Arriving into Gatwick at 10:30 PM, flying out the next day at 2 PM from Heathrow
 

Hello All!


Hope everyone is having a great week.


Second week of April my 2 kids (10 & 13) and I will be flying into Gatwick Airport at 10:30 PM, our flight leaves Heathrow the next day at 2 PM. I assume it will take up to an hour to clear immigration at Gatwick on the way in.


Debating getting a Hotel at Gatwick or Heathrow, if Heathrow we need to transfer in the middle of the night.


Possible transport options:


Take the train - 29.20 GBP

• Thameslink from Gatwick to Farringdon 15.90 GBP
  
• The tube from Farringdon to Heathrow 13.30 GBP
  

Private car from Gatwick to Heathrow - 67 GBP + Tip?


Also I'm trying to understand how I could keep the cost of the hotel that night to a minimum. The airport hotels at Heathrow are quite expensive but so are the ones at Gatwick (a bit less though)


I'm concerned about having to transfer at Farringdon in the middle of the night, also will the tube on Elizabeth Line be safe?


Any suggestions about keeping the cost of the hotel near LHR lower than 350 GBP? Any ideas would be appreciated!


Thank you in advance,


Nick

If you are arriving at 10:30pm, i woild not consider getting to heathrow by train that night. The lizzie li e does not run between about midnight and 4 am.

the picadilly line does run 24/7 but is infrequent and does not go to farringdon.

Once at lhr you woul be far better in a hotel on the bath road rather than on airport, so its another transfer with limited frequency

Persoanlly, arriving at that time of night, i would suggest you find and off airport hotel in crawley and transfer the next day.

Or a car transfer to a hotel on the bath road near lhr


What are your travel dates and how many rooms are you looking for? I never paid close to £350 for an airport hotel room. 3 rooms for that price. Are you looking at a room each?

You don't say if you're eligible to use the e-gates on arrival, but your children are both old enough to do so if you qualify - 10 is the minimum age. It's unlikely at that time of day to be too long even if you need to see a Border Officer. Even so, at 10.30pm, given you have plenty of time the next day, I think it makes more sense to find a hotel at Gatwick rather than negotiate an unfamiliar system when tired.

There's an excellent LGW-LHR transfer guide on the BA forum which would help you: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ial-guide.html. There are some options such as the National Express bus which may also be viable, although with four of you a (large) raxi may work best.

I agree with others that airport hotels shouldn't be anything like £350 - more like £70-100 per room.

If you think you can manage the train after arrival (Thameslink, hourly only after 11.30pm), I'd suggest train to Farringdon, a night in the excellent Premier Inn Farringdon Smithfield (maybe with a pint at one of the Smithfied market pubs that open early for the market porters), and then Elizabeth line to LHR the next day from Farringdon.

Farringdon is OK at night, especially during the week.

The Premier Inn has family rooms around GBP 180-200 non-refundable if you book now, kids under 16 get free breakfast (two children per one paying adult).
On Thameslink, you can add children under 16 to your ticket for GBP 2.00 each, so an anytime single from Gatwick to Farringdon is currently 18.40 for one adult and two under 16s.

"Take the train - 29.20 GBP". There are over 100 ticket options from Gatwick to destinations within London, it's worthy of a doctoral thesis in customer unfriendliness....
The adult fare using contactless from Gatwick to Heathrow is £20.50, providing you don't travel in weekday rush hour, and you don't travel on any train branded Express. (And despite the name and misleading marketing, using any of the trains branded Express is not going to save any time). However, as there are children in the mix (and there is no child option using Contactless), I think a paper ticket works better for you. Just get this as you leave Gatwick at the railway station. You can get this from a machine, but it may be less stressful to get a staff member to help You can get a ticket covering you and both children that is valid Gatwick to London and all zones within London (which includes Heathrow) that is £39 (total) - you need to use the Thameslink train into London but from then on you can use any train or tube (but not Express)
Personally, I'd stay at Gatwick then travel over mid morning the next day. The Premier Inn by the north terminal is a decent option.

At that time of night an Uber to Heathrow will take under an hour and will cost around £100. If that’s within budget then I would strongly suggest it. Public transport at that time (although perfectly safe) will be not be fun.

If going for a car, be wary about booking a random service on the internet as they can be very variable. Use Uber or Addison Lee

The trains from Gatwick run all night, but after about 2330 there can be some big gaps in service of up to one hour. Trains do not run to Heathrow all night, they stop between about midnight and about 4am, and the Tube operates to similar times unless it's a Friday or Saturday night and Night Tube is running.

