Heathrow Hotel Transfers and the IDP

[Goldpanner 399]

If youre staying at a Heathrow Hotel the night before departing and youre a Cheap Charlie like me, dont use the Heathrow Hoppa or the more expensive taxis, use some of the FREE bus services that serve the Airport and most of the Bath Road.

 

https://www.londontoolkit.com/lhr/heathrow_local_buses.htm

 

Also if you need an International Driving Permit, there is a Post Office in Terminal 3 where you can get one.

[lounge_lizard 108]

Interesting.

 

Last time I used a Heathrow hotel (apart from the Yotel in Terminal 4), They all seemed to have courtesy mini-buses.

 

I wonder if this has replaced that service.

[Goldpanner 399]

Interesting.

 

Last time I used a Heathrow hotel (apart from the Yotel in Terminal 4), They all seemed to have courtesy mini-buses.

 

I wonder if this has replaced that service.

 

No, the Hotel Courtesy services were banned by the Owners of Heathrow as they werent making any money out of it. I too remember the Courtesy buses but they dont run any more.

When Heathrow banned the Hotels free transfers they did a Deal with the National Bus people for the Heathrow Hoppa which charges a bloody extortionat £5 each way.

However, Heathrow was legally obliged to provide a Free service along the Bath road and around the airport periphery which they do not like to publicise. In some cases the bus stop is directly outside the Hotel, in other cases its a short walk to the nearest stop..

 

 

From the London Website:

Local Buses to Heathrow Hotels (Many Free)

A curious policy is being operated by the owner of Heathrow Airport. The official Heathrow Hoppa Bus charges a full price to transport you to each Heathrow hotel. At the same time the airport subsidises all public buses so that any journey from the terminals to anywhere on the perimeter roads is completely free.

In many cases these buses stop right outside the hotel entrance.

Buses are free as long as you get off/on the buses on the perimeter roads of the airport, (where many hotels are).

Many of the buses run a 24x7 schedule and all run from early morning until late evening.

Most of the buses are the famous London red buses like the one pictured above right. A few going south and west from the airport are run by different operators but still offer the free journeys around the airport perimeter. A mixture of double deck and single deck buses are run. Nearly all routes have several buses an hour, the major routes run about every 10 minutes during the day.

Where To Board The Bus At Heathrow

For Terminals 2 and 3 all the buses depart from the Central Bus Station. With luggage it will take about 10 minutes to complete the journey on foot. Much of the journey uses moving walkways and the entire journey is inside. The bus station is above the Underground station and the way is well signposted with ramps in each terminal and lifts up to the bus station. There are no steps involved.

 

Edited September 15, 2016 by Goldpanner

[jacko 8,815]

Those Hoppa buses are awful. I recall trying to use them to get around Heathrow a few times. Overpriced, busy, slow, uncomfortable. Thank heaven Manchester now offers me plenty of flights.

[Goldpanner 399]

Personally I think I'd rather suffer the Heathrow Hoppas than live in or around Manchester again :)

[jacko 8,815]

Personally I think I'd rather suffer the Heathrow Hoppas than live in or around Manchester again :)

No argument from me but you can certainly stick many areas around London too!

Heathrow is an abysmal airport.

 

Not much I can do about where I was born. Still have some relatives there but by next year I expect to be going much less.

Edited September 17, 2016 by jacko

[TheFiend 1,181]

Manchester or down south??? No thanks I'll stick with where I live up in Cumbria...

 

I've been to Heathrow airport twice, but never flown from there.... And I certainly wouldn't choose to fly from there...

[Goldpanner 399]

I dont find any problems with Heathrow, I quite like it, good shops, some nice cheap food now too. I particularly like the place that did Bacon & Egg sandwiches and a decent cup of tea, freshly cooked. Lots of those powered walkways, good signage and Free Wifi. The long term parking is quite cheap too at around £107 for 16 days at the T2 Longstay. We usually book the Overnight Hotel and Parking combined, but only those Hotels that use the proper Heathrow Parking where you get to keep your keys. I wont use the Hotels where you park your car at the hotel for the long stay, as they then want you to pay £5 each way for the extortionate Heathrow Hoppa and their car parks arent secure.

As for Manchester? I used to live up in Saddleworth which was fine untill it got touristy, then to make it worse all the ethnics moved into Oldham, taking over Oldham Park some days and chasing off any men who dared walk their dog or just go for a walk. I was also in manchester when it was bombed, though fortunatley up the other end of the city.

I found most annoyingly, that as a Southerner that Manchester and the surrounding areas were amazingly racist towards me. I was always "the fookin sootherner".

And strangely I never ever felt safe in Manchester or the surrounding areas. Such is life. I was born and bred in the East end of London, Im yer actual Cockney.