Roccco

I will be breaking up my Los Angeles - Johannesburg (South Africa) journey with a stopover in Europe.

Although I will be flying from London - Johannesburg, this flight is not until 9:30PM, and I would like to arrive in Europe by about Noon, giving me a possible 8 hours to explore whichever city I decide to visit.

London would be the easiest choice, although it does not really excite me much, although I have only been within London Heathrow and not explored the city.

Some possibilities that I am considering are Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona and Dublin.

An airport with a convenient checked luggage department will be a major plus. Last year I spent about 8 hours stuck in London Heathrow, unable to leave, because I did not have any luck finding the checked luggage department and South African Air only allowed baggage to be checked in within 4 hours of the flight (their counter did not even open until this time, as they have a very limited presence at London Heathrow).

I have once visited Paris and really enjoyed it, but my wife has not yet been there. I have not visited Amsterdam, Dublin, Madrid or Barcelona yet. We would like to keep it within the cities mentioned above unless there is another major city (with a direct flight from Los Angeles) that is within a 30 minute flight from London.

Any feedback will be appreciated.

Patty

Hi Roccco,
Are you saying that you want to fly from LAX into a city other than London, spend a few hours seeing the city, then take an evening flight from that city to LHR in time to catch your 9:30pm flight to JNB? IMHO I think that's too hectic of a schedule (if I'm understanding you correctly). I'd also be concerned about possibly missing my LHR-JNB flight in case of any delays on the intra-European flight. I don't think a few hours in any of those cities would be worth the hassle.

Why not see some of London since you mention you've only seen the inside of Heathrow? There has to be something there that interests you.

Which airline are you planning to fly from LAX to LHR? See if they have interline agreements with South African Airways to check your bags through to JNB. If not, someone else here might know if there are any left luggage facilities at LHR.

Is this for your trip in Sep? Good luck with your plans!

Leely

Roccco,

I'm with Patty on this one; flying someplace else would just involve more getting to/from airport time.

Had an 8 hour layover in London last year, on my way to Nairobi. London doesn't really excite me, either, but we took the Heathrow Express and had a nice day. Helped with the jetlag to be out and about. Then slept like crazy from LHR to NBO.

If you had a few extra days (like Patty did!) I'd pick Paris.

Roccco

Patty,

Yes, this is for my September trip. I will fly out of London on August 31st at 9:30PM.

Another option would be to fly into London and then take a regional flight somewhere.

Unless it is Paris (Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, Notre Dame) or Amsterdam (Canals and "Coffee" Shops), I prefer to stick to a smaller city...perhaps Edinburgh or elsewhere???

I may very well just stick to London, but I just want to see what my options are elsewhere within a short flight. I may even opt to leave one day early and spend one night somewhere, which would really give me at least a full 1.5 days since my flight out of London is not until 9:30PM.

rkkwan

Amsterdam. The airport has a train station right underneath it, and it takes <20 minutes to get to Amsterdam.

You waste less energy for the excursion than London or Paris.

Flyboy

Roccco, I think checking out anything other than London would be very impractical. Patty and Leely have it right. You do NOT have eight hours to 'explore whichever city you decide to visit' because transit and related time will easily consume more than half the time you have available between flights. Hopefully you can check your baggage all the way through. Assuming that's the case, take the Heathrow Express into Paddington and do a little exploring for the day. London is a great city and it's essentially all you have time to do.

Roccco

Thanks for the feedback. Unless I decide to spend one night in Europe, then I will likely stick to London.

I do have the opportunity to arrive in London before 10AM, and this would give an 11.5 hour stopover. I imagine this would allow me to be in the city by no later than 11:30AM and give me about 7 full hours to explore before I had to make my way back to the airport.

I have found one tour company that will pick me up right as I arrive at London Heathrow, provide me with a full day custom tour, and have me back at the airport by 7:30PM. I believe the cost is about $125 USD per person for my party of three. These would give me a certain peace of mind, not having to take taxis or trains, etc, and being with someone who knew their way around.

IF I DO decide to spend one night in Europe, it will most likely be in Paris.

rex

You can fly the whole thing non-stop on Air France (through CDG).

Flight 69
Depart 6:20 pm Arrive 2:00 pm

Flight 990
Depart 11:15 pm Arrive 9:40 am

in first class only $15,222.44

(open return from JNB to LAX via CDG).

Best wishes,

Rex

rex

Oh... and I forgot to say... this is the craziest scheme for getting poor quality sleep (even in first class), over a 48 hour period, that I ever heard of!

Only for those folks who truly hve NO circadian rhythms!

Even I would say no way... wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

Roccco

rex,

Given the choice of flying Los Angeles to New York or Atlanta, a 5.5 hour flight, followed by a minimum of about a 2 hour stopover and then a 17 hour flight to Johannesburg, I think the choice to instead fly through Europe is, far and away, the best option.