A poster further up suggests the area around Farringdon, but that station is also closed between about 0030 and about 0430.

I would stay at Gatwick. If you don't fancy Gatwick, I have stayed at the Premier Inn next to East Croydon station many times, it's good enough for what it is and it is priced competitively compared to central London. But you still have the risk of a long wait at Gatwick if you just miss a train.

Stay overnight at Gatwick and get the train on to Heathrow in the morning.

1 adult and 2 children would pay £21.70 on paper tickets using the Thameslink Cheap Kids Fares offer with an off-peak day Travelcard, route Not Gatwick Express, from Gatwick Airport to London Zones 1-6. First train you can get is 09:16 which gives you plenty of time, and that ticket is good all the way to Heathrow on Elizabeth or Piccadilly lines.

It's advisable to buy this online on the Thameslink website. You will need to collect paper tickets from a ticket machine there, this cannot be issued as an e-ticket.

The Piccadilly Line does not run 24/7. The all-night night tube only operates on Fri and Sat nights. On other nights, the line shut down from central London to Heathrow around 12:15/12:30am and starts again around 5:30/5:45 am .

If you do stay at Gatwick, then look at using the airline coach from LGW to LHR the next morning, booked in advance it's £45 for up to 4 people, and will be just about the same elapsed duration as a taxi, depending on which terminals you use.

There really isn't a right and wrong answer to this just different options but IMHO I'd stay at LGW over night rather than go to LHR.

You would (and possibly more importantly your kids) be in bed at least an hour sooner than if you made your way to LHR

BTW that price from Farringdon to LHR is for the Elizabeth (more informally Lizzie) Line whiich is a train service

The actual tube would be £5.60 per adult if using a contactless card and cheaper for the kids but adds an extra change of line into the mix plus is longer. But if you wanted to use the tube then I'd change at Blackfriars for the District line then later to the Picadilly.

According to the timetable the last Lizzie to LHR from Farringdon departs at 23.15. Which would be impossible for you to catch with a 10.30 arrival at LGW.

There is also a large gap in the National Express coach.picking a random date there is a coach at 23.30 and the next is 03.35. If you do use the coach (at whatever time) make sure you check the luggage sizes and amounts and book accordingly as paying for extra baggage on the day is more expensive than in advance)

The Oxford Airline coach overnight has departures from Gatwick towards Heathrow at 2255, 0055, 0255, 0455, then hourly from 0655
https://www.theairlineoxford.co.uk/w...table-V6-1.pdf

They're also much more relaxed about luggage than National Express are!

I'm intrigued what date you are looking at, as £350 for an LHR sounds off the scale expensive. As to which option makes sense, it really does come down to personal preference. I'd rather press on to LHR and then have a lie in the following morning, but I don't own any children and have no idea how yours respond to late nights.

As for safety - nothing to worry about at all in London. This isn't St Louis!

as I said earlier in the trhead, no idea what hotels you are looking at or dates but i have never paid 350 gbp for a room. Just one option of the main hotels on the bath road..... Premier inn lhr t5 , family room, at a random date in April, 77gbp

You didn't specify a date? On one of the weekends in April (exact date not confirmed yet) the M25 (the road you use between LGW and LHR) will be closed for the weekend. This will make road transfer that weekend a truly dreadful option. Not an issue if you are arriving mid week.

I think there is one wrong answer, and that's taking the train into and out of London in the evening. It might be an OK idea in the morning, but it's terrible if the aim is to transfer to LHR and then stay there. I happen to think that coach or maybe taxi is the best idea either way, and I also think it's better to stay at LGW, but these are more marginal choices.

All personal preference, but add me to the list of people saying get a hotel as close to Gatwick as is in budget (there's a decent range of options actually connected to the terminal - Premier Inn and Hampton by Hilton at the cheaper end but still very acceptable). It will be late, your kids will be tired, and you have to account for the possibility of a delayed arrival to make things worse. Get your head down asap and deal with the travel fresh the next day.

Arriving anywhere at that time, my focus would be on bed (probably with a couple of drinks to wind down, beforehand). Hotel at Gatwick; worry about Heathrow in the morning.

Thank you all for your tremendous help/suggestions.

