Travaling to London - Easiest Option?

Zascar

I go to London several times a year as I have friends and family there. I really like london, but I have to say i absolutely Hate the journey. For such a tiny distance on the globe its a silly amount of hassle to get there...

I usually try to do it on the cheap and go with Ryanair to Stansted, but you just end up paying for it in the amount of time you waste being so far out of the city. I ususally need to go right into the centre - Picadilly or Green Park tube stations. The last twice I haev been over the Stansted express has been cancelled for maintenance and you hvae to get a crappy bus...

I was curious to know what you guys think is the best way to go to london - who to travel with, what airports and trains to take etc...
Cheers
Zascar

Tom Dunne

It depends on where you are going.

I flew with CityJet last year and found them great. Within 20mins of getting off the plane, we were in our hotel room (in Canary Wharf). Brilliant. London City Airport is a dream to pass through.

I agree with you on the point about Ryanair flights being cheaper, but by the time you get the train, then a tube/taxi/whatever, and get to your destination, you are wrecked.

Of course, if you are going to the other side of London, CityJet won't be of much use to you.

Illkillya

I never had any hassle going to London - flight with Aer Lingus for about 90euro return inc taxes from Cork to Heathrow, train or tube into the city centre. Quicker than getting to Dublin by land. You can probably get cheaper flights too

Ruu_Old

tom dunne wrote:

It depends on where you are going.

I flew with CityJet last year and found them great. Within 20mins of getting off the plane, we were in our hotel room (in Canary Wharf). Brilliant. London City Airport is a dream to pass through.

I agree with you on the point about Ryanair flights being cheaper, but by the time you get the train, then a tube/taxi/whatever, and get to your destination, you are wrecked.

Of course, if you are going to the other side of London, CityJet won't be of much use to you.

Agreed. Cityjet is pretty good if you are near the city but a bit more expensive but I reckon its worth it and they are more comfortable.
Ryanair go Stansted, Luton and Gatwick and are cheaper as mentioned.
Aer Lingus go to Heathrow and you can get the tube right there and off you go.

silverside

aer lingus to heathrow - not bad but the tube is cramped and slow, heathrow is a horrible airport, but the tube does have lots of connections

london city with cityjet - nice filight, nice airport, gets you to liverpool st quick enough, good for east end. cityjet are expensive though.

luton with aer arann - nice small airport, quick and spacious train journey to thameslink/city through green fields, have to leave a bit of time to get from airport to train station

gatwick - has train station with good access to london bridge/victoria for central/sw london.

all much of a muchness i suppose but i dislike heathrow. guess it depends on where in london you're going to. also bear in mind airline checkin times, aer lingus is 45 minutes now.

jjbrien

Bmi are a pretty good option in to heathrow there proberly the best airline to fly with into London. You can get a return with them from about €70 and up wards.

John R

It depends on what the priority is; cost or convenience.

For central London you can't really beat the Heathrow express it only takes 15 mns to Paddington, much quicker than the tube but a bit expensive. There's also the stopping Heathrow connect train to Paddington which is a bit slower but cheaper.

Gatwick isn't bad either, the regular trains to Victoria are almost as quick as the Express and are cheaper or there is the Thameslink (now called something different) train that goes through london to Kings cross.

Luton used to be good but the walk from the Airport to the gates now used by RA is very long.

I have never used London City, Cityjet are always far too expensive.

Stansted is the farthest and I find Liverpool St a bit inconvenient also, it is way too far if there is no train running and at weekends they are often effected.

jrey1981

I find Heathrow a pain in the ass due to the distance we have to walk to the gate for the return leg.

For Green Park/Piccadilly, I think it might be the quickest option though.

To avoid the long walks at Heathrow, and the annoyance, distance and hellhole-like conditions of Gatwick or Stansted, going to City airport with Cityjet has a lot going for it. Sometimes the fares arent too bad either.

I plan to give them a try the next chance and reasonable fare I get.

But if I am on a budget and at short notice, I consider all the options - BMI/Aer Lingus to LHR, Cityjet to City airport Ryanair to STN/LGW/LTN or Ryanair to Bristol/Birmingham/Bournemouth + coach/train or FlyBe to Southampton + coach/train or BA to Gatwick.

It comes down to what is more important I guess - price or speed & comfort.

dermot_sheehan

British Midland to Heathrow (roughly same service as Aer Lingus except they tend not to be as strict on baggage limits and are usuall 10-20eur cheaper) or Ryanair to Luton.

p.pete

John R wrote:

There's also the stopping Heathrow connect train to Paddington which is a bit slower but cheaper.

Ah, the Heathrow Connect What the hell is that btw? The last time I went from Heathrow to London (was aiming for Paddington first) I bought my tickets online beforehand. Hadn't actually heard of the Connect beforehand but that's what it said on my ticket, all I knew is that it wasn't mean't to be the Express. So I took a guess and got on the picaddilly line - the tickets didn't actually work at the barrier but they let me through anyway. There was a problem then at Hammersmith trying to swith onto a line to Paddington, tickets still not working at the gates and they decided to actually look at them this time.

Bit confusing having 3 (or more?) services going from the one airport into London.

mikedragon32

London City Airport is superb.

I've never had a problem using LHR, great connections to central London or anywhere else for that matter.

Used Luton once and found it to be fine. Not much to do there after check-in though.

Zascar

Actually Ryanair to Gatwick is pretty cheap and as long as its better than stansted then I'm happy

John R

p.pete wrote:

Ah, the Heathrow Connect What the hell is that btw? The last time I went from Heathrow to London (was aiming for Paddington first) I bought my tickets online beforehand. Hadn't actually heard of the Connect beforehand but that's what it said on my ticket, all I knew is that it wasn't mean't to be the Express. So I took a guess and got on the picaddilly line - the tickets didn't actually work at the barrier but they let me through anyway. There was a problem then at Hammersmith trying to swith onto a line to Paddington, tickets still not working at the gates and they decided to actually look at them this time.

LOL. Lucky you didn't run into Underground revenue protection, you'd have been fined for doing that. They shouldn't have let you through to the tube at Heathrow in the first place.

Heathrow Connect is basically the same as Heathrow Express, it's a mainline rail service only it stops at a few other suburban stations along the way and is a bit cheaper. It uses the same platforms at Heathrow as the Express.