Lately I’ve been contacted by someone who needs to come to London for just a day for a meeting near Heathrow, and they asked me if they might be able to enjoy some of the city even though their time is so limited. The answer is yes, it’s possible, but it’s kind of a pain in the ass compared to many other cities. Let’s discuss the challenges below.
Meetings at the airport can really be convenient
The best thing about this situation is that flights to London are usually pretty cheap no matter where you are starting from. It may not actually be that they are cheap, but compared to flying to Paris or Hamburg or Barcelona, getting to London is usually pretty affordable. Of course British Airways serves most major destinations in the world, and even the Air France partnership (including KLM, Delta, and Northwest) will take you from nearly anywhere as well.
Another reason why this can work out well is that Heathrow in particular is fairly easy to reach by car from most of the Greater London area, and Heathrow Airport parking is cheaper than you might expect, so the locals you’ll be meeting can get in and out quickly without wasting a lot of time or spending a fortune.
But enjoying the city can be challenging
The good news about the location of Heathrow is that it’s the only airport in London that is on the Underground system, so you can just follow the signs downstairs and soon you’ll be on a carriage heading into the city proper. It’s the Piccadilly Line, which helpfully cuts right through the center of the main entertainment areas. The problem is that it takes about an hour each way, and sometimes the queues for the tickets are long.
This means that if you have to be back at the airport in 4 or 5 hours, you might be cutting it close if things are crowded. It’s also not too cheap at around £5 each way, but compared to taking a taxi or express bus that’s really not too bad.
Where to stay if you are staying overnight
More good news comes with the fact that there are quite a few hotels near Heathrow Airport, and several of them are reasonably priced. If you are on an expense account then you’ll have no problems finding nice business hotels, but even if you aren’t you have a number of decent choices. For many of them you’ll have to jump on local transport to get there, but it’s usually like a 5 or 10 minute ride at the most.
If you want to stay all the way in London proper then you’ll obviously have a crazy amount of choices. But as you probably know, hotels in London tend to be weirdly expensive. You can find some good deals near Victoria Station or in Bayswater, the problem there being that there isn’t much good nightlife in either of those neighborhoods. London always finds a way to make things inconvenient and/or really expensive.
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To see as much as possible you can take a free tour of London that lasts 2-3 hours. You’ll hit all the big spots and you’ll get a feel of how the city is laid out if you decide to come back with more time.
A good friend of mine bought me a great guide that would be so helpful for a short trip to London - it also came with access (via a code on the intro letter) to an online database so you can make up your own itinerary. The website is easy to use - http://www.alacartemaps.com
A good friend gave me an excellent map - which is really a map, guide and piece of art all in one. It also came with access to an online database at http://www.alacartemaps.com so I can plan my own itinerary - who cool!!
Having a local friend giving you insider tips is what is needed. A friend recently gave me a great London map/guide/piece of art. It also gave me access to a cool database on the website http://www.alacartemaps.com so I could plan my own itinerary. I can wholly recommend!!