Some transportation questions

[sweetpea222]

Hi all! We're flying into London on Friday July 5th, landing at 11:30 am. We'll be travelling with rolling carry on, a family of four with two 12 year olds. We're staying at the Premier Inn Tower Bridge, and plan to take the tube from LHR terminal 5 (which I believe will be where we land, coming from Vancouver BC) to the Tower Hill station, and then a cab across the bridge to our hotel.

 

Can anyone advise if this plan is still correct? I have looked at the tube map and researched other similar requests)

 

Take the Piccadilly line from LHR to Hammersmith

Exit and cross the platform to the other side

Take the District line to Tower Hill

Exit to street and (hopefully) find a cab

 

Seems fairly straightforward, but thought I would ask. Hopefully being mid day it won't be a total gong show. :rolleyes:

 

Then, on the 8th, we fly from Gatwick to Venice. Any suggestions for getting from our hotel to Gatwick? We thought taking the train would be cool. We fly out at around 2:30 pm.

 

Thanks so much for any help! We're gone for 35 days this trip, so obviously budgeting is an issue. If money were no object, we'd hop a cab straight to the hotel!!

[Cotswold Eagle]

Nothing wrong with your first plan at all. But by the time you have paid the 4 tube fares and the cab across the bridge (actually, with roll ons you could easily walk it and it's quite a thing to walk across Tower Bridge :)) you won't be too far off the £35-40 cost of a private transfer all the way, I suspect? Have you tried pricing that option -several firms mentioned in Heathrow threads here.

 

For your onward journey to Gatwick, you are pretty near London Bridge station so pop along there (a longer walk or short cab ride) and take the train to Gatwick from there, admiring the Shard as you do.

 

Edit: Your terminal at LHR will depend on the airline - are you flying BA, which is T5? Doesn't make much difference if taking the tube, there are stations for all the terminals (1 & 3 sharing one in the centre).

[Twickenham]

Midday will be much better than rush hour.

 

Your plan sounds pretty good, especially if you pick up Oyster cards at the LHR tube station. You can then use them to take a short bus ride to your hotel from Tower Hill: http://maps.google.ca/maps?bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45512109,d.dmQ&biw=1613&bih=807&wrapid=tlif136664900994710&q=159+Tower+Bridge+Road,+Southwark&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x487603447c39145b:0xa407091a63874424,159+Tower+Bridge+Rd,+London+SE1+3LP,+UK&gl=ca&sa=X&ei=s2h1Uf33LYXF0gGN7IDACQ&ved=0CC4Q8gEwAA

 

For LGW, definitely train from London Bridge (I suppose your plane tickets are bought? As it is actually quite possible to get from London to Venice by train - it does take all day, however).

[sweetpea222]

I did look into private transfers, but didn't really see any in that price range! We are going to get the oyster cards though, as we have tickets for Harry Potter Studio Tour so have to get the tube up to Watford Jct on the Sunday morning. Plus, we'll be doing as much sightseeing on Saturday as we can. We were hoping the oyster card would work for the trip into town as well.

 

My hubby also said it would be an easy walk across the bridge, but our plan is to go to the hotel, drop off our bags and freshen up (shower) and then in order to keep the kidlets up until "bedtime" we were going to walk across the tower bridge to the Tower or London, spend some time there, and then have a pub dinner of fish and chips and a big cold glass of hard cider to celebrate our trip (maybe not the cider for the kids, though. :rolleyes:)

 

Thanks for the link for local transit across the bridge as well. That might be an option.

 

Yes, the tickets from London-Venice have been purchased. We fly from Vancouver-LHR so I'm not sure what terminal we fly into. It's Air Canada. I assumed T5 since it was an international arrival, but I could definitely be wrong.

 

Do we buy the train tickets to Gatwick at the station, or beforehand? How much time should we allow ourselves to get there? I am also not sure how long we have to be there before we leave. It is with EasyJet.

 

Good to know I'm on the right track, at least. This trip planning will be the death of me! :D We have the three nights in London, 2 in Venice, 12 night cruise with a huge number of ports, 2 nights in Barcelona and then two full weeks in Paris before going home. It's hard to know how to pull it all together, so I thought I would start at the start and that's transportation from LHR to our hotel. :)

[Globaliser]

We're staying at the Premier Inn Tower Bridge, and plan to take the tube from LHR terminal 5 (which I believe will be where we land, coming from Vancouver BC) to the Tower Hill station, and then a cab across the bridge to our hotel.

