JuniorinNoVA

I'm almost embarrassed to ask, but...
My daughter and I are novice travelers. We will be flying from the USA to Heathrow, with a 12-hour layover before a connecting flight to Cape Town. Is it feasible to pop into central London for a day of very quick sightseeing, before heading back to Heathrow to catch our ongoing flight?

My concern is with Customs/Immigration, and the amount of time it might take to clear if we leave and later re-enter Heathrow. Are there any “tricks” to this process or is it generally fairly simple and efficient?

All advice welcome!

sandi

Simple and efficient. With 12-hours you have more then enough time to clear immigration on arrival and make your way into London. Just remember to allow the required check-in time for your ongoing flight to CPT. If you don't already have your boarding pass for the CPT portion, you will have to get that before proceding thru security. And if you do have the boarding passes, keep it in a secure place and do not loose it.
Have fun!

nibblette

Check with your airline about what happens with your luggage. With such a long layover, you want to make sure that you will not have to collect your luggage and recheck in them in later. If so, you will need to find a place to store the luggage and allow time to recheck it. But with 12 hrs, you'll still have plenty of time to see a bit of London.

allanc

Not sure, but you should be able to get your bags checked right through to your final destination. You have lots of time. Just ensure that you know which Heathrow terminal you are departing from. If it is a nice day, you could take a tour on the hop on hop off bus to get your bearings.

JuniorinNoVA

Thank you all for your good advice. Virgin Atlantic has assured me that our luggage will be checked through to Cape Town on our British Airways flight out of Heathrow. We are looking forward to at least a quick introduction to central London!

Walter_Walltotti

For the quickest way into the city take teh Heathrow Express train to Paddington and then the tube down to somewhere like Picadilly Circus, Charing Cross, Embankment or Westminster.

Alternatively take the Picadilly tube line from Heathrow. Buy a day ticket (probably about £6). It will take about 50 mins to get from the airport. There is a single stop for terminals 1,2,3 ands a separate stop for terminal 4.