Heathrow hotel or London hotel?

[phabric]

I am asking for someone else.

 

They are flying December into Terminal 3 arriving 9:30pm and the next day have an international flight out of Terminal 5 at 5 or 5:30pm (not sure the actual flight time). I advised them, they would have to be at the Terminal, 3 hours before their flight.

 

They would like to see some of London, their first visit. They can not change their dates to stay longer in London. I advised them do take a HOHO for a few hours as they won't have much time to see much.

 

They don't know to stay at the Sheraton at Terminal 5 so they can leave their luggage while they go into London in the morning and return to the Sheraton for luggage pickup before checking in with BA.

 

How would they get from Terminal 3 to the Sheraton hotel? How would they get into London from the Sheraton?

 

Or, get a hotel in London for the night. What area? If they leave their luggage at the London hotel while they do the HOHO, it means they have to return to the hotel to pickup so wasting time.

 

They don't have much time in London.

 

Any suggestions I can pass on?

[Alaskanb]

How about something like this? With such a short time (and jet lag) I would focus on keeping it simple --quality not quantity.

http://www.londontoolkit.com/tours/heathrow_windsor_tour.htm

This website has lots of info about getting to and from terminals and hotels.

[John Bull]

A 9.30pm touch-down at Heathrow means it'll be well gone 11pm before they get to central London.

Which is pretty nonsensical.

 

I'm no advocate for cloned airport hotels, but in their circumstances it's a no-brainer. Their best bet is to stay at an airport hotel, then in the morning take the tube into central London.

Tube train every 5 mins, cost about £11 return.

There's only one tube line (the Piccadilly line) & only one direction. So they can't go wrong. And no problem getting seats (use seats near the doors - the train is likely to fill on its journey, including standees)

 

Take the tube as far as Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square, no change of train required. Journey time about 35 to 40 minutes.

The Original London ho-ho yellow route (live commentary in English) starts on the corner of Coventry Street & Wardour St/Whitcomb St., between those two tube stations & a five minute walk from either. Original ticket booth there too. First bus 8.30am, then approx. 15 min intervals. Full circuit takes about 2hrs 15 mins.

 

They might care to hop off at the Tower of London & take the included river cruise to Westminster, then see Big Ben & Westminster Abbey, and re-join the bus in Whitehall. And they will have to hop off at Buckingham Palace if they want to see the place, since buses aren't allowed past.

These & a range of other options will be time-dependant, & that may mean they can only stay on the bus for a full circuit before heading back to the airport. But even just a ho-ho circuit is worth the effort.

 

They need to take a little more care with the tube back to Heathrow. They can go to any tube station & get a tube to a Piccadilly-line station. But not all west-bound Piccadilly-line trains go to Heathrow, some branch off & head to the north-west suburbs.

So they need to wait on the platform & check the end destination for each train coming in - it'll be displayed on an overhead matrix sign & also on the front of the train.

But the frequency to Heathrow is still every five minutes.

Train is likely to be busy, but will thin out as it leaves central London.

 

Some might suggest the Heathrow Express rather than the tube. A matter of opinion, pros & cons, but without luggage I'd opt for the tube.

I'd certainly avoid a private transfer. The very quickest car journey is no quicker than the tube and traffic on the road between Heathrow & London (M4 & A4) can get snarled-up. They don't want to be faced with an uncertain journey time, especially for the return to Heathrow.

 

Latest check in for flights out of Heathrow is usually 45 - 90 mins before flight time. 3 hours is what's recommended, but this is over-cautious & includes an allowance for delays getting to the airport.

Not suggesting they cut it too fine, but aiming for 2 hrs should be OK.

But not on my head if it all goes belly-up ;)

 

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.pdf

http://www.theoriginaltour.com/tour-information/tour-info.htm

http://www.theoriginaltour.com/UserFiles/OriginalLondonTourMap(2).pdf

 

JB :)

 

Edit: my caution about a private transfer getting bogged-down in traffic doesn't apply to AlaskanB's suggestion of Windsor. Windsor is only about 5 miles from Heathrow, & in the opposite direction. More importantly there are back-road routes known to local drivers if the main road (M4) is clogged. Windsor ain't London. But it's an alternative.