 

Can anyone advise if this plan is still correct?

If that's where you're heading, I'd suggest an alternative plan: Take the Tube to London Bridge and get a cab from there. However, I don't know how bad the situation is with the rebuilding at London Bridge, and so taking the Tube to Bermondsey and getting a cab from there would be an alternative.

 

The main reason is that there is no step-free exit from Tower Hill Tube. In addition, there's no obvious good place to get a taxi from so your wait time is likely to be a bit random. In contrast, both of the other stations have step-free exit to street level; there is a proper taxi rank at London Bridge, and if you come out at Bermondsey you just need to walk to the kerb on the same side of the road because the taxis going past are going in the correct direction (and will appreciate a few pounds for the short distance over which they would probably be empty anyway).

 

To get to either London Bridge or Bermondsey, there are two options:-

 

Piccadilly Line from Heathrow to Hammersmith (or Barons Court, which I prefer).

Cross-platform change to District Line

District Line to Westminster

Step-free change to Jubilee Line

Jubilee Line to London Bridge or Bermondsey

 

Piccadilly Line from Heathrow to Green Park

Step-free change to Jubilee Line (lift up, long walk, lift down)

Jubilee Line to London Bridge or Bermondsey

Then, on the 8th, we fly from Gatwick to Venice. Any suggestions for getting from our hotel to Gatwick?

Taxi to London Bridge and train to Gatwick would be the obvious route.

[Globaliser]

We fly from Vancouver-LHR so I'm not sure what terminal we fly into. It's Air Canada. I assumed T5 since it was an international arrival, but I could definitely be wrong

Every terminal at Heathrow is an international terminal, so that doesn't help very much. A couple of terminals also have a few domestic flights.

 

Air Canada operates to/from T3. You can check this on the Heathrow airport website: http://www.heathrowairport.com/flight-information/destinations-and-airlines

[Globaliser]

You can then use them to take a short bus ride to your hotel from Tower Hill: http://maps.google.ca/maps?bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45512109,d.dmQ&biw=1613&bih=807&wrapid=tlif136664900994710&q=159+Tower+Bridge+Road,+Southwark&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x487603447c39145b:0xa407091a63874424,159+Tower+Bridge+Rd,+London+SE1+3LP,+UK&gl=ca&sa=X&ei=s2h1Uf33LYXF0gGN7IDACQ&ved=0CC4Q8gEwAA

Thanks for the link for local transit across the bridge as well. That might be an option.

I wouldn't recommend this with luggage. It simply does not work well on London buses. One person might get away with it on their own, but four people with bags will just be too cumbersome.

Do we buy the train tickets to Gatwick at the station, or beforehand? How much time should we allow ourselves to get there? I am also not sure how long we have to be there before we leave. It is with EasyJet.

I would just buy them at the station when you're ready to leave. Even if you could get a small discount for buying in advance, it's unlikely to be worth the hassle of researching, buying and possibly collecting in advance.

 

easyJet's website will tell you what time you must be there and what time would be good to aim to arrive. Don't forget to find out exactly what you'll pay for bags if you haven't already done this bit, in order to avoid nasty surprises (because the baggage fees can be very nasty if you're unlucky).

[sweetpea222]

Thanks again. I'll look into the alternatives mentioned.

[Twickenham]

I wouldn't recommend this with luggage. It simply does not work well on London buses.

 

The only reason I suggested this is that I believe the OP has previously posted about doing this trip with carry-on only.

I had wondered about the London Bridge tube option - good to know it's step-free to street level.

Yes, AC goes to T3 at LHR. And I warn you, there's a fair walk to the underground station, although fortunately you can wheel your cart the whole way there.

[sweetpea222]

Having thought a little bit more about Cotswald Eagle's mention of private transfer, I found a company that is quoting me 41 pounds to take us from LHR to our hotel. The company is called Just Airports.

 

Has anyone had experience with them, good or bad? Are they reliable?

 

We're considering it, as we don't yet know how tired we'll be and since we're with kids it might be a good idea to get to our hotel to freshen up sooner rather than later.

 

Is this a good price? The form I filled in to obtain the quote asked me simply to indicate the postal area our hotel resides in (SE1) so I assume the price is to go to any hotel in that zone?

 

Thanks again.