By going through London, I am faced with a 10.25 hour flight from LAX - London, followed by an 11.25 hour flight from London - Johannesburg.

I hate JFK airport and Atlanta's airport is nothing to write home about either. Plus, I have no desire to do any daytime exploring in New York or Atlanta (especially Atlanta).

I will be flying in economy class from LAX - London, and then fly business class from London - Johannesburg (and Johannesburg - Lusaka, Zambia). I figure that I will only get a maximum of about 4 hours sleep on the way over to London, but that will be enough to allow me to enjoy a full day tour of London, and then I will be good and ready for a blissful flight in Business Class from London - Johannesburg, likely sleeping at least 7 hours.

So, it is really an easy choice to go through Europe rather than doing that arduous 17 hour flight. My threshold is about 12 hours and then after that I turn into a zombie and traveling is no longer fun at that point.

rex

It's not so much going through Europe that I am challenging - - after all, I did give you a very solid routing to go by way of Paris. It's being up... plus traveling for something on the order of 48 hours straight without sleeping in a real bed.

I would break it up if at all possible. Or take the shortest connection possible through a Europe gateway (BA 268/55, for example - -3.5 hrs in Heathrow).

Roccco

rex,

Thanks for the feedback. But, with this being my 4th consecutive year visiting Southern Africa, I am quite used to the 40 hour journeys and don't mind them nearly as much as would most others. Southern Africa is just too amazing a place to mind even 40 hours of traveling.

h2babe

If it were me, I would probably try to have a stopover in Amsterdam. The airport is considered one of the best in the world: it is clean, very convenience, has lots of shops and restaurants, etc. I think with 8 hrs, you will have enough time to catch a train and grab a meal in the city. Have a wonderful trip.

LoveItaly

Hello Rocco, there is something I do not understand. Your flight from London to Johannesbur is at 9:30pm. You are thinking about arriving "somewhere" in Europe around Noon to have 8 hours to explore whichever city you decide to visit.

Won't you have to be at Heathrow at least one hour before your flight to Johannesburg (and maybe 90 minutes or so in advance). And flying into another country, are you completely assured the flight will arrive on time?
And how long will it take you to fly from the other Europeon country to Heathrow? And you will need to check in for the flight from whatever country you are stoppiing in to get on the plane to fly to Heathrow to catch your flight to Johannesburg.

How could you possibly arrive in Europe at noon, fly out of Heathrow at 9:30pm and figure that you would have 8 hours to explore another city?

Is there something I am missing? I don't mean to sound rude, so I apologize in advance if I do, but I just don't understand.

Traveler863

I'm equally confused by this post. Why would anyone consider flying to another city or country for that matter with only 8 hours that as loveitaly pointed out doesn't factor in arrival/departure processes and time needed for those. I also don't understand the lack of desire to take better connections as Rex pointed out, however if just 1st class avail that understandable, I wouldn't pay that either....and btw, thats not nonstop if you connect CDG

I've done many 24+ hour plane journeys and it really is best to stay the night enroute somewhere, a real bed, shower does wonders.

wondering

I did not read the other responses well, but wanted to let you know that amsterdam is an easy layover with good transportation back and forth to airport in that time slot. you can take a canal ride, eat and maybe get to the anne frank house. we did this in 2001. best of all, you won't feel rushed as in the larger cities.

rex

<<btw, thats not nonstop if you connect CDG>>

What I meant was that LAX-CDG and CDG-JNB are non-stop on Air France. Other than London - - on BA, or on two carriers, I wasn't finding non-stop between the two city pairs in any other case (didn't check every possibility).

I would not connect through a different Europe gateway city, just for the purpose of gaining 8 hours "touring" the "connect city" (i.e. fly into MAD, but have to connect in FRA to do that).

Michael

Amsterdam. You can walk around the canals once downtown (20 minutes by train) and the airport itself has the best browsing/shopping area I've encountered recently.

lincasanova

if you do not want to go into london for some reason, leave your bags at same terminal at heathrow where public bus leaves for windsor. a very easy, comfortable little river town easy to explore and relax in. only 15 min.from heathrow.

i do not recall which terminal the luggage nor bus left from, but we did it all form the same one.

p.s. wont your luggage be checked all the way through?

cambe

If LHR is the only place you have visited in London i'm not surprised that London does't excite you as it is amongst one of the worst airports in the world, especially terminal 3.

However London is a wonderful city jam packed full of history. Why not take a trip into the real London and see for yourself. You can't judge a city from an airport.

Also, if you can't check your luggage through you will need to be back at the airport 3 hours before take off and flighs to European cities will be expensive from there as no budget airlines leave from LHR, The flight will probably leave from a different terminal taking up more time.