What to do during stopover in London

Raisin

Tue, Jul 14 2015, 5:50 am

I would plan to be back at the airport at least 2 hours before your next flight. So you don't have much time.

If it is heathrow you are close to the west end. I would recommend taking the tube rather then a taxi because traffic can be horrible, depending on the time of day. What are you interested in? There are museums, you can go and look at buckingham palace. There is the london eye but that might be a long way. You can take a tour bus. Try tripadvisor for ideas and check journey times from the airport. You probably won't have time to do more then one thing. Make sure you have the correct information about tickets and if you need to buy in advance.

if you want a kosher resturant there is reubens on baker street in the west end (deli style, jewish style food) or you can head to golders green road for a huge choice of restaurants and bakeries. I recommend a cream cake from carmellis.

soboz

Tue, Jul 14 2015, 6:01 am

Which airport are you arriving at? None of the main airports are near to the centre of town (Heathrow is at least an hour drive and longer in the middle of the day, Gatwick and Stanstead are at least one and a half hours drive). But you might be able to visit somewhere nearer to the airport. For example Windsor Castle is not too far from Heathrow. Bear in mind that as the above poster said, it will take time to get out of the airport and then you'll have to check in and go through customs again, for which you'll have to allow another two hours, so you wont have a huge amount of time to play with.

Raisin

Tue, Jul 14 2015, 6:14 am

im pretty sure heathrow is less then an hours drive from the west end. But with traffic it might take an hour. Its about 45 minutes on the tube or there is a more expensive heathrow express train which is probably quicker.

The botanical gardens at Kew are pretty close (20 minute drive) and beautiful but a lot of walking. I really enjoyed it.

Mrs Bissli

Tue, Jul 14 2015, 1:45 pm

Having a quick visit to central London is perfectly doable, so long as your flight arrives on time. As others said, there are 4 international airports with long-haul flights (I'm skipping London City) each with different transportation links.

Do NOT take black cabs, unless you want to spend £80 from Heathrow during the rush hour and £150+ from other airports. There are bookable car service companies (usually c£40 from Heathrow) though you'll need a UK mobile number for the driver to contact.

Heathrow: If landing Terminals 1-3, Piccadilly Line tube (takes good 50min). If Terminals 4 or 5, take Heathrow Connect to Paddington. (trains every 30min, takes 40-45min). It's less expensive than Heathrow Express.

Gatwick: Gatwick Express train to Victoria. 30minutes, trains every 15min during peak/30min off-peak.

Luton: shuttle bus to the train station, then train to St Pancras. All in all takes just about 1 hour.

Stanstead: train to Liverpool Street station.

Assume you'll need 1-1.5hrs for deplaning and clearing the passport control. Make sure your luggage is checked THROUGH final destination. Get back to the airport 90min before departure time, security queues move fairly robustly.

You can use ATM card if it has contactless payment sign in lieu of Oyster card. Just make sure to swipe each time you enter/exit tube stations, or when you get on a bus.

What time are you landing/what time is your connecting flight departure? How many people/any children?

Mrs Bissli

Tue, Jul 14 2015, 1:53 pm

As for attractions, if landing at Heathrow, I would consider Windsor Castle or Kew Gardens.
Both are about 30min by car. (book Windsor minicab).

Within central London, you obviously have House of Parliament, you can take River bus to Tower of London. Consider Tower of London only if you can get there fairly early in the day, otherwise the queue gets rather long esp during peak summer months. All public museums (British Library, V&A, British Museum, Tate, Science) are free of charge. If you like parks, my rec are Regent Park (rose garden, secret garden) and Holland Park. There are also walking tour of London, including Jewish tour of Eastend (usually twice a week or so) that you can just join. I don't really see a need for a hop-on/hop-off bus, as you can just easily get around with cheaper normal public transportation.

happy bday

Tue, Jul 14 2015, 3:56 pm

Thanks! I am travelling with my husband and baby. We dont really need any tours or organized activities, just want to go around and see the sites a little. We are landing at 11 am in Heathrow terminal 5 (tomorrow!) we wont have a uk number...so the best way to get into London is by train? we were thinking cab because of the time constraints...but if its the same timing, maybe we'll do that.

luppamom

Tue, Jul 14 2015, 5:12 pm

We did this 2 years go. We had an overnight stopover so we had some time to tour London.
I will say that it was quite costly. We used a taxi to get to the hotel as we arrived late. (I think the black one PP mentioned.) That was quite expensive. Now I know the trick Wink

But, even public transportation was expensive. (We used it when we went touring the next day.)

Keep this in mind and budget appropriate money even if what you're doing is free. Also, you will have to convert your dollars or shekels to pounds.

We saw the outside of Buckingham Place and then we went to the British Museum. DH loved it. It had pictures from Sancherev's palace. (I was pretty bored b/c I am not a museum fan.) It was also very rainy and cold, but we went in Sept.

amother

Fuchsia

Tue, Jul 14 2015, 5:14 pm

OP,

You're making me want to do the same. We have a 5 hr. stopover in London. I'm not sure if that's enough time to leave and return to the airport. So, I might have to play it safe. I also have a baby and find that the stroller needs more time b/c of elevators.

Mrs Bissli

Wed, Jul 15 2015, 7:31 am

amother wrote:

To be honest, it's a close call if it s only 5 hours.
As I stated before, getting out of Heathrow would take 1.5hours.
And you want to be back for the connecting flight 1.5-2hrs before.
It would take 30-45minutes to/from airports to central London.
So that would leave you less than 1 hour to see central London.

If you must (and the plane lands on time, and they don't park you on the far end of T5 and you are not arriving early morning with a dozen other third world originated flights and the weather is decent), you can probably spend just about 1hour at Windsor
(20-30min by taxi, ask the driver to meet you up for a return journey).

Oh a minor point, we say lifts instead of elevators... ;-)

ttbtbm

Thu, Dec 12 2019, 7:49 pm

I am about to book tickets from NY to Israel and am deciding between a 4 hour stopover and an 8 hour stopover. It’s just me and my ten year old daughter. I am thinking of doing the 8 hour stopover so that we can see London. Would anyone be able to chime in if the above information is still accurate? (This is an old thread.)
OP, if you’re still around 😊, did you leave the airport? How did it work out?

Metukah

Thu, Dec 12 2019, 7:57 pm

8 hours is probably enough time to see one or two sights in London.
Take the underground into Central London, about 45 minutes. Get off at Green Park to see Buckingham Palace. The London underground is really easy to use.
Make sure you leave plenty of time to get back.