Traveling from LHR to downtown London best transportation options

[peagreenid]

We are traveling from LHR to the Hilton Tower Bridge hotel.  I have been trying to research options for transportation-  We will be traveling with a couple of suitcases per person.  I thought about the Tube but I've read you have to be careful which stations you transfer at because you could be schlepping luggage up/down Stairs and longer distances between stations. I thought about the National Express Coach from LHR to Victoria Station and then catching a Taxi to the hotel.  I've tried to research Taxi's from LHR to the Hotel. Having never been to London I'm unsure what to expect.   We will be up and traveling for over 24 hours before we get to this portion of our travels so I'd like something reasonably frustration free.  

 

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, peagreenid said:

We are traveling from LHR to the Hilton Tower Bridge hotel.  I have been trying to research options for transportation-  We will be traveling with a couple of suitcases per person.  I thought about the Tube but I've read you have to be careful which stations you transfer at because you could be schlepping luggage up/down Stairs and longer distances between stations. I thought about the National Express Coach from LHR to Victoria Station and then catching a Taxi to the hotel.  I've tried to research Taxi's from LHR to the Hotel. Having never been to London I'm unsure what to expect.   We will be up and traveling for over 24 hours before we get to this portion of our travels so I'd like something reasonably frustration free.  

 

We've used Blackberry Car service from LHR into our London hotel. Very impressed with their service.

[phabric]

I have used www.justairports.com from LHR to our London hotel and hotel back to LHR 5x.  Use hotel’s postal code to get a quote.

[ladysail2]

Peagreenid…no one will know what you mean by ‘downtown London’, no such area exists.  It’s called Central London.  It’s sort of like saying downtown New York City.  
 

You’re wise to pre-plan your trip from the airport to your hotel. Nothing worse than being exhausted, confused and feeling lost.  I wouldn’t get on the tube (subway) if it’s your first time, no need for that frustration. Taking a car service would be your best bet…then someone else can get you to your hotel, you’d be worry free, and relaxed.  There are lots of car services available.  Good Luck in your travels and enjoy London.

[peagreenid]

16 hours ago, Ashland said:

We've used Blackberry Car service from LHR into our London hotel. Very impressed with their service.

Thank you... I've requested a quote from them.  

[peagreenid]

10 hours ago, phabric said:

I have used www.justairports.com from LHR to our London hotel and hotel back to LHR 5x.  Use hotel’s postal code to get a quote.

Thank you.... I"m going to research the car options-

[peagreenid]

8 hours ago, ladysail2 said:

Peagreenid…no one will know what you mean by ‘downtown London’, no such area exists.  It’s called Central London.  It’s sort of like saying downtown New York City.  
 

You’re wise to pre-plan your trip from the airport to your hotel. Nothing worse than being exhausted, confused and feeling lost.  I wouldn’t get on the tube (subway) if it’s your first time, no need for that frustration. Taking a car service would be your best bet…then someone else can get you to your hotel, you’d be worry free, and relaxed.  There are lots of car services available.  Good Luck in your travels and enjoy London.

Agreed.... I always try to pre-plan.  We both have our limits when we are tired and cranky.  We enjoy using public transportation options but having never been to London I know how difficult it can be in new cities.  At least the directions will be in english. 🙂   I'm okay with car services but don't you usually have to pre-set reservations?  How does that work when you don't know how long it will take you to clear customs and immigration?  

[phabric]

1 minute ago, peagreenid said:

Agreed.... I always try to pre-plan.  We both have our limits when we are tired and cranky.  We enjoy using public transportation options but having never been to London I know how difficult it can be in new cities.  At least the directions will be in english. 🙂   I'm okay with car services but don't you usually have to pre-set reservations?  How does that work when you don't know how long it will take you to clear customs and immigration?  

The car service will ask for your flight information.  They will know roughly how long it will take you.  I was told leave 90 minutes to clear immigration and luggage pickup.

[ladysail2]

1 hour ago, phabric said:

The car service will ask for your flight information.  They will know roughly how long it will take you.  I was told leave 90 minutes to clear immigration and luggage pickup.

That’s good advice. When you are their own and only customer, they wait for you to come through the doors.  They should have your names on a small sign so you can see them too!   I also don’t like to have too much to think about after a long flight…let others lead the way!!  👍

[Globaliser]

11 hours ago, peagreenid said:

I'm okay with car services but don't you usually have to pre-set reservations?  How does that work when you don't know how long it will take you to clear customs and immigration?  

 

You are actually required by law to have a reservation. The only cab services that are allowed to pick you up without a reservation are licensed taxis ("black cabs" in London, even though they're not always black) which operate from the official taxi rank. Beyond these two categories, everyone else touting for business is illegal, unlicensed, likely to be uninsured, and possibly on the lookout for easy pickings.

