Change airports in London flying home

[mxylpic]

We're cruising on Serenade this summer out of Stockholm. Really cheap flights about $600 but they have a long layover and change of airport in London on the return. Would mean overnighting in London and getting a hotel for one night. I guess we would have one evening to wander around the hotel and eat. Anyone ever done this? How did it work out? TIA.

Ed

Edited December 1, 2018 by mxylpic
title error

[fabnfortysomething]

are the London airports Gatwick and Heathrow?

what are the flight times?

there is  a shuttle between both but allow at least 1 hour transport time-more at peak hours

 

Gatwick express and Heathrow express trains connect to central London

if you have enough time it could work out booking central London hotel and taking express next day as long as you allow the 3 hours from airport for check in for international flight

[John Bull]

Since your onward flight is next day, you have the choice of

- airport hotel, probably at the airport of your onward flight but dependent on flight times. That'll be the cheapest option.

There'll be little of interest in airport-land but public transport between London and its airports is good - if your timing is OK..

- or a central London hotel. Accommodation will be significantly more expensive but gives you time where it all happens. Whether it's worthwhile depends on your time available and your attitude to digging deeper in your pockets.

 

 

That's all very vague, for better info we really need to know your flight times and airports, and other things that might impact such as the size & make-up of your party

 

JB 

[mxylpic]

7 hours ago, John Bull said:

Since your onward flight is next day, you have the choice of

- airport hotel, probably at the airport of your onward flight but dependent on flight times. That'll be the cheapest option.

There'll be little of interest in airport-land but public transport between London and its airports is good - if your timing is OK..

- or a central London hotel. Accommodation will be significantly more expensive but gives you time where it all happens. Whether it's worthwhile depends on your time available and your attitude to digging deeper in your pockets.

 

 

That's all very vague, for better info we really need to know your flight times and airports, and other things that might impact such as the size & make-up of your party

 

JB 

It's just me and DW. Yes, it's Heathrow and Gatwick, and nothing booked yet. These flights are on justfly.com (but not Kayak, which is interesting) and are a combination of Virgin and SAS. We fly from Stockholm to Heathrow landing in the afternoon. Layovers are 11-17 hours with the SAS flight departing Gatwick sometime the next day at  either 10 am or 1 pm

[John Bull]

Sadly I really don't think the timings would make even a brief visit to central London worthwhile.

 

At LHR you'll need about 90 minutes to clear airport formalities, then anywhere between 30 minutes to get to a central London hotel close to Paddington station if you take the Heathrow Express (via https://www.heathrowexpress.com/ ) and an hour or more if you take the Tube (London's metro) to a hotel handy to a tube station on the Piccadilly line.

By the time you've checked in & dropped your luggage it'll be the end of the day. You'll have just the evening.

Even with the 1pm flight from LGW you'll not have time for sight-seeing next morning.

 

Same applies if you stay at a hotel handy to LHR. It's even too late for a 20-minute taxi ride to take a sensible lo Windsor )last admission to the castle is 4pm)

 

Probably your best bet is to fix up a hotel handy to LGW (and with a hotel/airport shuttle), & head there by  https://www.nationalexpress.com/en the afternoon that you arrive. Mebbe find a comfy pub for the evening, then head to the airport next morning. 

 

As per fabn40+'s post, airports recommend arrival 3 hours before your flight time - but 2 hours should be plenty.

We've used Virgin Atlantic's LGW - Orlando flights a few times - probably the best value on that route.

 

JB  

[Host Bonjour]

I needed an airport hotel at Gatwick a few years ago, checked online and reviews are still good for the Belmont in Horley. They kind of like a pub in the evenings at night and if I remember right there was breakfast in the morning but my flight to Italy was early (ha, not...no plane!) so I had to leave at 6am. 

 

Thats the other great thing....transfers to/from Gatwick via van are free. Rooms are small and basic but it’s not touristy, it’s all you need for an overnight, good atmosphere in the “pub” and good food (I ate there) and gracious hosts. Price was great, I needed to mind my £! 

 

Only thing weak was the WiFi but I bet they have a better router now 😉 

 

Hope it works out you get the flight combination you like! 

