jasminedew19

Hi,

I've got a 10 hour stopover in London Gatwick airport planned. I'm wondering what my options are to do to kill that time. Is it expensive to travel into London? I don't want to spend too much on the very first day of my 2 month long backpacking trip. IS there anything to do around the airport? Anything close by to do? (movie theaters, etc.)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Jasmine

janisj

what hours are your layover? Depending on what time you arrive/depart, you have a few options (train to London, train to Brighton, a couple of others)

jasminedew19

i arrive at 10:30 a.m. and fly again at 8:45 p.m.

i've searched online and it seems it will be very expensive to travel into london by train. are there cheaper alternatives? local buses, etc.?

brighton also sounds interesting - is there much to do there?

janisj

you don't want to take a bus in to London - it would be nearly 2 hours each way. The non-express trains only take about 35 mins and cost about £9.

If that is too much - then most anything else will be too expensive as well.

same for Brighton -

flanneruk

Unless you've got a absurdly low threshold for how much you're prepared to pay, you're probably struggling with the complexity of our fare system.

Go to www.nationalrail.co.uk and enter your details. Follow that through to "fare". You should find that cheap day returns into London after around 0920 (BUT NOT BEFORE) are between £8 and £9.50 on Southern or First Capital Connect. These take about five minutes longer than the Gatwick Express.

Simply buy the tickets when you arrive. Check beforehand (on the National Rail site) about whether there are any limitations on their useability going back to the airport during the eveninhg rush hour.

If £8 is beyond your means, pack more books and pop into your neighbourhood deli before leaving home. It'll cost you at least that and more to get a bus to Crawley (the town they had in mind when they invented the word 'charmless') and pay for a cinema ticket. And you won't get away with spending that little at the airport if your taste runs to exotica like cups of coffee or ham sandwiches.

flanneruk

I should add that, whether you get a train to London's Victoria or London Bridge stations, you get off practically in the middle of the greatest free show on earth. Victoria's just a tiara throw away from Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Westminster: London Bridge station is slap on the river, and the walk westwards towards Westminster from it really is the finest urban walk anywhere: the proof that God's an Englishwoman.

Brighton's pretty good if you're scrimping: it's got the quirkiest (free) city museum of them all, with sections on the history of the dirty weekend as well as some outstanding anthropological stuff. Lots of eccentric shops, bracing sea breezes, the whole tacky horror of an English seaside resort combined with the 'knit your own sustainable smock' doolalinesses of the ageing hippies in their £1 million Kemptown retreats.

The Pavilion (a royal palace built just as we discovered the wonders of Moghul archtitecture) is extraordinary, but if you're watching every penny, you might find its admission prices challenging.

alanRow

If your luggage isn't checked through then leave it at the left luggage offices - it's around £6 PER BAG

jewela

Jasmine,

I'm guessing your back packing trip is not in the UK. If I were you, I'd splurge & spend the money to take the train into London Victoria. Print a map of the area from the internet, and just wander a bit. You can get a well priced meal at a sandwich shop. Even if you stay in the airport, you're probably going to spend as much money to eat....you might as well enjoy a few hours in London seeing a few of the sights.