Having never been to London, I'm clueless as to which airport would be best to fly into. Generally, which is the least crazy/and closest to hotels, etc?
Thanks

either on is easy to get to "downtown" as it were. i think that gatwick is further out than heathrow. i also think that it may be slightly cheaper to fly in to gatwick or even stanstead (which is even further out i think). neither place is hard to get to london from.

Heathrow is closer to the central London than Gatwick. Both have good transportation options. I've never flown through Gatwick, but I didn't find Heathrow crazy.

I've flown into both and neither are crazy, although we always arrive around 6am. Taking the Heathrow/Gatwick Express train makes it easy to get into central London. Heathrow however is the closest.

I'd go for whatever flights yield the lowest fares. Neither area is itself highly desirable for a tourist.

Heathrow is much easier for car connections into London - maybe an hour nearer than Gatwick. Assuming you will be staying in central London, both airports offer a reasonably priced "express" train service connecting to central London stations.

Once again just find flights that suit your timing and budget, neither airport will present any problems for you.

It really makes not a whit of difference. Go with whichever gets you the best connections/fares.

Both have advantages and disadvantages, but not enough that you should make your flight decision based upon the airport . . . .

I don't think Heathrow is an hour nearer to London than Gatwick. (Gatwick is about 28 miles out of the city center). If you're planning on taking express trains into the city, it really doesn't matter which airport you choose. If you're planning to take ground transit (esp. taxis) into London, Heathrow will be cheaper and closer. (The HotelLink shuttle costs - a shared ride van directly to the hotel - isn't that different for either airport, though)

I've never flown into Heathrow, always Gatwick. It will be more a result of where you are flying from and what airlines you fly rather than just choosing which one you would prefer. I believe that the US Airlines have more gates at Gatwick than they do at Heathrow. I just did a quick search on Expedia from San Antonio to London -- only American Airlines came up with Heathrow; all others shown were Gatwick).

When I'm looking for fares, I use the "all London airports" code which is LON. (Gatwick = LGW, Heathrow = LHR)

That said, I think Gatwick is a very nice airport. I enjoy flying into it. It never seems quite as hectic as some of them but maybe it's because I'm always so happy to be there. The only other major European airports I can compare it to are Frankfurt in the early 90s and CDG, so I don't have a large sample to compare but as far as airports go, it's tops in my books. And as others have said, with the Gatwick Express, it's super easy to get to downtown London Victoria station. My preference is to take a cab to/from Victoria station and my hotel, but that's a personal preference and one of my few "splurges" when I travel.