ctkathy

Husband has business and stays at LHR so I will need to find a few things to do in the area.

Went to Windsor to tour the castle in August, but will return to tour the town of Windsor and Eton. Would like to see Hampton Court. Does anyone know if there is a bus to Hampton Court from LHR? Bus to Windsor from LHR? Where would one catch the bus? Any other sites in the area to recommend for touring or shopping preferably serviced by bus within 45 minutes (or so) from LHR? Is Southall worth a look? We do like Indian food.

We will be going into London on the weekend, so I'm all set with London suggestions.

Many thanks.

celticdreams

ctkathy - which hotel are you staying in at LHR? I found the concierge at the Marriott I was in last month to be exceptionally helpful with everything. Places to eat - directions to get anywhere.

jsmith

There is a bus to Oxford that runs every 30 minutes and takes about 80.

ctkathy

celtricdreams--we are staying at the Hilton. I used the concierge last time and they were quite good.

mclaurie

There's no direct train or bus service from Heathrow to Windsor. There's some info on a bus through Slough and train service from Feltham station here

http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/i...towindsor.html

Not sure how good or accurate it is, but there's a Journey planner here for bues, tubes, train etc.

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/use...T2?language=en

TimS

According to people who have posted notes in the past, the easiest and fastest way to get to Windsor from Heathrow is to take a taxi. If my memory serves me well, those people said that it is about a 20-minute ride. Sorry, I don't know what would be the best way to get to Hampton Court.

flanneruk

First Bus 50A/B bus from LHR to Windsor. 30 mins, every 30 mins more or less. Timetable at the Thames/Southeast bit of the bus section on the First Group site (the URL's about 200 characters and showing it here would make the whole Europe section close to illegible)

Southall was the pits. Its total committment to capitalism means its Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Jain and Christian immigrants from South Asia have created a phenomenally vibrant (and utterly safe) street life. As well as Europe's biggest, easily visited, Sikh temple. Buses are messy: Heathrow Connect train takes less than 15 mins from LHR.

111 bus from LHR central bus station to Hampton Court. About an hour.

tfl.gov.uk and transportdirect.info both have a serious gap in covering the huge network of urban buses from LHR to places outside the formal Greater London boundary.

Two other strategies. Westbound: take the Heathrow Connect east to Hayes, then a westbound local to Maidenhead. Either walk the 100 miles along the Thamespath to its Cotswold source, or the lazy man's first mile or so to the Bray restaurants.

Or visit the surprising number of toffs' spreads that are open to the public, date from the Golden Age of English architecture and are within 20 mins of Heathrow by tube. The Soutwest walks bit at www.london-footprints.co.uk covers some. 237 bus from Hounslow East tube, or E8 from Boston Manor for www.syonpark.co.uk. Osterley tube for www.osterleypark.org.uk

handfordr

For Hampton Court catch the 285 bus that starts at Heathrow Central Bus Station in between Terminals 1,2,3 and then goes past the hotels on the Bath Road including Park Inn, Holiday Inn, Renaissance, Sheraton, Marriott, Ariel.

If you catch the bus to Kingston ( a major regional shopping centre) there is a nice walk of about 20 minutes along the River Thames bank to Hampton Court Palace (there are pleasure boats that do this trip, but not so frequent during winter). There are also buses very frequent to Hampton Court from Kingston.
You can buy a day pass on London's buses for 3 GBP.

TimS

Thanks, flanneruk and handfordr, for the bus information. Both the Windsor site and the Hampton Court site say there is bus service from Heathrow and suggest checking the tfl.gov.uk Journey Planner. However, following the JP's suggested routes would mean taking a combination of trains and buses "around the world" with a trip of up to two hours.

flanneruk

Yes, as I said there are problemsw with both journey planners.

Tfl ignores - or at any rate is hopeless at - buses that go outside the Greater London boundaries. Windsor is outside, as are many destinations for the hundreds of buses that radiate out from Heathrow and the nearby tube stations Heathrow workers use.

Transportdirect is pretty hopeless at all urban buses, though it seems OK at long-distance buses ("coaches" in British).

ctkathy

Thanks for all the transport help. Just want to add that I that "A Christmas Affair" will be on at Hampton Court Palace Green from December 2 until December 11. If anyone has attended one of these fairs, your comments are welcome.