[SharonK]

Having thought a little bit more about Cotswald Eagle's mention of private transfer, I found a company that is quoting me 41 pounds to take us from LHR to our hotel. The company is called Just Airports.

 

Has anyone had experience with them, good or bad? Are they reliable?

 

We're considering it, as we don't yet know how tired we'll be and since we're with kids it might be a good idea to get to our hotel to freshen up sooner rather than later.

 

Is this a good price? The form I filled in to obtain the quote asked me simply to indicate the postal area our hotel resides in (SE1) so I assume the price is to go to any hotel in that zone?

 

Thanks again.

I am also interested in hearing anyone's experience with justairports. We are arriving at 10 pm so we do not want to use public transportation and we both have back issues and don't want to haul our luggage around anymore than necessary. I would welcome any other recommendations for private transfers. I have priced Eddie Manning and he is double the price of Justairports.

[SwissDave]

 

Do we buy the train tickets to Gatwick at the station, or beforehand? How much time should we allow ourselves to get there? I am also not sure how long we have to be there before we leave. It is with EasyJet.

 

 

Train from London bridge to gatwick takes about 30-45 minutes depending on if it's a fast train, or one with a lot of stops.

 

Plan to be at Gatwick at least 1.5 hours before your flight (do you know if it is North or South Terminal??). If it is North terminal check your gate number carefully so that you do not go to the gate for the BA flight to Venice!!

 

Also note that easyJet have just changed their checkin process to be online only, so I would suggest you check in and print your boarding cards before leaving home to avoid any delays at the airport. Also double check your luggage allowance and carry on size as easyJet are very strict on that, and when the say 1 piece of hand luggage they really mean it so if you have a purse and another bag you need to make 1 fit inside the other.

[sweetpea222]

Thanks for the advice. I just checked the confirmation info and it is leaving from the South terminal. Does the train to Gatwick stop there, or will we have to make our way to the correct terminal once we arrive? I am compulsive about getting places early so will plan accordingly.

 

I did indeed read about the limitations on carry on with EasyJet. It will be interesting but will manage to shove my purse inside my roll on (which I will make sure fits the dimensions they require - funnily enough, their dimensions are just a tad bigger than Air Canada's restrictions on carry on luggage - go figure). If necessary, I'll throw some of my stuff in my kid's roll ons, as they wear smaller clothing and should have extra room inside... :D

 

We definitely plan to check in online before we leave home and take the printouts with us. Thankfully they allow you to do that much earlier than other airlines.

 

Any others have thoughts on Just Airports transfers?

[Bob++]

I have no personal experience with Just Airports, but they seem to get mixed reviews on Trip Advisor. The biggest complaint I saw was their failure to respond to e-mails.

 

I certainly would not pay in advance.

[SwissDave]

Yes, the train stops right at the terminal, just take the lift or escalators up to the terminal, and then again up to departures.

[melody hounddog]

Have a wonderful trip! Sounds fantastic!

 

When you got back, would you mind posting here what you thought of the Premier Inn Tower Bridge and the Harry Potter studio? We plan on doing this as well.

 

Thanks!

[Girr]

I used Simply Airports in March and paid 36 pounds for two adults/two checked bags/two carry ons to the Trafalgar Square area (WC2N) - the 36 included the parking fee and wait time of 45 minutes.

 

They also had mixed reviews on trip advisor - so much so that I had instructions for the train as a backup plan! Based on the reviews I'll admit I was anxious at the airport arrival area, but quickly was relieved to see our driver there waiting for us. The service was fantastic! I quickly booked them for my return (only 30 going back as there's no parking and wait), and I will use them in the future. (BTW the return service was also excellent.)

 

Like Bob++ I would recommend not to prepay, and the company didn't push for prepayment.

 

I usually travel by myself so the train/tram is my primary method of travel; however, I had a junior family member with me. After adding up tube or train fare, dragging bags up/down stairs, changing trains, then the final bag drag to the hotel (as your trying to finding it) as junior family member is growing more irritable by the minute, well I thought 36 to 45 pounds was worth every penny (pence:D).

[SharonK]

Thanks so much for the comments on Just airports and Simply airports. I had not checked Simply Airports and I had not looked at Trip Advisor for their reviews. I really appreciate all the help I get from Cruise Critic! Couldn't plan a trip without it!

[Cotswold Eagle]

It seems to me (based on completely unscientific evidence) that the private transfer option is becoming more popular from Heathrow. I came through T3 one evening a couple of weeks ago, and had to pop over to T5 to retrieve my car, and the number of drivers holding signs in Arrivals in both terminals was amazing - certainly more than I remember a few years ago (and I fly through LHR pretty regularly).

