Gatwick dilemma
 

My husband and I will be getting into London early on a Monday morning from Paris and are hoping to see a few of the sites in London that day before catching a 9am flight home out of Gatwick Airport the next morning (Tuesday). We are debating where we should stay. Because we have a morning flight, we were thinking staying near the airport would be good. However, we are also considering seeing a show that Monday night before we leave, and would need to be more central for that. (We don't really want to get into St. Pancras Station from Paris, have to go check in to a place near Gatwick, go all the way back to the center of London, and then return all the way back to our hotel after the show.) BUT we also don't want to take any chances on missing our flight. :) Any suggestions about what area to stay in, how to get to the airport if we decide to stay more central, and how much time we should allow to get out to Gatwick would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance for your help!

No need to stay near LGW, and I personally wouldn't.

The best areas for convenient connection to Gatwick are Victoria, London Bridge, and Kings Cross/St Pancras.

No need to worry about missing your flight. It is almost as quick from Victoria as from some of the nearby Garwick hotels since the train connects directly to the terminal.

Since you are arriving at St Pancras, you could stay there. Or you could head to Victoria - easy-ish by tube w/ no line change. Stay there and then the Gatwick Express the next AM takes 30 mins.

Either would be better than schlepping out to LGW to sleep IMHO. If you do decide to stay at the airport anyway, store your bags in Left Luggage at St Pancras then go back and get it before hopping on the train.

I suggest you stay in town and take the Gatwick Express in the morning.

http://www.gatwickexpress.com

Oh -- meant to add -- be sure to not closing time for the Left Luggage (another reason I'd stay in London instead of at LGW)

Thank you so much for your feedback! The more I have looked into it, the more I have realized that staying near the airport might not be such a grand idea, but I wanted a second (third, fourth, etc.) opinion. :) Thanks again for the great info!

janisj: can you tell us the fastest way to get from St Pancras to Gatwick? Or anyone, please?

I just did a search for the answer and got some conflicting information.

Thanks.

tuscanlifeedit: The FCC train goes directly from St Pancras to LGW - takes about 50 minutes.

And for the schedules, go directly to the First Capital Connect website. Don't go the the National Express site.

Thank you both. I was using the FCC site, but they were unable to retrieve the schedule. Told me to try again later.

I am debating several different tack-ons for a post London trip. Of course there are places in England that I've yet to visit, but we had a big England trip less than a year ago, and I was sort of thinking about the Eurostar to Lille, picking up a car and traveling to the Pierrefronds castle that Kerouac showed us, then Reims/Epernay and Fontainebleau. We would then spend a night in Paris, I guess.

I wonder if that is a crazy itinerary... probably is.

I think I'll post this under France.

You might check http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/?

I find it one of the easiest sites to sort out schedules/train companies

Hi tuscan, the timetables should be here

http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk...imetables/GTW/

For St Pancras to Gatwick, you'd want the "(Bedford and) London to Brighton" schedule.

This is the weekday schedule- trains start leaving St Pancras at 4:54 am and run all day every 15 minutes or so. It takes an hour to get to Gatwick.

http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk...TL2_SX_out.pdf

There are separate schedules for Saturdays and Sundays too (no direct trains from St Pancras on weekends currently, I'm guessing due to trackwork or something, but the current schedule only applies until May 2012)

I have another questions regarding Gatwick. It was previously suggested that I take the Gatwick Express to get from Victoria Station to Gatwick Airport. Since then, I have read that there are significantly cheaper ways to do this, such as with Southern Railway or National Rail. However, when I go to Southern's website, it links me to the Gatwick express when I put in my journey. Does anyone know how to find these cheaper fares I keep reading about??

Try a different website like eastcoast.co.uk , firstscotrail.co.uk or any of the other UK train websites as they all sell the same tickets.

Note the default setting is for the fastest route - which normally means GEX. That may be why you can only find the GEX trains or at the time you are intending to travel there may only be GEX trains as when I tried a dummy booking for today it gave me a GEX and a Southern service

Make sure you check FCC services from st pancras to gatwick closer to your departure dates as the line sometimes has engineering works on the weekends...

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried those sites and came up with the same thing. Maybe it is my travel times (flight is at 9am on a Monday). I'll keep looking!