We're arriving April 12 which is a Friday so some of these night line train options might work, however do really like the idea of keeping things simple and the Airline coach seem to be the most affordable direct route ( if we can make the 22:55 departure) or possibly an Uber for 58-70 GBP at that time of day. Does anyone know if Gatwick has free wifi that i can connect to, to order an uber?

Was not familiar with the e-gates but seems we will qualify for that as we are all Canadian Citizens and will significantly reduce the times to get out of the airport. No baggage either so should be fairly painless.

Found a hotel on Bath Rd which suits our needs for a fraction of the price of hotels at the airport and includes a continental breaky. There are some added cost after taking the Coach, it's only a 7-10 GBP ride, how will a cabbie feel about travelling such a short distance?

Here is the pricing for hotels that night at the airport (so you know I'm not making this up). Maybe the price is up because it's Friday, but I can also tell you the price also changes when you add a 3rd person even if it's just a kid. The prices are for one room to accommodate all 3 of us.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...63055df8b9.png

Thank you again all for your comments and assistance. I've got a pretty good plan on how to get around that night. Definitely want to get to LHR so we can rest up in the AM..

From Bath Road to T2/T3 is about a £10 taxi fare, plus £5 drop-off charge which is imposed by LHR. You won't have to pay the drop-off charge personally, the taxi driver will do that and add it to the fare. There's no issue with that length of journey.

If - as sounds likely - you don't have vast amounts of luggage with you, the standard TfL (Transport for London) buses will cost you £1.75 each, and you get one going down to Bath Road to Central Bus Station and vv every few minutes, including through the night (albeit less frequently, but still at an acceptable level for most people). Numbers 105, 111, 285, plus the N140 and N9 at night work. If you tell us what hotel you've picked we can work out which stop you need in both directions (they may vary due to having to cross the central reservation).

It would also be helpful to know which terminal you're leaving from at LHR, because that can change a lot of the advice in terms of how best to get around.

For reference, a family room at the Premier Inn at LGW North Terminal is currently £114 that night. It's directly across the road from the terminal (and if you arrive in the South Terminal it's a very easy transfer between the two).

As others have said, going to LHR late at night is the worst of all options. Stay near LGW if you don't want to go to to Central London, and get the very simple, cheap and fast coach or Thameslink/Elizabeth Line the next morning. Leaving at around 9 - 9:30 is plenty early, whether by coach or by train.

I see the confusion with pricing - you are looking at the 2 hotels on terminal at the airport. I (and i suspect most others on this thread) were also including those on the Bath Road and surrounding area which are readily and easily accessible.

Do also look at the Crowne Plaza and Hilton T4. They are £95-£115 for the night you want and are easy to get to.

The 10 year old will be free.
Absolutely agree. OP: I do strongly recommend against going to LHR on arrival day. It's really not worth the faff.

I would avoid organizing road transfer between LGW and LHR for the foreseeable. The works at the A3 interchange are going to cause up to 5 weekend closures - not specifically at the time the OP wants to travel however, that part of the SE England will be an absolute fright when it does happen.

With a scheduled 10.30pm arrival there is no way in hell that you'd make the 22.55 coach.

The only late night 'train' option available to you would be Thameslink train to St Pancras and then change to the night tube on the Picadilly line from King's Cross next door That leg alone is an hour.on top of the hour from LGW to St Panras.and then time to get to the hotel you won't be in bed until well after 1AM

I urge you to seriously consider staying at LGW on the Friday night and make the LHR transfer the next day.when coaches and trains and taxis will be more plentiful

There is not a cat in hell's chance I would be even thinking of going to Heathrow at that hour. Premier Inn or Hampton on site at Gatwick (no transfer). Then up to Heathrow after a decent breakfast.

Seems like you've got plenty of ideas, but just to toss it out, I'd consider splitting the difference.
You can get an Uber somewhere that would be nice to wake up and has easy access to LHR - then you can have breakfast and maybe a walk around before heading back to the airport, instead of it just being an all-airport day.

IF you're getting into a taxi straight from LGW another few minutes wont make a diff and I'm sure late night traffic will be easier than the next morning trying to catch a flight.

I don't know London area as well as many here, but I did that in West Ealing recently. 13 Mins to LHR on the Lizzie. It was actually really nice.

Or maybe someone else could suggest other stops?

Hammersmith is easy to Heathrow (30 minutes on the Piccadilly Line) and there are a few hotels very close to the tube station. Novotel, Premier Inn, Seraphine Hammersmith and Holiday Inn Express, along with some independents.