[Cotswold Eagle]

Like virtually every Heathrow hotel, to get to the Sheraton (why this hotel, by the way?) they will need to take either the Hotel Hoppa bus (and make sure they take the correct one - there are several routes serving the various hotels) or a relatively expensive cab ride from the airport. There will be a Hoppa serving the Sheraton from the central bus station (for T1 and T3), no need to get the train transfer to T5 first. The Hoppa costs £4 each way.

 

The flaw with the plan is having to go back to the hotel to collect luggage after their morning sightseeing - this could easily add on another 40 minutes on their return. Maybe a better idea from a timing point of view is to take their luggage into T5 in the morning and leave it at the Left Luggage facility for a quick and easy collection for check-in, although this adds on quite a cost (£9/bag now!)

 

It is actually viable, and in several ways more sensible, to consider getting the Heathrow Express to Paddington on arrival and staying at a nearby hotel, so no travel time into London in the morning and where they could leave luggage and collect as they return to Heathrow. The downside, as JB rightly points out, is arriving somewhere they don't know late at night (there is a Hilton attached to the station).

 

There is no ideal solution - it's always a trade-off of time, money and convenience.

[phabric]

Thank you for the all information. I will print this off for her.

[John Bull]

Re the Eagle's reply.

As we agree, there's trade-offs in the alternatives.

 

If they go for a central London hotel, then the Heathrow Express and a hotel in or very close to Paddington station is the only way I'd do it. The tube is no fun with baggage, and that caveat about private transfer back to Heathrow still applies

Closest stop to Paddington for a sight-seeing ho ho route is Marble Arch, & there will be ho-ho reps there. But if not within walking distance of the chosen hotel, it's quicker & easier to take a direct tube train from Paddington station to Piccadilly rather than taking the tube to Marble Arch cos this involves a change of train. And the blue ho-ho route which stops at Paddington is a feeder route from hotel districts & rail stations with little of interest on the route - potentially a time-waster in your friends' circumstances.

 

A Paddington hotel makes for a late night. It saves them an early rise for that journey into town next morning, but ho-hos still don't start til about 8.30.

If they choose a Paddington hotel they're obliged to return to that hotel for their luggage, rather than straight back to Heathrow from wherever they ended up. But a Heathrow hotel means returning to that hotel before their flight. Unless, for either option, there's a late night baggage drop facility for their flight, & they put overnight stuff in their hand luggage?

At about £20, the Paddington Express is more expensive than the tube. It's quicker, but doesn't take them into the very heart of London & much of that time saved is lost in switching to the tube.

So it's six of one or half-a-dozen of the other.

 

JB :)

[Cotswold Eagle]

A really good solution would be to stay at the Sofitel, which is attached to T5 itself (hence my query about the Sheraton - I wanted to make sure they realise it is not AT T5, it is slightly NEARER to T5 than most other Heathrow hotels). Unfortunately the Sofitel tends to be pretty expensive, certainly compared to somewhere like the Sheraton, which is not very well reviewed.

 

In any case, if they were thinking they needed to be at Heathrow 3 hours prior, that's probably about the time they'd need to get back to get over to the hotel and retrieve the luggage to get to the terminal in time for JB's suggestion of 2 hours before, with which I entirely agree :)

[Twickenham]

It is actually viable, and in several ways more sensible, to consider getting the Heathrow Express to Paddington on arrival and staying at a nearby hotel, so no travel time into London in the morning and where they could leave luggage and collect as they return to Heathrow. The downside, as JB rightly points out, is arriving somewhere they don't know late at night (there is a Hilton attached to the station).

 

This. As it so happens, I did exactly what your friends are planning last year (although, I did get in earlier and have been to London several times before). For me, getting to Paddington and staying at the Hilton is the easiest route - fast, efficient and with luggage carts at both ends (although have your friends verify whether their luggage will be checked thru or not - ours was, making our transfer much easier). I'm sure they could then leave their luggage/hand luggage with the concierge or front desk while they tour in the morning, then come back and get it before travelling back around 2pm.

[Cotswold Eagle]

I thought someone round here had done it :) It's counter-intuitive because of the distance, but in many senses the Hilton at Paddington Station is an airport hotel.