stut

Ah yes, sometimes I wish the mobile app would tell you the post count. As antichef so rightly said, welcome to FT!

I would have a look at the recommendations in the first thread posted above - I need to update the FAQ, as the Airport Direct come from many years ago. If you're a DJ, as suggested by your handle, and you have significant luggage with you, be sure to let the company know this, and they can send the right kind of car for you.

And Showbizguru - yes, quite. I cycle past it pretty much every weekday morning, and wondered why I found myself whistling Beethoven's 9th...

Actually, I find myself whistling Primal Scream, but there's obscure reasons for that...

alanR

1) If you arrive at Paddington before 9:00am on a weekday then it is one of the hardest and worst ways to reach your final destination. Even outside those times you can have significant hauling o luggage and queuing
2) It's expensive and unless you are staying near Paddington it offers no significant saving in time compared to even the Tube and may even t ake longer overall.
3) For two or more people a car service will be cheaper than the HEX / taxi and has the really big advantage of being door to door

Showbizguru

1. Rubbish. Have you ever travelled in to Central London before 9am ? It's the rush-hour.You'll crawl most of the way from the moment the motorway ends.

2.It never ceases to amaze me that people will happily spend many hundreds of pounds travelling thousands of miles to Heathrow - then complain about 18 quid to complete their journey into Central London.

3.If cost is a factor use Heathrow Connect from the same platform as HEX.It takes about 15 minutes longer and costs Ł9.

alanR

How is travelling to Paddington with luggage then trying to get a taxi / Tube / bus at the same time as tens of thousands of commuters any better? And whilst the cost of the HEX is low compared to the cost of flights why should anyone be encouraged to waste money for no benefit?

Personally in OPs case I'd just take the Tube - it isn't any slower than the HEX / taxi for that route an,d certainly isn't any more hassle and it's a third of the price.

stut

All,

As this is an ongoing question, and as recommendations vary significantly with time, I've merged several threads about taxi/minicab (car service for our transatlantic cousins) recommendations to/from Heathrow. Please feel free to keep this discussion going, so we can have a central reference point.

It goes back as far as 2011. My one disclaimer would be: these things change. The company I used to use when I lived in London 8 years ago is now very much out of favour, for example. I will link to this thread from the FAQ to ensure it can act as a point of reference.

stut
Moderator
UK & Ireland

stut

Oh, and if djMike is a professional DJ with all his kit, the HEX is a complete non-starter. No idea if he is, but I've seen a couple of DJs on threads recently, and the handle seems to fit...

Showbizguru

It's a while since I strutted my stuff in a discotheque ( ) but my understanding is that DJ's no longer have to lug around cases of LPs and a deck and everything works out of a laptop these days.

Certainly if we can get a bit more info about what/how/when/who he's travelling then we can provide more accurate guidance.

FWIW I did the Heathrow to City shuffle on a weekly basis for many years and I ALWAYS found HEX/taxi the best option with baggage and HEX/Underground if I was travelling light.

stut

Ah, I used to do the HEX-and-Central-Line-from-Lancaster-Gate shuffle. Mind you, the Circle/H&C lines are much improved since "teacupping", and I'm now happy to used them from King's Cross to Paddington for the HEX.

teflon

I know what you mean, but that word sounds like it belongs in the Profanisaurus in Viz.

lhrsfo

For the trip from Heathrow to the Tower Thistle, it has to be the Tube, whether or not carrying bags. HEX involves a difficult and crowded change onto a tube line that doesn't even go to Tower Bridge, or an equally difficult and frustrating change to a cab which will take forever to get to Tower Bridge.

Instead the OP should get the Piccadilly Line to Hammersmith and walk across the platform to the District Line directly to Tower Bridge. The hotel is only a short walk away.

stut

Ah, this is the Thistle Barbican, a property featured in an Olympic hotel rip-off documentary, where even Thistle acknowledged that it fell well below their standards for a hotel.

Barbican is optimistic as a title - it's an annoying distance from any Tube station. Old St would probably be the closest.

NickB

Indeed. Made me think: "I bet there is an entry for this in the urban dictionary." And lo and behold...

LAS2

Back to minicabs - one of my pet peeves is that some of them charge for waiting if the flight is delayed. My strategy has always been to have a few of the vendors stored in my phone, and upon touchdown, I call to see if any of them have a car in the area. Invariably they do, and at that point waiting is no longer an issue.

I have also found that there are different prices for different sizes of cars, and their favorite question is 'how many suitcases do you have?' and they base their price on that. So if the lowest price is your biggest priority, pack accordingly.

Lastly, I always call to confirm a pickup, usually when I wake up, for a morning pickup. There have been several times, mostly due to my Connecticut Yankee rate of talking, where I was misunderstood and a car is not on its way. This gives them a chance to redeem themselves.

djMike

based on some recommendation, I finally used those from www.247airporttransfer, it was a positive experience both ways. I booked it online and. The driver called our cell phone 5 minutes before the scheduled pickup to verify our location in the airport. Very courteous, on time, and nice clean car. My original plan was to take the tube but since we were arriving around 9 p.m., we decided to take the car and then use the next day to get familiar with the tube...

OsakaWino

I'm trying to decide on a private care (minicab) service to used from LHR to the Marble Arch area, and everyone one I've considered seems to have mixed reviews. Wondering if anyone has used any of the following frequently and/or recently.

Airport Executive (the least mentioned and no online price)
Simply Airports (the most mentioned, but the bad reviews are REALLY bad)
Just Airports (reasonably priced, but not mentioned all that often)
Exclusive Airports (a bit more than Simply and Just, but fewer bad reviews)

Any opinions would be appreciated.