London - Useful Information

How to get to London

As I'm in London now for a while, I can now start to give you useful information, you can use if you want to come to London or are just interested! First step of course is, how to get here! 

By flight: Obviously the easiest way to get to London, as there are four main airports in and around London, which makes it quite simple as you can see in the map below!

Lets start with the Heathrow Airport: Based west right at the outer ring of London, its the biggest and closest one! Here the most important information http://www.heathrowairport.com:

• 5 Terminals covering flights to over 180 destinations in more than 90 countries
• Heathrow express train gets you from the airport to Paddington station in 15 minutes (starting with 20 pounds for a ticket)
• with the blue Piccadilly tube line go can reach every station in the center within an hour - its the cheapest way to get to central London (just look up http://www.tfl.gov.uk/ to search the station you want to go to - starting around 2,40 pounds with the oyster card)
• taxi/cab is the most expensive way, although maybe the comfortable way if you have many suitcases, but it'll cost you between 40-70 pound depending on the direction

Gatwick Airport:http://www.gatwickairport.com/

• North and South Terminal to over 200 destinations in 90 countries
• app. 30 miles south of London, good for Easyjet
• National Express directly from St. Pancras International in 45 min (starting with 7 pounds, normal ticket 10 pounds)
• Easybus going from Gatwick to Earl's Court in West London in 1:15 h (starting at 2 pound, depending on travel time)

Almost the same information can be given for the other airports! Normally you can get really cheap tickets for the trains as for the buses and coaches are higher prices and they are not always punctual! Especially on peak times, buses can take way longer than quoted on the websites due to the traffic!

By Train: You might consider going to London by train, which is not that unusual as you might think! The Eurostar is the best way to take you to London! Especially from Paris and Brussels it only takes around two hous! Booking in advance really can get you very cheap tickets! I'm going to Paris in January with tickets for only 70 pounds return! So just check out some train connections and you might be surprised by good ticket offers!

By car: I can't really recommend to go to London by car. It can take hours to get into central London and out, due to the sometimes horrible traffic. Plus, you have to get used to driving on the other side, which can be really stressful during rush hours! And you will have to pay for the ferry or tunnel to get to GB. You might consider sharing a car go with someone sharing the same car. One website I can recommend is: http://www.blablacar.com/?nolang_redirect=1
Just try it! And WELCOME to London!