Where should I stay in London with an early Heathrow departure?

To go as smoothly as possible, I would book into one of the hotels close to Heathrow that has a regular bus to/from the airport. Then after spending time in central London, I would travel to Heathrow on the tube after 8pm, so you get a seat. Then get the bus to the hotel and the bus back from the hotel the next day. (The last tube is late enough to allow you to spend most of the evening in London pub if you wish.)

(Depending on the airline you may even be able to check your cases in at Heathrow the night before the flight.)

Consider buying something you can eat for breakfast from a normal shop, so you can have it once you get to Heathrow, while you are doing all the waiting about.

Or spend the afternoon and early evening in Cambridge and get a direct coach to Heathrow then a bus to a close by hotel, Cambridge pubs are as good as London pubs!

You picked the wrong half of Oxbridge to stay in!

Oxford has two buses an hour to Heathrow for virtually the whole day, and buses overnight too. The buses have wifi, powerpoints, nice seats etc. Journey time from the city centre to T5 is a little over an hour if traffic is fine, or about 90 minutes to the central bus station (for T1-T3). A couple of weeks ago, I managed to do Oxford Gloucester Green Bus Station to the BA Galleries South Lounge in T5 (including bag drop and security) in just under 80 minutes, so it can be pretty quick! Traffic today wasn’t so great, so it took 1 hour 45 bus station to lounge. Still not too bad 🙂

If you get the bus / train / underground to T5, then you’re virtually in the terminal. It’s normally 2-5 minutes until you’re at the departures level, just needs a little bit of walking and lifts/escalators up (departures is on the top floor). With T1, T2 and T3, all the public transport heads to a central point in the middle of the three terminals (either the central bus station, or something just under it). If you run, you can probably make the terminals in 5 minutes. At a slow walk, using the lifts and travelators, it’s about 15. If you take a look at a map you’ll see why! Don’t worry about the transfer though, just allow time.

(T4 is somewhat of an ugly duckling these days, transport links wise. Allow yourself lots of extra time, as unless you’re very lucky you’ll need to change bus / tube / train to get there)

Assuming you can’t be tempted to head west to “the other place”, I’d suggest you look at south west London. You ought to be able to find somewhere with a direct bus link to Heathrow, that isn’t too pricey, and hopefully with some nice pubs and parks around. Getting from Cambridge down that way will need a few changes across London, but at least you’ll then be nearby for the early-ish start to the airport. Try looking on the TFL website for bus maps to get an idea of where to go for.

Paddington is fine – not only that, it’s even smart! You have several options from there:

• the Heathrow Express. 15 min to the airport. They say there’s that length transfer, but if you’re in a hurry you’ll beat that.

• naturally transport fails. If the Express is down, sometimes the regular trains are still running overground. This only takes about 10 minutes longer, from memory (see my link at the end) and is nearly half the price.

• The Tube! If the overground option is out, you can take the tube down to Earl’s Court, switch (2 min transfer) and take the Picadilly line out to the airport.

• Buses – there are buses to Hammersmith and buses from there out to the airport, but by now you’re getting desparate…

• Taxi – last resort as they’ll be expensive, but you can get the taxi from right outside the station and they’ll drop you at Terminal 3. They’ll also know the fastest way – London Black Cab taxi drivers are like if Einstein studied traffic logistics. Seriously.

There are quite a few places around Paddington to stay – within minutes – from hostels to hotels. There are also pubs, a few small restaurants and some take-outs. On the Hammersmith and City line you can even get around to Westfield Mall in not too long.

Finally, I mentioned a link – two actually – TFL and National Rail. They’ll tell you exactly how long it’ll take – even differentiating between terminals at Heathrow, and can be configured to reduce walking time and so on.

Good luck!