 

£35-40 door-to-door to town for a couple of people is a pretty good deal. It would be interesting to hear from folk who have used the various car services how long it actually takes at different times of the day.

[cruzin lady]

 

We will be arriving at Terminal 5, and need wheelchair/cart to get to the

bus to Oxford. is there a way to do that? Are we going to have to transfer to

a different terminal?

 

Question #2 Since you live in the lovely Cotswolds area, do you know about

tours (taxi or otherwise from Oxford to your area?

 

I have noticed your very kind answers to others coming to England, and for

all of a very big thank you for your help. where in the area do you live?

 

Kind regards,

 

Cruzin Lady

[cruises42]

I used Simply Airports in March and paid 36 pounds for two adults/two checked bags/two carry ons to the Trafalgar Square area (WC2N) - the 36 included the parking fee and wait time of 45 minutes.

 

They also had mixed reviews on trip advisor - so much so that I had instructions for the train as a backup plan! Based on the reviews I'll admit I was anxious at the airport arrival area, but quickly was relieved to see our driver there waiting for us. The service was fantastic! I quickly booked them for my return (only 30 going back as there's no parking and wait), and I will use them in the future. (BTW the return service was also excellent.)

 

Like Bob++ I would recommend not to prepay, and the company didn't push for prepayment.

 

I usually travel by myself so the train/tram is my primary method of travel; however, I had a junior family member with me. After adding up tube or train fare, dragging bags up/down stairs, changing trains, then the final bag drag to the hotel (as your trying to finding it) as junior family member is growing more irritable by the minute, well I thought 36 to 45 pounds was worth every penny (pence:D).

 

How do you find reviews for car services and tour companies on tripadvisor? I just can't seem to find either.

[Girr]

How do you find reviews for car services and tour companies on tripadvisor? I just can't seem to find either.

 

I just used google and asked for Simply Airport (or whatever service you're checking) Reviews and several trip advisor sites showed up.

 

As you'll see most of the companies have some really negative comments, but my experience was absolutely positive. The driver was waiting for us (even though we were a little late), pointed out points of interest going into town, and was very informative. The car was spotless. I was so satisfied I quickly booked our return trip. Additionally I will use them in the future.

[Cotswold Eagle]

 

We will be arriving at Terminal 5, and need wheelchair/cart to get to the

bus to Oxford. is there a way to do that? Are we going to have to transfer to

a different terminal?

 

Question #2 Since you live in the lovely Cotswolds area, do you know about

tours (taxi or otherwise from Oxford to your area?

 

I have noticed your very kind answers to others coming to England, and for

all of a very big thank you for your help. where in the area do you live?

 

Kind regards,

 

Cruzin Lady

 

The Oxford Bus Company 'airline' bus service to Oxford stops at T5. According to their website, there is only wheelchair space on each bus, which can be reserved, so you should contact them if you need that - it's not clear if you mean you need assistance through the airport, or you have a wheelchair with you. The bus stops are just outside the terminal (under cover) on the same level as arrivals.

 

http://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/main.php?page_id=23

 

Here is a company operating Cotswolds tours from Oxford - I can't personally recommend them, as I have never used them:

 

http://www.cotswold-roaming.co.uk/

 

An alternative is to take the train from Oxford to Moreton-in-Marsh (around 40 minutes, quite scenic) and arrange a private tour from a local. A list of drivers is provided here (again no recommendations from me, of course):

 

http://www.cotswolds.info/cotswold-tours/chauffeur.shtml

 

Have a wonderful trip :) I live in a very small village a few miles from Moreton-in-Marsh, towards Chipping Campden. Our little part of England's 'green and pleasant land' is looking splendid at the moment!

[cruises42]

I just used google and asked for Simply Airport (or whatever service you're checking) Reviews and several trip advisor sites showed up.

 

As you'll see most of the companies have some really negative comments, but my experience was absolutely positive. The driver was waiting for us (even though we were a little late), pointed out points of interest going into town, and was very informative. The car was spotless. I was so satisfied I quickly booked our return trip. Additionally I will use them in the future.

 

Thanks, I'll try that.

[cruzin lady]

 

Thank you for the information. You are so nice to help us enjoy your lovely country (again for us).

 

Cruzin Lady