[mxylpic]

14 hours ago, Host Bonjour said:

I needed an airport hotel at Gatwick a few years ago, checked online and reviews are still good for the Belmont in Horley. They kind of like a pub in the evenings at night and if I remember right there was breakfast in the morning but my flight to Italy was early (ha, not...no plane!) so I had to leave at 6am. 

 

Thats the other great thing....transfers to/from Gatwick via van are free. Rooms are small and basic but it’s not touristy, it’s all you need for an overnight, good atmosphere in the “pub” and good food (I ate there) and gracious hosts. Price was great, I needed to mind my £! 

 

Only thing weak was the WiFi but I bet they have a better router now 😉 

 

Hope it works out you get the flight combination you like! 

thanks for the info. The transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick - is that something to arrange in advance or do you just go to a spot to catch the van??

 

TIA

Ed

[John Bull]

20 hours ago, Host Bonjour said:

 

Thats the other great thing....transfers to/from Gatwick via van are free. Rooms are small and basic but.............

 

5 hours ago, mxylpic said:

thanks for the info. The transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick - is that something to arrange in advance or do you just go to a spot to catch the van??

 

TIA

Ed

 

Not sure if you've mis-read Host B's post.

The free van transfers are between hotel and airport, not between LHR & LGW.

 

Transfers between LHR and LGW are operated by  https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

You can buy your bus tickets on arrival at LHR, but I think you have to buy at the Heathrow airport bus station. That's OK if you arrive at Term 2 or 3, because that's where you catch the bus. But Terms 4 and 5 are in remote corners of the airport - buses pick up at those terminals, but if you don't have a ticket you might have to make your way to central bus station to buy tickets (does anyone else know the answer to that?).

 

Service is half-hourly or better, but it's possible that the next bus, and even the one after that , might be fully-booked - so I'd strongly recommend you buy in advance.

I suggest you book a bus for about 90 minutes after your scheduled landing. 

If you arrive earlier you can switch to an earlier bus, if you arrive later you can switch to a later bus. In either case a switch would be subject to seats being available - and there's a £5 admin fee, though that's not always charged.

Journey time is something over an hour, fare about £27pp. 

To book you need to know your LHR terminal.

And you need to agree with the hotel which LGW terminal (North or South) to collect you from, though if you don't know before you book the bus you can choose either - the bus goes to both. 

 

JB  

[mxylpic]

7 hours ago, John Bull said:

 

 

Not sure if you've mis-read Host B's post.

The free van transfers are between hotel and airport, not between LHR & LGW.

 

Transfers between LHR and LGW are operated by  https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

You can buy your bus tickets on arrival at LHR, but I think you have to buy at the Heathrow airport bus station. That's OK if you arrive at Term 2 or 3, because that's where you catch the bus. But Terms 4 and 5 are in remote corners of the airport - buses pick up at those terminals, but if you don't have a ticket you might have to make your way to central bus station to buy tickets (does anyone else know the answer to that?).

 

Service is half-hourly or better, but it's possible that the next bus, and even the one after that , might be fully-booked - so I'd strongly recommend you buy in advance.

I suggest you book a bus for about 90 minutes after your scheduled landing. 

If you arrive earlier you can switch to an earlier bus, if you arrive later you can switch to a later bus. In either case a switch would be subject to seats being available - and there's a £5 admin fee, though that's not always charged.

Journey time is something over an hour, fare about £27pp. 

To book you need to know your LHR terminal.

And you need to agree with the hotel which LGW terminal (North or South) to collect you from, though if you don't know before you book the bus you can choose either - the bus goes to both. 

 

JB  

Yes, I did misread it. Thanks so much for the clarification and the additional info!

[Host Bonjour]

Thanks for clarifying JB! And as I added that bit about the hotel to airport transfer last, it was probably easy to misinterpret. 

 

It would be great if there was an intra-airport connector but then I write this acknowledgment we have no LGA 😱 to JFK transporter either. I mean there is, but there isn’t. And it would only be of any real value if it utilized tunnels or hovercraft. 🤪 

Well, remember when we thought Dick Tracey’s watch was improbable? 😎

 

 

[Flymia]

What time do you land in London and have you ever been to London? 

