Cotswold Eagle

Absolutely. It can be quicker getting to T5 from Paddington than from the hotels attached to T4!

This video may also help - it's of the T3 arrivals hall (landside). You can see drivers waiting in various parts of the hall. At 1:30, WH Smith is in the centre of the screen - it's the shop with the vertical sign (it says WH Smith, but hard to make out) under the train on the large Heathrow Express advert. Basically just swing to the right when you can in the arrivals hall and you'll see it in front of you.

Exchange of some old notes (the most recent withdrawn series, up to a value of £300) is also now possible at some Post Offices. https://www.postoffice.co.uk/banknote-exchange

None of those airports have a policy of closing check-in two hours before departure (which in any case would be an airline/ground handler decision). There are a few airline/destination combinations that do have longer than normal (generally an hour) check-in cutoff. At CDG, for example, Air France has a few (mostly Africa or Caribbean) at 75 minutes, but only one at 120 minutes, their flight to Mali. But as another poster established earlier, at Gatwick the OP will almost certainly have a 60 minute cut off.

Can you point to an example of this? Are you saying that check-in closes three hours before a flight somewhere?

This is frankly ridiculous. The idea that you should tip a professional driver for not driving off a cliff (i.e. fulfilling the most basic requirements of their role) is nonsense. Going out of their way to deliver you somewhere, or helping with overweight luggage maybe, but not for simply doing their job. I have never understood why Europeans in the States are expected to abide by a ludicrous and exploitative tipping culture, but Americans coming to Europe feel free to ignore local mores.

In many cases, all these sectors may have contactless card solutions. It is impossible to overstate how much this has permeated in the U.K. in the last three years.

Just to avoid any confusion for other visitors, this no doubt will have been outside London. Cash has not been accepted on London buses for several years.

If it's near the Shard, it's in the London Bridge area, not Waterloo. Equally close to the river and lots of things to see and good transport links, but you'll need to hop on a very short train journey (or take a cab or the tube) to get to Waterloo.

You can get three double rooms at the Premier Inn County Hall for a total of £510, so around $640, on 23 June. As you say, rooms for three adults are unusual in the UK, so you may be better off looking for three rooms.

If you are referring to the Enderby Wharf plan, it twice received planning permission, in 2011 and 2015. The local objections were primarily on environmental grounds, as the plan was for housing right by the cruise terminal and the ships were expected to provide their own power. The plan was never “voted down” as such, although the local council is now against it. The new owner of the site is applying to vary the permission to build low-cost rental housing instead.

What can’t you find on the app? May 4th? South Hampton? (You know about this time at second time of asking, right?) Gatwick? A particular fare? The app and the various web portals pull the same data. It’s much easier to help folk when they are clear.

The strict answer is ‘no’ - but only because the English term ‘coffeeshop’’ is used to distinguish those establishments you wish to avoid. But Amsterdam has many cafes and bars where you can sit and enjoy a coffee - just avoid anywhere using the term ‘coffeeshop’, and usually displaying Rastafarian colours or palm leaves (direct advertising of the product is not allowed). And if you are still concerned, there’s always Starbucks,,,,

Well, yes, or they engage one of the well known agents (who take their own cut to do it). But it is still the buyer’s responsibility to get the forms endorsed by customs on departure to prove that they did take the good out of the relevant customs area.

In principle, you will need to get the refund documentation prepared by a participating retailer and stamped at your last port of call in the EU as you leave. The fact that you are flying out of the U.K. is irrelevant since the U.K. left the EU.

I suspect many people thought there was little value in this thread just becoming a long list of cities and towns in Europe and North Africa that we enjoy, especially with the OP’s somewhat vague “been to some, not to others” approach! Maybe if there were a few more criteria to apply other than “must see”! By the way, are you having trouble with the ‘quote’ function? It’s sometimes hard to distinguish when you are quoting (in bold) or answering (also sometimes in bold!) Just highlighting the relevant part of the post(s) you are replying to and pressing quote is working for me, as you can see 😀

You may wish to look at this thread from last month, which discussed the same question:

Yes. They are denominated in pounds Sterling and other Sterling notes (such as Bank of England) are very readily accepted in Guernsey. Acceptance of Guernsey notes outside Guernsey and Jersey is likely to be even more problematic than the issues with Scottish and Northern Ireland notes discussed above.

This is simply not true, I'm afraid. Any retailer can decide what methods of payment it chooses to accept (and indeed some are now not dealing with any form of cash at all).

That's a long day off an overnight flight with nowhere to rest. The alternative is to stay in London and travel down to the port the next day. The number of options to travel to Southampton (OP - please note the spelling!) mitigates the 'same day' risk somewhat. London hotels are expensive, of course, and there are very few bargains to be had these days, but the extra cost may be worth the convenience, only you can decide.

Such a hotel does not exist. There are innumerable threads on this board about travel to Southampton from Heathrow, or central London, including the sticky at the top of the list. Perhaps you were unable to find them because you have the spelling of your embarkation port wrong, but they are well worth reading to get a sense of your realistic options.

Just to circle back to this, the procession route has now been confirmed by the Palace. It is more or less the standard route used for many state occasions from Buckingham Palace to Westminster (down the Mall, through Admiralty Arch (not Horseguards), down Whitehall and round Parliament Square). In a break with tradition, the larger procession after the Coronation will simply take the same route in reverse. Thus disruption will be more contained than many people previously thought (and there's a lot less space for spectators). There's a map in this article from the BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65194594

I suspect the OP was using 'Normandy' as shorthand for "the World War II sites in Normandy". Even that I find quite sad, not to spend just a few hours in a lifetime paying respects and learning something of those momentous days in summer 1944 which shaped all our lives. You don't need to be a military history buff to get something out of that. Incidentally, to be pedantic, Normandy is one of the administrative regions of France, made up of several departments.

Important caveat entered in bold above. Despite the use of the word "Global", it offers no benefits other than on entry to the US, of course. Slightly odd thread for a Western Europe board 😀

Literally impossible to answer without knowing the possible airports! "An English airport" could be a couple of hundred miles and several hours from London... Also, "late in the day" is somewhat subjective.