U.K. and Ireland - LHR to Canary Wharf

I'm scheduled to land at LHR 8:30pm Friday and want to get to the Marriott hotel at Canary Wharf.

Going to central London I usually take the HEX to Paddington and then a taxi to my destination. Should I do the same for Canary Wharf or is there a better way?

To be honest, at that time of night, I'd either do taxi (pre-booked) all the way, or public transport all the way. The HEX/Taxi combination won't give you any big time advantage.

It's not too tricky a Tube journey from Paddington - take the Bakerloo Line to Baker St, then you have an easy cross-platform change to the Jubilee Line which whisks you off to Canary Wharf.

I don't know where you're flying from, but if there's an option to arrive into LCY, I'd recommend that. It's 10 minutes from Canary Wharf at that time of night, with regular shuttle buses.

Is the switch at Baker St. better than the switch at Waterloo? Is the walk flat and easy from the Canary Wharf stop to London Marriott, West India Quay, 22 Hertsmere Rd?

About how long should the each method (tube, taxi) take?

thanks

EDIT: flying from JFK. LCY is not an option

Hmm, well looking at this map (http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=537319&y=180584&z=1&sv=537319,180584&st=4&tl=~&bi=~&lu=N&ar=y), it's not 100% straighforward getting from Canary Wharf Tube to the hotel. If you don't know the area, the collection of shopping malls and the like you have to go through to get to the right bridge is bound to get you lost.

The closest stop is 'West India Quay', on the DLR, a light railway system. That's trickier to get to from Paddington, as you'd need an extra change. It does have lifts, but the entrance/exit is separate to Canary Wharf station.

Have a look at the TfL Journey Planner (http://www.journeyplanner.org) for routes, timings, and very good maps on getting there with public transport.

What it doesn't do is show you the easiest interchanges. And yes, the Baker St one is the easiest, as it's just across the platform. Waterloo involves steps, and a slight walk.

For the taxi, well, it's heavily dependent on traffic, but, an hour and a half sounds reasonable.

Hmm, well looking at this map (http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=537319&y=180584&z=1&sv=537319,180584&st=4&tl=~&bi=~&lu=N&ar=y), it's not 100% straighforward getting from Canary Wharf Tube to the hotel. If you don't know the area, the collection of shopping malls and the like you have to go through to get to the right bridge is bound to get you lost.

Which is the right bridge? The one the arrow points to? Any suggestions for Canary Wharf Tube to hotel? The hotel is at the bottom left corner of the back of the arrow?

Try...Heathrow express to Paddington on to the Circle line to Tower Gateway, change to the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) to West India Quay. If the underground system is working well you could probably do the whole trip in about an hour.

On the map, the Tube station is the red circle with a blue line through it (labelled 'Canary Wharf). The hotel is what the arrow points to. The difficult, at that time of night, is that much of the through routes around Canary Wharf are through shopping malls and office blocks, which may well be closed. As such, it's difficult for me to know a route to recommend. If you go to the journeyplanner website, it'll create you a PDF with the walking route from the stop to the destination.

Al's suggestion is a good one (the actual Tube stop is Tower Hill, which then lets you connect to Tower Gateway), but isn't much fun if you've got luggage. There's a fair few steps at Tower Hill, then you have to exit, cross the road and go up to the DLR.

I'd rather limit the number of train switches I make. With luck, there'll be someone the Canary Wharf tube stop who can point me towards the Marriott (or I can call them).

Thanks much.