Ok my husband just read an article about how horrid Heathrow is.. I told him there was a site here.. do you avoid... so what do you think .. we go into Manchester instead??? and train it.. well of course were training it either way..

thanks in advance..

just arriving at LHR isn't all that horrid. Transfers ARE pretty bad though.

For travel to Oxford - assuming the fares are about the same, I'd fly into LHR and that the direct BUS to Oxford. Trains don't go from LHR to Oxford. You;d either have to go into London and then take a train frompaddington - or - take a bus to Reading and a train to Oxford.

So just catching the direct coach from LHR to central Oxford is the easiest, cheapest, and fastest

sorry about the typos - but I think you get the gist of it . . . .

We transfered at LHR twice this year - it was not a big deal because we planned more than 2 hours between flights. Your best option is the bus from LHR to Oxford ( we did the same trip a few years ago).

Go to Oxford by bus www.nationalexpress.com there is a bick up otside all terminals , Arriving at LHR is not a problem it is departing that that there are problems , make sure ONLY ONE CARRY ON not even a purse is allowed.& allow plenty of time to go thru security

Whatever you hear about Heathrow (and most of it's exaggerated), it doesn't even begin to compare with the grotesque parody of a railway system Richard Branson has engineered between Manchester and Oxford. Sadly, the same company runs the service from Birmingham airport to Oxford.

Fortunately, the British government has stripped him of the franchise from November - but the record of the replacement, Arriva, is not that hot.

I'd walk over hot coals to avoid using the railway from Manchester to Oxford. A half hour wait for luggage at Heathrow, by comparison, is trivial.

Incidentally, a lot of the currently fashionable Heathrow Hate Hour is misplaced. Tight security rules, the one-bag system and a recent insane decision to lengthen the admission procedure for Europeans without improving the technology or increasing the manpower are common to all Britain's airports. Heathrow, which accounts for half Britain's passenger throughput, just gets most publicity.