 

These car services do thousands of these pickups every day, only a small proportion of which will be cruise ship passengers. As long as they have your flight number, they'll keep on top of what's happening, and they are operationally flexible so they can adjust if need be.

 

But it will be useful to have a working phone on you when you arrive, so that you can talk directly to the driver if you need to. IME, the drivers for the car service that I use usually try to keep track of your timing and whereabouts by phone rather than relying on a sign. At any one time there can be dozens if not over a hundred drivers waiting outside the exit from customs, each holding a sign - good luck with your speed reading! (And no, I don't usually plug the service that I normally use because in general, all of the usual suspects are much of a muchness.)

[Host Bonjour]

On 6/18/2022 at 10:21 AM, ladysail2 said:

Peagreenid…no one will know what you mean by ‘downtown London’, no such area exists.  It’s called Central London.  It’s sort of like saying downtown New York City.  
 

 

Oh good, I thought it was me wondering where downtown London was, what have I been missing? 😱

 

Philadelphia's "downtown" is called Center City, I don't know who decides all of this... for the longest time I was perplexed about the High Street. It usually wasn't called High Street, I wondered why every town had a High Street but then Main Street was popular here. Eventually figured out the connotation (before I got to visiting) I guess it's part of the fun of discovering new places, dialect, phrases, terms etc.

 

There is a downtown NYC (Midtown, Uptown, Eastside/Westside), however it does get quite specific, though no one will call you out for it. You can say Union Square is downtown, Chinatown is downtown, Wall Street is downtown.... each is not ALL the way downtown. It's relative.

 

All the way downtown NYC can get a little sleepy at night in certain areas (not scary,) mostly in the financial district, because the work crowd is gone for the day so it can be tough to find a place to grab a bite or a comfort break. Just an FYI in case anyone new visiting ended up that far downtown in the evening. In other places north of that downtown, things are open and active later. Just an FYI, since we got into the downtown conversation. (sorry to veer away from London for a sec, but it does remind me of home in many ways, don't mean to offend) but it came up so wanted to clarify 😉 

 

And glad I wasn't missing a mystery London downtown somewhere. (But it can be a good idea when in London to talk to Londoners and ask for their thoughts on where to wander: I did and was glad for it!!)

 

Oh and can I say, what a cracking British GP? 🏎️💯

 

 

[Cotswold Eagle]

4 hours ago, Host Bonjour said:

And glad I wasn't missing a mystery London downtown somewhere.

The added danger of people using this phrase is that there is in fact an area of London called Downtown - it’s in Rotherhithe (south east London), by the river. Definitely not where  people probably mean and not a tourist area!

[Globaliser]

6 hours ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

The added danger of people using this phrase is that there is in fact an area of London called Downtown - it’s in Rotherhithe (south east London), by the river.

 

I've learned something new today. And I lived in an adjacent area for over a decade!

[Cotswold Eagle]

On 7/5/2022 at 11:13 AM, Globaliser said:

 

I've learned something new today. And I lived in an adjacent area for over a decade!

Niche Rotherhithe knowledge, to be fair! The old dockers’ community of Downtown (which may have meant just ‘downriver from Rotherhithe village’) there got wiped out in the Blitz.
 

Famous (in some circles) nightclub of the same name  by the river in Odessa Street in the 70s/80s, then it got heavily squatted until the docklands development folk got their hands on the area. 
 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Cotswold Eagle

[cruisegal415]

So would pre-booking a car service be preferable to taking a taxi from Heathrow?

[gnome12]

2 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:

So would pre-booking a car service be preferable to taking a taxi from Heathrow?

Yes. 

[Globaliser]

2 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:

So would pre-booking a car service be preferable to taking a taxi from Heathrow?

 

It depends on what your priorities are.

 

A proper taxi (a "black cab") will be driven by someone who almost certainly has better qualifications, and who knows his way around London better. The vehicle will probably be larger, and the journey may be faster because of the driver's superior navigation skills and his entitlement to use bus lanes. It's likely to be easier to get your journey started, because you just go to the official taxi rank outside the terminal, whereas a car service must park in one of the airport car parks.

 

But a taxi will be more expensive.

[cruisegal415]

24 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

It depends on what your priorities are.

 

A proper taxi (a "black cab") will be driven by someone who almost certainly has better qualifications, and who knows his way around London better. The vehicle will probably be larger, and the journey may be faster because of the driver's superior navigation skills and his entitlement to use bus lanes. It's likely to be easier to get your journey started, because you just go to the official taxi rank outside the terminal, whereas a car service must park in one of the airport car parks.

 

But a taxi will be more expensive.

Very good point.  I'm guessing we'll be tired/exhausted after making the trip from Miami FL, and as we are mid sixties, the idea of just finding the official taxi rank outside the terminal vs looking for or having to navigate our way to one of the airport car parks seems easier.  On the other hand, wouldn't there be someone with a sign in the terminal or don't they do that any more?

