One Night in Heathrow

murphym7

Checking in to a hotel at Heathrow in a few weeks for one night, prior to a lunch time flight the following day.

We check in at hotel at around 7pm - is there any point going to London for the evening, or is it just too much trouble?

mel.b

Up to you really. You could get the heathrow express (£££) into london - takes just 15 mins, but check what time the last departures are back to the airport. Or you could get the underground into london (cheaper but slower...bit less than an hour each way) also don't forget you'll probably need to get the heathrow hopper from the airport to your hotel and then back again to catch the train...that will start to add up at £4 each way.

zagmund

As above, it depends on your preferences & energy levels really.

Between arriving at Heathrow, getting bus to hotel, checking in, getting bus back to Heathrow, getting tube or Express (and then tube connection) it's going to take you a fair while. Each individual journey may not be too long, but the wait for the next bus/train/tube and the walk between the various locations all adds up. The cost will also not be insignificant - single journeys on the tube are £4, and while you can get a travelcard it's also relatively expensive for a limited set of trips starting at 1900.

If you are someone who only starts warming up their evening at 2100 or 2200 and plans on arriving back at 0300 or something this time issue may not be a problem. If you are someone who looks forward to getting back to their hotel for a bath and a bit of telly then you've really just blown your evening. If you were starting earlier in the day then I would say go for it, but this late it would be marginal.

If you haven't already booked, would you consider staying in London instead of Heathrow ? That way, you just need to get up in the morning, have breakfast, get the tube out and you'll have loads of time to check in for a mid day filght.

z

Miaireland

Just bear in mind thatif the olympics are on travel time could be longer.

murphym7

Thanks for the replies, it might be a lot of hassle for just a few hours in London. Hotel is pre-paid so no option to change to the city. Might leave it off. I would do it if we were arriving earlier.

Thanks.

MidlandsM

yeah. just check in and ZZZZZZZZZ out.

Gekko

If there's something specific you want to do in London - eg meal or see a show or something, then I'd say go for it, enjoy your evening - just make sure you keep track of the time and don't miss the last tube or Heathrow Express back to the hotel unless you want to shell out about £50 for a taxi and then have a leisurely morning in the hotel before getting your flight.

Third_Echelon

yeah not really worth it.... chill out in the hotel would be my call...

Stinicker

The heathrow connect is a cheaper train option to get into the city but for the love of god don't take the regular underground, I had a layover of 9hrs in Heathrow once and nearly managed to miss my flight after spending nearly 2.5hours on the underground going into the city. Take the faster trains!

Mint Sauce

Stinicker wrote: »

The heathrow connect is a cheaper train option to get into the city but for the love of god don't take the regular underground, I had a layover of 9hrs in Heathrow once and nearly managed to miss my flight after spending nearly 2.5hours on the underground going into the city. Take the faster trains!

How did you manage that unless there was line closures. No journey on the London Underground has ever taken me that long, and I traveled a good bit of it. Including many journeys from Heathrow to Southern parts of the District, and Northern Line Stations via the City, and visa-versa.

WavyDavy

In a few weeks I'll be arriving in heathrow terminal 1 at 23.00 monday night and departing terminal 5 at 10.30 am following morning. Would appreciate advice on places to stay overnight as I haven't been in London before. Something cheap and close to the airport would be ideal! Thanks!

Tefral

WavyDavy wrote: »

In a few weeks I'll be arriving in heathrow terminal 1 at 23.00 monday night and departing terminal 5 at 10.30 am following morning. Would appreciate advice on places to stay overnight as I haven't been in London before. Something cheap and close to the airport would be ideal! Thanks!

I work in heathrow airport so if you want to drop me a pm do.

Stay in the rennaisance hotel, the park inn or any of the hotels along bath road.

There is the free busses that take you along to bath road from the central bus terminal at terminal 1. These are the 140,285,111,555,105.

You can then get the 423 bus to terminal 5 for free the next morning from any of the stops on Bath road.

WavyDavy

cronin_j wrote: »

I work in heathrow airport so if you want to drop me a pm do.

Stay in the rennaisance hotel, the park inn or any of the hotels along bath road.

There is the free busses that take you along to bath road from the central bus terminal at terminal 1. These are the 140,285,111,555,105.

You can then get the 423 bus to terminal 5 for free the next morning from any of the stops on Bath road.

Thanks a lot for the advice, will send you a pm tomorrow. Cheers!

Stinicker

irish-stew wrote: »

How did you manage that unless there was line closures. No journey on the London Underground has ever taken me that long, and I traveled a good bit of it. Including many journeys from Heathrow to Southern parts of the District, and Northern Line Stations via the City, and visa-versa.

There was a line closure and I was traveling into the city to connect upto Burnt Oak to visit relations for the day. It was the slowest journey ever and my relations drove me back to Heathrow and when I arrived back at Heathrow, check-in for my flight had closed by 5mins but luckily the Etihad guy at checkin was Irish and he checked me in anyway and said not to worry, the flight was delayed and it was by 30mins. I had a 9hr layover and only barely made my flight!!

Vic_08

Gekko wrote: »

don't miss the last tube or Heathrow Express back to the hotel unless you want to shell out about £50 for a taxi and then have a leisurely morning in the hotel before getting your flight.

For those who miss the last train/tube or need to be in Heathrow earlier than the first one and don't wan't to pay taxi fares the N9 bus runs from Central London to Heathrow roughly every 20 minutes from midnight to 5.30am. It is a regular London bus and stops everywhere so isn't quick, 1h15-1h45.

Lapin

Stinicker wrote: »

.........for the love of god don't take the regular underground.........., nearly managed to miss my flight after spending nearly 2.5hours on the underground going into the city.

Stinicker wrote: »

There was a line closure and I was traveling into the city to connect upto Burnt Oak..............

In fairness Stiniker there is a hell of a difference between Central London and Burnt Oak.

Why advise someone not to take the Tube when they aren't going anywhere near as far as you were headed, and don't need to change trains? Even if there was a line closure I'm still baffled as to how it took you 2 and a half hours. Even the bus doesn't take that long.
Transport for London have an excellent record of informing passengers of possible delays, so you could have made other arrangements rather than risk missing your flight.

For what its worth, journey times from Heathrow Terminals 12&3 to Piccadilly Circus take about 45 - 50 minutes.
The last trains back are at 00.21 and 00.32 on weekdays.

I reckon this would give the OP a comfortable 3 hours in the West End allowing for travel back to the airport Tube from the hotel after checking in. Plenty of time to have a nice meal, a few drinks, even take in the London Eye or simply wander around and soak up the atmosphere.

I'd be in like a shot, just to get out of the airport surroundings between flights and break the journey.

The Piccadilly Line has a good track record for reliability.