London trip: Travel options
Discussion
Bit of advice needed on London travel options, we have a 2 day trip to Central London (Westminster area) planned for 4th & 5th Dec.
We live in Manchester and need to decide between driving or flying down. Train is far too expensive at £300+ (should have booked it earlier).
We want to get there as early as possible Thursday and leave early evening Friday. So the choice is:
1) Fly to Heathrow, tube to Central London and get a hotel in the Westminster area.
2) Drive down and get a hotel somewhere around the end of M1 near to a tube station.
The obvious down sides are rush hour traffic if we drive and rush hour tube journeys if we don't. How horrific are they? Have I missed anything obvious?
We live in Manchester and need to decide between driving or flying down. Train is far too expensive at £300+ (should have booked it earlier).
We want to get there as early as possible Thursday and leave early evening Friday. So the choice is:
1) Fly to Heathrow, tube to Central London and get a hotel in the Westminster area.
2) Drive down and get a hotel somewhere around the end of M1 near to a tube station.
The obvious down sides are rush hour traffic if we drive and rush hour tube journeys if we don't. How horrific are they? Have I missed anything obvious?
If you want to get there early, I'd fly.
A flight getting you into Heathrow at 9:30 would see you miss the worst of the rush hour and not be so knackered you wasted the day.
Rather than get the tube into London, you could get the Heathrow Express (which IIRC is mile for mile the most expensive rail journey in the world) or get a normal train into Paddington for a lot less.
If you drive you'll hit heavy traffic from 7am until 10am anywhere south of Northampton.
If you must drive consider M6 / M5 / M40 as this may be quieter.
To drive and miss the rush hour traffic you'd have to set off so early you'd be knackered Thursday afternoon.
If you come down the M1 go a little further in to London (on the A41 or A5) and stay in Finchley Rd, Swiss Cottage, St John's Wood: all on the Jubilee line which gets you into Westminster in 15 minutes.
A flight getting you into Heathrow at 9:30 would see you miss the worst of the rush hour and not be so knackered you wasted the day.
Rather than get the tube into London, you could get the Heathrow Express (which IIRC is mile for mile the most expensive rail journey in the world) or get a normal train into Paddington for a lot less.
If you drive you'll hit heavy traffic from 7am until 10am anywhere south of Northampton.
If you must drive consider M6 / M5 / M40 as this may be quieter.
To drive and miss the rush hour traffic you'd have to set off so early you'd be knackered Thursday afternoon.
If you come down the M1 go a little further in to London (on the A41 or A5) and stay in Finchley Rd, Swiss Cottage, St John's Wood: all on the Jubilee line which gets you into Westminster in 15 minutes.
If you do get a train (not tube) at any point in your journey to London, keep the tickets as you'll then qualify for the 2 for 1 by train offers, which can save you loads. http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london
Drive to somewhere with a really good mainline station such as Watford, Luton or even Milton Keynes.
Park up and get the train to and from there.
Driving in London at anything other than the middle of the night is a grade one PITA.
I do a similar trip nearly every week. Since airport security was beefed up the train is by far the quickest and most convenient. Expensive if you can't get a deal though.
Park up and get the train to and from there.
Driving in London at anything other than the middle of the night is a grade one PITA.
I do a similar trip nearly every week. Since airport security was beefed up the train is by far the quickest and most convenient. Expensive if you can't get a deal though.
desolate said:
Drive to somewhere with a really good mainline station such as Watford, Luton or even Milton Keynes.
Park up and get the train to and from there.
Driving in London at anything other than the middle of the night is a grade one PITA.
I do a similar trip nearly every week. Since airport security was beefed up the train is by far the quickest and most convenient. Expensive if you can't get a deal though.
This is what I would do. Park up and get the train to and from there.
Driving in London at anything other than the middle of the night is a grade one PITA.
I do a similar trip nearly every week. Since airport security was beefed up the train is by far the quickest and most convenient. Expensive if you can't get a deal though.
Even when I lived reasonably close to London id drive to a station reasonably close with a good carpark and then jump on the train.
That's certainly food for thought, had a brief look at Watford. Seems to be about 20 mins to Central london on train and plenty of hotels to choose from.
Thinking holiday inn or similar with free parking then travel in by train thurs & fri.
What's the bottom part of the M1 like inside M25 at 7-8pm ish on a Friday?
Thinking holiday inn or similar with free parking then travel in by train thurs & fri.
What's the bottom part of the M1 like inside M25 at 7-8pm ish on a Friday?
Watford Junction into Euston is less than 20 mins on a fast train, and plenty of hotels immediately around there. The Holiday Inn Express has parking, but only limited spaces. It's about 10~15 mins drive from M1/A405 junction, at that time Watford/M25/M1/A405 won't be too bad at all, but I'd worry more about further North at rush-hour - but fortunately you'll be travelling in the opposite direction to most traffic..
bigandclever said:
Matt141980 said:
Train is far too expensive at £300+ (should have booked it earlier).
Right now I can find, standard class, 4/12/14 8:15 Piccadilly > 10:24 Euston for £705/12/14 18:57 Euston > Piccadilly 21:09 for £39.85
London to Manchester is a trip I do several times a year and I now try and avoid driving. Driving might in theory be ok, but the M6 down to Birmingham can be a disaster area, then you need to go one way round Birmingham or the other and use the M40 or M1, M40 usually clear until the M25, but makes it more difficult to use the toll road.
Probably cheaper to go by train, and of course unlike the car, if you are delayed on the train for more than 30 minutes you'll get a partial refund on your ticket, and if delayed more than an hour you get a full refund!
Take the train, as others have said it's nowhere near £300. Do you have to leave London on Friday? Exiting London by any means on a Friday night is a ballache, stations rammed, roads gridlocked. Take another day and it's much easier on a Saturday afternoon and will be a much cheaper return train leg (many TOC's offer a first class upgrade for very little cash). Driving would be madness.
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