London to Cardiff?
 

I need some advice, please. I am probably going to go to a wedding in Cardiff in late July, which means flying into either Heathrow or Gatwick. Can someone advise me on 1) the most idiot proof way to get to Cardiff; and 2) whether Heathrow or Gatwick would be the best airport to fly in to?

Hi

Where abouts in Florida will you be flying from?
Miami flies into Heathrow and Tampa and Orlando internation fly into Gatwick -these are BA

Fly all the way there
 

To get to Cardiff from an intercontinental point, I have always found it best to fly to AMS or CDG and take another flight from there to CWL.

Far easier than via LON.

I would second the recommendation to fly to Cardiff via Amsterdam (can't see any flights from CDG!).

If you can't get a flight via AMS then going to LHR would be your next best option as it's the right side of London. You can either take the Heathrow Express to Paddington and a train to Cardiff from there (i.e., no need to change stations in London), or take the rail-air link to Reading and a train from there.

This may help you.
http://www.airwales.com/cgi-bin/airk...7/181002i?6G=2

Try getting a flight to wherever Airwales flies to and then get one of their connecting flights.
ALso
:
http://www.bmibaby.com/bmibaby/en/index.aspx
They fly from Paris and Manchester to Cardiff

Not Cardiff Airport
 

Dont bother flying into Cardiff Airport, it is nowhere near Cardiff. It has no rail link with Cardiff and you are at the mercy of a very poor bus service or very expensive taxi ride.( I know, I live in Cardiff and have done this many times).
There is (or was) a helicopter link between London and Cardiff but I am not certain if it is still operating.
If you want an idiot proof way, in addition to the rail links,National Express operate a direct bus service from Heathrow Coach Station straight to Cardiff. THe only problem with this is that it takes about three hours and the service may not tie in with your flight times.
The Paddington to Cardiff rail service is good, just over two hours, just make certain you pick the direct service(limited stop) or you could find yourself going via Reading.
Where do you plan to stay in the Cardiff area as dependant on that, it may be worth hiring a car at Heathrow and driving down.(Its a very simple route, all motorway and takes about two hours from Heathrow)

These are both low-cost carriers. Low-cost carriers don't normally allow interlining with other airlines, which means you'd have to collect and re-check your baggage and if either flight is late you may not get rebooked on a later connection.


But the OP is going to a family function... so there it's quite likely that someone will be meeting her off her flight (I presume the OP is female!)

Hmm... driving in unfamiliar territory, on the wrong side of the road, immediately after an overnight long-haul flight? I don't think this is to be recommended...

Thanks everyone for all your wonderful advice. I see, though, I may have to expand on this itinerary a bit.

I am in southwest Florida, so it is actually easier to fly up to Atlanta than drive a couple hours over to Miami to catch an international flight - which is more logical since my daughter is in Atlanta and will be going as well. This will be a fairly short trip - one week only - with the wedding mid-week in Cardiff. Both my daughter and I will need a London "fix" of two to three days, but I haven't decided yet if that will be on the front end or the back end. Decisions, decisions LOL!

We can either land in London, get a bus or train to Cardiff, and spend a few days sightseeing around Wales and meeting the bride's family and doing London afterwards, or we get our London fix first then go up to Cardiff on Wednesday, attend the wedding and do the sightseeing after that, then return to London and fly home.

Both my daughter and I are somewhat familiar with London (hence the need for a London "fix,") but are totally clueless about Wales. I don't expect anyone to come and fetch us in London, so we'll be pretty much on our own getting to and from Cardiff.

In any event, does everyone agree that Heathrow tops Gatwick, followed by the train from Paddington? Seems simple enough, right?

Few thoughts.

There is a coach link to Reading from LHR. Almost all the trains to Cardiff from Paddington stop at Reading, and you avoid having to backtrack. Personally that is the route I would take.

Also, Cardiff Wales airport will get a rail link later this year. There is already a perfectly decent bus link which takes around 40 minutes to cover the 'whopping' 20 miles into the centre of town.

When connecting at Reading, especially at night, please keep watching your belongings. Having done that connection, there was a police patrol waiting for the coach from Heathrow at the railway station, probably not without reason. Regarding train timetables, things have surely got better by now, but at that time they were more indicative than accurate. My orginal train to Cardiff must have been delayed by some 1,5 - 2 hours but fortunately the previous departure had a major delay as well so I got on that one.

I agree. If you're going from LHR to Cardiff, it makes sense to go from LHR to Reading and catch a train there. This will save you time and money. Otherwise you'd have to get the Heathrow Express to Paddington, and catch a train there.

Services to Cardiff are very frequent and the journey time from Reading should be about 90 minutes.

The route from Paddington to Cardiff is operated by First Great Western. Timetables can be downloaded from www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk

If you decide to travel via Reading simply purchase a return ticket (cheaper if in advance) and when you return from Cardiff pay an excess fare to continue your journey to London.

Unfortunately, as you're coming from Atlanta (or even if Orlando was convenient for you) all direct flights from those places go to Gatwick only, not Heathrow. However, this is not that much of a problem and certainly better than wasting time connecting via some intermediate point.

There is a direct train from the Gatwick Airport train station (underneath the main, South terminal) to Reading, at least every hour, and you can connect there on to Cardiff, again at least every hour. You buy a ticket from Gatwick Airport station right through to Cardiff. No need to step off the railway platforms on the entire journey.

If you decide to stop over in Central London in one direction or the other, the Cardiff trains use Paddington station while the very frequent service out to Gatwick airport operates out of Victoria station.

You are absolutely right WHBM about all flights out of Atlanta landing at Gatwick. I found that out by spending the weekend searching every airline and flight I could find! But that's okay, because your description of getting from Gatwick to Cardiff by way of Reading sounds easy even for me - LOL. I've been around the world several times in my life, and seldom knew where I was or how I got there!

The only downside is the Reading train takes over an hour to get from Gatwick to Reading, however although you have to change platforms at Reading you will not have to go up or down any stairs. The trains to Cardiff are actually quite nice. One tip, if you are one of those people who likes to sit facing forward, when the Gatwick train gets to Redhill (about 10 minutes into the journey), the driver changes ends and the train pulls out the other way round, so pick rear facing seats at Gatwick.