 

Even landing in the afternoon, this is London, the city is alive a night. The train to central London from Heathrow Airport is very easy and very quick. If you have been to London before, then yes, Heading to Gatwick area for an airport hotel might make sense. Even then though, London is such a great city, even if I only had a late afternoon and evening I would not want to stay at an airport hotel. 

 

If it was me, I would get on the Heathrow Express, find a hotel pretty close to Paddington Station and then go out and enjoy the city. Find a nice place to have a later dinner at and walk around the area. Then wake up earlier the next morning to make the trip to Gatwick easier. The last thing I would do is stay out by Gatwick at an airport hotel. But that is me. 

 

If you never been to London I think it would be crazy to just treat London as a stopover airport city. Go see it! Even if that just means walking around and having a dinner if the main sites are already closed. 

 

Hopefully Heathrow immigration would not be crazy busy given you are landing after the morning USA and Asian arrival rush. 

Edited December 13, 2018 by Flymia

[mxylpic]

thanks for all the input!!

DW and I are actually talking about booking each leg of our trip separately to give us a couple of full days in London! And it looks like it may even save us some $$$ doing it that way.

Ed

[amri638]

On 12/1/2018 at 5:47 PM, John Bull said:

Sadly I really don't think the timings would make even a brief visit to central London worthwhile.

 

At LHR you'll need about 90 minutes to clear airport formalities, then anywhere between 30 minutes to get to a central London hotel close to Paddington station if you take the Heathrow Express (via https://www.heathrowexpress.com/ ) and an hour or more if you take the Tube (London's metro) to a hotel handy to a tube station on the Piccadilly line.

By the time you've checked in & dropped your luggage it'll be the end of the day. You'll have just the evening.

Even with the 1pm flight from LGW you'll not have time for sight-seeing next morning.

 

Same applies if you stay at a hotel handy to LHR. It's even too late for a 20-minute taxi ride to take a sensible lo Windsor )last admission to the castle is 4pm)

 

Probably your best bet is to fix up a hotel handy to LGW (and with a hotel/airport shuttle), & head there by  https://www.nationalexpress.com/en the afternoon that you arrive. Mebbe find a comfy pub for the evening, then head to the airport next morning. 

 

As per fabn40+'s post, airports recommend arrival 3 hours before your flight time - but 2 hours should be plenty.

We've used Virgin Atlantic's LGW - Orlando flights a few times - probably the best value on that route.

 

JB  

In you posting you mentioned that it requires 90 min to clear  airport formality and  3 hours recommended for outgoing international flight. Can you advise me if l could make it in time for changing flight in Heathrow airport for our flight. I am taking British Airline arriving 10:10 am May 22 in Heathrow AP terminal 2 and leaving to go to Iceland the same day at 1:05pm on Icelandair terminal 5. I would like to know if there will be transfer service that we can bypass the formalities in Heathrow AP.

 

On 12/1/2018 at 5:47 PM, John Bull said:

Sadly I really don't think the timings would make even a brief visit to central London worthwhile.

 

At LHR you'll need about 90 minutes to clear airport formalities, then anywhere between 30 minutes to get to a central London hotel close to Paddington station if you take the Heathrow Express (via https://www.heathrowexpress.com/ ) and an hour or more if you take the Tube (London's metro) to a hotel handy to a tube station on the Piccadilly line.

By the time you've checked in & dropped your luggage it'll be the end of the day. You'll have just the evening.

Even with the 1pm flight from LGW you'll not have time for sight-seeing next morning.

 

Same applies if you stay at a hotel handy to LHR. It's even too late for a 20-minute taxi ride to take a sensible lo Windsor )last admission to the castle is 4pm)

 

Probably your best bet is to fix up a hotel handy to LGW (and with a hotel/airport shuttle), & head there by  https://www.nationalexpress.com/en the afternoon that you arrive. Mebbe find a comfy pub for the evening, then head to the airport next morning. 

 

As per fabn40+'s post, airports recommend arrival 3 hours before your flight time - but 2 hours should be plenty.

We've used Virgin Atlantic's LGW - Orlando flights a few times - probably the best value on that route.

 

JB  

In you posting you mentioned that it