop the car back to Southampton, then pick up the van (unfortunately I am the only driver as my husband has injured his knee)...If we caught a cab, would this be very far? Or is there a bus/train we can catch from Southampton to Bordon?

Our other option is to return the car to London, and then catch a train/bus to bordon station, but again, I have been unable to locate any information on timetables/booking tickets etc.

Thanks in advance.

[Peony]

Oh my goodness, parsonjack, you're a superstar!

Thank you so much, you have just made this 526435487231 times easier for me.

Edited May 9, 2009 by Peony

[Sam Crawley]

Depending on what sort of budget you're operating on...

I think a taxi from Southampton will be about 50 quid?

To public transport it, as per parsonjack's advice there's no fantastically easy way of doing it - see here for a map of SW Trains network. Assuming you take the train from Southampton, from Bordon's wiki: there is a bus link to Liphook railway station, and Stagecoach bus 18 passes through the town on the way from Haslemere to Farnham and Aldershot. But.. old info!! - the Liphook to Bordon Rail-Link Bus is being withdrawn in a week's time, credit crunch blamed, so:

Stagecoach Bus for Route 18 (Haslemere - Whitehill - Bordon - Farnham) to accept through tickets from the rail network, and to also operate some additional early morning, late evening and Sunday services between Whitehill and Farnham.

So to cut a long story short.. if you want to do it via only public transport, if you go one stop past Liphook to Haslemere it looks like there's a number 18 bus running to Bordon. But I can't imagine the cost of a taxi from Liss, Liphook or Haslemere should be too much, as it's only about 4 miles? Also depends on how much luggage you have I guess!

For taxi numbers a simple google of each of the towns should give you plenty of numbers.

Good luck!

[Magic Bus]

Once you've got your camper, use a good route finder (eg. www.theaa.co.uk) to plan your route We live in Hampshire and take our camper down the A303 to Wincanton and then turn off for Castle Cary, taking the blue route into Glasto. The postcode of the East Car Parks (better for you) is BA4 6TA.

If you are planning to do the full festival, then it might suit you to stay locally to the festival on the tuesday night before, so you can get in early. We stay at the Brooke House Inn at Castle Cary (www.brookhouseinn-touringpark.co.uk) where you can get a hook-up, a shower and a meal at the pub. May see you there..........

[cassandra13]

In addition to the above post, there are now campervan fields at both east and west sides of the festival. If you want the west side, where the campervan fields have been for years, follow the A303, then turn off on the A37 towards Bristol and follow the road until you see signs for the festie. There are stewards on the road who will point you in the right direction when they see your pass, don't put your pass in the window until you see lots of signs, some people say the police stop and search vans showing passes miles from the festival site but on A37 we have not been stopped yet. Hope trip goes brilliantly.

[beamends]

As suggested, get the train to Liphook - Bordon is a military camp so taxis to the van from there should be aplenty - http://www.accessplace.com/taxi/hampshire/liphook.htm has contact dertails.

[sh4rpie]

and dont hang around Bordon for too long, or you'll lose the wheels on the camper

Liphook is nice though

[lme]

Train is v straightforward. You can get a train from Southampton Central to Havant. At Havant, get the London train to either Liss or Liphook, both of which are very near Bordon (a couple of miles). Should take around an hour and a half.

[Peony]

Thank you so much to everyone who has replied with all your info, you have no idea how helpful you've all been. Big love. I'm going to print this out and take it with us so we have your tips and reminders.

Magic bus, thanks for the tip re: brooke house inn. We were going to stay at a park in bath on the Tuesday night, just because we thought it would be a good opportunity to have a look around, but do you think that is too far out of the way?

[Peony]

Oh, & BTW, we will definitely be on a budget so PTing it there from Southampton, unfortunately with the aussie dollar only being worth less than half the pound, 50 quid equals over $100 of our savings for the trip.

So twill definitely be the train to liphook, then a cab option.

[Peony]

In addition to the above post, there are now campervan fields at both east and west sides of the festival. If you want the west side, where the campervan fields have been for years, follow the A303, then turn off on the A37 towards Bristol and follow the road until you see signs for the festie. There are stewards on the road who will point you in the right direction when they see your pass, don't put your pass in the window until you see lots of signs, some people say the police stop and search vans showing passes miles from the festival site but on A37 we have not been stopped yet. Hope trip goes brilliantly.

[loosechange]

The campervan fields on the east of the site are at the top of the Hill Of Death, though depending on which field you're in you can apparently avoid the steep climb by turning right out of PGC and walking around the perimeter of the fence (or so folk have posted on here, I've never tried it myself).

You might be better off driving out of your way around to the west side perhaps?

[parsonjack]

The campervan fields on the east of the site are at the top of the Hill Of Death, though depending on which field you're in you can apparently avoid the steep climb by turning right out of PGC and walking around the perimeter of the fence (or so folk have posted on here, I've never tried it myself).

You might be better off driving out of your way around to the west side perhaps?

[Magic Bus]

Magic bus, thanks for the tip re: brooke house inn. We were going to stay at a park in bath on the Tuesday night, just because we thought it would be a good opportunity to have a look around, but do you think that is too far out of the way?

[Magic Bus]

To whet your appetite - views from the roof of our camper last year...... awesome!

Looking towards the Jazz & Circus fields - Pennards & The Park in the distance

Slightly further to the right - Pyramid stage right of centre

[StoneCircle]

We are staying in Bath the Tuesday before and the Monday after. We are staying at http://www.newtonmillpark.co.uk/ following a review we read. Have stayed in hotels in Bath on previous years, this year is our first with the caravan, have found it an easy drive on the Wednesday.