[Turtles06]

10 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:

So would pre-booking a car service be preferable to taking a taxi from Heathrow?

 

8 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Yes. 

 

8 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

It depends on what your priorities are.

 

A proper taxi (a "black cab") will be driven by someone who almost certainly has better qualifications, and who knows his way around London better. The vehicle will probably be larger, and the journey may be faster because of the driver's superior navigation skills and his entitlement to use bus lanes. It's likely to be easier to get your journey started, because you just go to the official taxi rank outside the terminal, whereas a car service must park in one of the airport car parks.

 

But a taxi will be more expensive.

 

For a flight from the U.S. arriving around 21:00, is there any particular reason to book a car service if we are heading to a hotel in central London (near Waterloo)?  It will not be totally knowable when we'd clear immigration and get our bags, and a service like Blackberry, which I've used before, asks for a meeting time, so you have to sort of estimate things and leave more time to meet that you might not need.  I would definitely use a car service in the middle of the day, but given the lateness of the hour, which I presume would mean less traffic going into central London, would it make more sense to just get a black cab, which we could do as soon as we retrieved our checked bags? 

 

[bunnyette]

19 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:

So would pre-booking a car service be preferable to taking a taxi from Heathrow?

Yes, you’d save money and can prepay.

[Globaliser]

8 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

For a flight from the U.S. arriving around 21:00, is there any particular reason to book a car service if we are heading to a hotel in central London (near Waterloo)?  It will not be totally knowable when we'd clear immigration and get our bags, and a service like Blackberry, which I've used before, asks for a meeting time, so you have to sort of estimate things and leave more time to meet that you might not need.

 

The meeting time issue isn't a big deal, because all the usual car services are well used to the fact that it takes time for passengers to emerge. They're doing it all the time, so they will have a pretty decent overview of the state of play, week by week.

 

If anything, at a late hour there'll be less of a difference in journey duration because the traffic is lighter and the black cab's time advantages are reduced. As for the rest, it's really all the same as in the middle of the day.

[Globaliser]

16 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:

... looking for or having to navigate our way to one of the airport car parks seems easier.  On the other hand, wouldn't there be someone with a sign in the terminal or don't they do that any more?

 

No, a car service driver will almost always meet you inside the terminal, usually with a sign with your name on. But the driver will first have had to park in the short-term car park and walk over to the terminal, and then you will all have to walk back to the car park, where the driver will have to pay for the parking before you go to the car and load up, and only then drive off. Depending on where he's managed to put the car, this can take quite a few minutes.

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, Globaliser said:

The meeting time issue isn't a big deal, because all the usual car services are well used to the fact that it takes time for passengers to emerge. They're doing it all the time, so they will have a pretty decent overview of the state of play, week by week.

 

It's not quite that simple.  I've used a car service before from LHR.  They want you to give them a pickup time using an estimate of how much time you think it will take to clear immigration and get your bags.  If you wind up underestimating that, you will be paying more as the clock ticks away, because they will be there to meet you but you'll be stuck in baggage claim waiting for your bags.  If you overestimate so that doesn't happen, you may be cooling your heels with all your bags, instead of jumping in a black cab.

 

I agree the car services have a pretty decent overview of the time it takes to deplane, clear immigration, and get your bags, but it's not precise.

 

1 hour ago, Globaliser said:

If anything, at a late hour there'll be less of a difference in journey duration because the traffic is lighter and the black cab's time advantages are reduced.

 

So if the journey is faster late at night, won't the black cab [which is metered] cost less than it would i the middle of the day?  In other words, would the black cab still be much more expensive than a car service would be, late at night?

 

Thanks for the info and advice.

[Globaliser]

On 7/23/2022 at 1:21 PM, Turtles06 said:

It's not quite that simple.  I've used a car service before from LHR.  They want you to give them a pickup time using an estimate of how much time you think it will take to clear immigration and get your bags.

 

I know, and it's never precise at any time of the day. There will always be this kind of risk at whatever time of the day. But the car service I usually use (on the few occasions when I need to) basically builds in a 45-minute margin anyway, so that's going to soak up much of the uncertainty.

 

On 7/23/2022 at 1:21 PM, Turtles06 said:

So if the journey is faster late at night, won't the black cab [which is metered] cost less than it would i the middle of the day?

 

Yes, a bit if you don't end up sitting in heavy traffic with the meter ticking over. But you may be being charged at a higher rate because of the time of day. I can't remember off the top of my head what the time bands are at the moment, but I think that these should be available from the TfL website. Anyway, the price differential is quite significant, so I doubt lighter traffic would result in a major change in the relative costs.

[shofer]

We took the National Express bus from LHR to London.  Pre-paid 5 pounds/pp-Senior rate plus 1 pound service chart.  Our hotel was only 0.3 miles from the Coach station so we walked.   Used the same bus to Southampton to take our cruise.