The Best Way To Get To...Heathrow Airport

This is the first in a series of posts where I will look at the best way to travel to London’s airports. I will start the series with London’s most important and busiest airport, Heathrow.

Now, I’m sure some of you will be thinking I know how to get to Heathrow already. What more can I learn? I thought the same until I was told about the Heathrow Free Travel Zone. At the time I had never heard of it and could not believe it did not know about it sooner. So, I decided to write a post explaining the best, quickest and cheapest ways to get from Central London to Heathrow Airport. It is a post for everyone from the very beginner just planning their first journey to one of the world’s greatest cities to the hardened Heathrow veteran.

So, what are your transport options?

From this map you can see there are four public transport options:

• Heathrow Connect


• Heathrow Express


• Piccadilly Underground Line


• National Express Coach

I will now examine each of these options in more detail.

 

Heathrow Connect

Heathrow Connect is the standard train service between London Heathrow and London Paddington. Trains depart Paddington from 4:42am with a later start of 6:12am on Sundays and run until just after 11pm wth a train usually every half an hour. The journey takes 27 minutes and connects to Heathrow Central Station (Terminals 1 & 3).

A standard single costs £9.50 and an open return (valid for one month) costs £19.00. Pre-paid Oyster cards are not valid on the Heathrow Connect.

You can use the following rail discount cards on Heathrow connect services:

• Family & Friends Railcard (off-peak only)


• Senior Railcard (off-peak only)


• Disabled Persons Railcard


• Young Persons Railcard


• HM Forces Railcard (off-peak only)


• Network Railcard/Gold Railcard


• New Deal Railcard

Off-Peak is defined as after 9.30am Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays).

 

Heathrow Express

Heathrow Express is the fastest rail link between London Heathrow and London Paddington. The journey takes 15 minutes between Paddington and Terminals 1 & 3 and slightly longer to Terminals 4 & 5. First Trains leave Paddington just 5:10am and run until 11:25pm with trains every 15 minutes.

Express Saver (a ticket bought before boarding) costs £20 and an open return (valid for one month) costs £34. You can also purchase a carnet for £199.80, which is 12 singles for the price of 10, for frequent travelers.

If you are traveling with another person you can book a couple return for £50 and there is a discount for a group of three or four adults together.

You can use the following discount rail cards on the Heathrow Express:

• Friends and Family Railcard


• Young Persons Railcard


• Disabled Persons


• Senior Railcard


• International Student


• BritRail Passes


• HM Forces Railcard

You can also collect BAA WorldPoints for Heathrow Express bookings. You receive 1 WorldPoint for every £1 you spend. There frequent BAA WorldPoints sign up bonuses on offer if you do not have an account yet. You can transfer BAA WorldPoints to Avios.

 

Piccadilly Underground Line

The Piccadilly Underground Line is the cheapest public transport option available. There are three undergrounds stations at Heathrow: Terminals 1,2,3, Terminal 4, and Terminal 5. The standard journey time from Heathrow Terminals 1 & 3 to Central London on the underground is around 40–50 minutes. You can change at Hammersmith for the District Line, South Kensington for the Circle Lin, Green Park for the Jubilee and Victoria Lines, Holborn for the Central Line, and King’s Cross/St Pancras for Northern Line, Hammersmith & City Line, Metropolitan Line, National Rail Services to the North, and International Rail Services to Europe.

The cheapest method way of paying for Underground transport is the Oyster card. The Oyster card is a plastic smartcard. You can buy one for a refundable £5 deposit at any Transport for London ticket office. You put prepay credit on the card before you travel then you touch in at your entry station and touch out at your exit station and the system automatically charges you the correct fare for your journey.  London Heathrow is in Zone 6. A single from Zone 6 to Zone 1 (Central London) costs £5.00 at peak-time (6:30am to 9:30 am and 4pm to 7pm Monday to Friday) and £3.00 off-peak (any other time plus travel into Zone 1 between 4pm and 7pm Monday to Friday). You can buy a travelcard to cover any amount of travel per day, week or month but it would be cheaper to pay just for Zone 1 or Zone 1 to 2 rather than the Zone 1 to 6 necessary for Heathrow to Central London tube travel. Oyster cards can be used on London buses as well – a single costs £1.40.

 

National Express Coach

National Express Coach is a coach service with a very extensive national network. If you are traveling outside of London to a major town or city then this will normally be the cheapest method of transport.

At Terminals 1 and 3 the coach uses the Central Bus Station which is only a 5 minute walk from the terminal buildings, at Terminal 4 the coach uses stops 13 and 14 right outside the terminal building at arrivals level, and Terminal 5 the coach uses stops 13-16 right outside the terminal building at arrivals level.

London Heathrow to Victoria Bus Station takes around 40 minutes, depending on traffic, and costs £6 single £11 open return. London Victoria is the main bus station in London and connects to the expensive National Express Coach network as well as the Underground Lines – Victoria, Circle and District.

If you do book a coach ticket to London then you can take advantage of the 2-for-1 London Offers, including Madame Tussauds, Tower of London, Churchill War Rooms, West End Theatre Productions and a Tour of Lord’s Cricket Ground (a Must See!).

The National Express Coach is the easiest way to travel between London’s Main Airports -  Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton. The service between Heathrow to Gatwick runs 100 times a day and costs £25 one-way and £40 return. However, you may have to factor a possible traffic delay for any airport transfers.

You are allowed to take two medium-sized suitcases – weighing up to 20kg each – plus one small piece of hand luggage per person on a National Express Coach.

 offers 5.05% cashback

 offers 5% cashback

 

The Heathrow Free Travel Zone is an area where all public transport is free of charge. It is designed to allow quick and easy transport between the various parts of Heathrow terminal, including the off site airport hotels. This zone is particularly useful if you are staying in a nearby hotel for awaiting an early flight or need a night to sleep after a late arrival. Check the location of your hotel and see if any TFL bus stops nearby then see if the bus number is part of the Heathrow Free Travel Zone. If you have large and heavy suitcases then you may wish to use the Hotel Hopper bus service rather than local Transport for London buses because of the extra luggage space but at £4 each way it is very expensive.

 

Private Taxi

The most expensive and most convenient method of transport is private taxi. You can hire a Black Taxi from outside the Terminals, all drivers are fully licensed and have passed the famous “knowledge” test and know London’s streets back to front. You can hail a cab without pre-booking or you can prebook here. A Black Cab from Heathrow Airport to Leicester Square will cost around £80 plus tip, but you can pay by credit or debit card as well as cash.

You can use a private mini cab service and there are many available within the London area. Heathrow Airport uses greentomatocars. Normally mini cabs are cheaper than Black Taxis with the same journey costing around £60-70 plus tip.

 

Best Method of Transport

The best method of transport depends on your situation, particularly where in London you wish to be. The Heathrow train services, Connect and Express, are excellent for journeys to London Paddington and surrounding areas but are inconvenient for journeys to the East and South of London. In that situation it would make more sense to travel via the Underground as you will be able to connect easily from the Piccadilly Line. However, if you are traveling with large suitcases or small children tired after a long flight then you may wish to choose something more comfortable. If you are staying in Central London then you could combine an Express train journey to Paddington with a Black Taxi to your hotel for maximum comfort and speed but still within a budget. If you are connecting to another London Airport then the best option is a National Express Coach. My own favourite method of transport is the London Underground as I am a frugal traveler in no particular hurry.

 

 

The Best Way To Get To...Heathrow Airport