DavidGA7

Hi
My family and I are connecting from TLV to ATL via LHR. We are flying Club World. We have a nearly 5 hour layover in LHR. Spending 4 hours in the club before 9 hours on a plane isn't ideal. Do we have enough time to leave the airport for an hour or two? Maybe walk around Windsor briefly?
Thanks

UKtravelbear

plenty of advice on the UK destination board.

skywardhunter

Of course there's enough time to leave the airport, the question is how far you want to go in that time.

mjuler

What time of day will you be at LHR? As long as it doesn't span either the morning or evening rush hour(s), you should be fine to head into Windsor for an hour or so, perhaps time to get a quick lunch or walk along the Thames.

DavidGA7

Thanks everyone. 1110am arrival, 4pm departure. Better to taxi to Windsor than Express to central London? Or vice versa. Traveling with kids (11 and 13) and looking to stretch our legs, fresh air and a site or two.

mikeyfly

In this time you should be able to get a decent two hours in Windsor - there's back roads avoiding any motorway through Datchet and UBER will be your friend.

If you arrive on or around on time then definitely do it.

heartybob

What you can achieve in that 4h50m depends on a large number of variables including:
Whether your flight arrives early or late;
Whether you have EU passports or not;
If you do, whether they can be read by the biometric passport readers or not;
If you don't, how long is the queue at immigration fast track;

If you arrive early or on time, and you have EU biometric passports, or non-EU passports and there's little or no queue at fast track immigration, then realistically you will have 3h to 3h30m max to play with.

That will be enough time to get you to Paddington and back on the HEX with a couple of hours to wander around and a quick lunch.

skywardhunter

Just a data point, I arrived around noon a few months ago on a non-EU passport (on a non-BA carrier) and there was no queue at immigration and it was super quick.

pmanchuk

Maybe I'm overly cautious (or just prefer making transits as calm and relaxed as possible), but with 4 people having to make your way off the aircraft and through the UK border, depending on whether you're in Y vs J, lines at immigration, that in itself could take upwards of an hour before you're landside. So for the sake of argument, take the 11:10am arrival time, conservatively tack on 50 minutes to taxi, deplane, clear the UK border and you're looking at 12 noon... then figure roughly 20 minutes each way at best depending on what site you end up going to... so there goes at least 40 minutes from your window... leaving a touch over 3 hours of "time to kill" before your flight to the states departs.

If it were a solo traveler, ok it might be easier to manage but with 4 people total trying to keep everything perfectly on schedule, it's not a window I'd find to be a relaxing proposition.

Of course then you need to sort out are you the type who wants to be at the terminal 3 hours prior to departure time to go back through the routine of security, etc. or can you squeak it a bit shorter and not be stressed? (again cabin being flown and accompanying benefits ie. fast track security, how well you know LHR, etc. may have an impact on that decision)... so let's assume you want to be back at the terminal 2 hours prior to departure to clear security and get to the gate, you're now down to a little over an hour of actual "free time".

Don't get me wrong, when I have a connection at LHR with a few hours, I regularly do the whole clearing through the UK border and popping outside for some "fresh air" (nicotine based), but I don't personally go off property as I prefer to avoid the stress of unforeseen hiccups and delays like traffic, etc.

985X

perhaps an hour and a half at Covent Garden? But it's kinda slow if you take Piccadilly Line even though that's the most convenient way..

andrelux

I'd definitely head west (eg Windsor) rather than into central London with that amount of time. Or if not, Kingston or Richmond, all for lunch on the river? If you arrive on time and don't have to worry about luggage, even the most jittery of travellers should have a couple of hours to grab some food/wander around.

Buses would work but unless you know your way around, best book local taxis (NOT black cabs. Windsor/Heathrow should be max £25 each way, suspect Kingston/Richmond would be similar.

WalterSFO

whatever happened to that capsule-style hotel inside LHR? (or whatever the hotel was called...)

Ldnn1

It's still there at T4, but unless you actually want to sleep - which it seems OP doesn't - it's the single worst place at LHR to spend a 5h layover.

BAAZ

Into which terminal? Some seem to have a smaller proportion of non-EU passengers and Terminal 5 seems to be worse than others (anecdotally; I have an EU passport so have never tested this scientifically).

ACYYZ/SD

Windsor
+1
^