Heathrow - Terminal to hotel - hoppa or taxi?
 

In the fall, we are arriving at LHR terminal 5, late afternoon. Will fly out the next morning from terminal 3. We want to stay at the renaissance hotel, fairly near term 3. Can we get a taxi from term 5 to the hotel? Or the hoppa bus? I am not a fan of the hoppa bus but I know it can serve its purpose. Then, will a taxi take us to the term 3 from hotel or is it too short a trip for taxis?

Nothing is too short for a taxi but you maybe amazed by the price. Since Heathrow is outside London and the charge for a Taxi to get into Heathrow is min £6 you will find (normally) a quote of £35 to £45 each way to any Hotel.

Note the Hoppa is around £8 return.

If £90 is small change to you I can send a SAE for anything you have around the house :-)

Wow! Glad to know that!

Its been a few years since I took a taxi to the hotels, but I remember the taxi drivers got a bit irritated at the short run. Given what bilbobutgler, I assume they must have sorted the problem by charging outrageous fare for a 10 minutes run! Is that the black cabs?

you can book a mini-cab car ahead of time which might be less, but it is still not cheap. Check with the hotel, they use local minicabs.

Have you considered checking out the Sofitel (terminal 5) or the Hilton (terminal 4)? They are both expensive, but sometimes you can get a deal. Then you can use the free train, which I prefer to the Hoppa.

I also dislike the Hoppa, but at the price, its easy to justify!

I used the Hoppa over the weekend and on both occasions the drivers were wonderful to all the confused travellers and ran bang on time.

Thanks!

This past March we stayed at the Arora Hotel Heathrow, the night before our departure flight. Following are my notes that may be helpful to other travelers. BTW, the Arora Hotel was lovely and my rate was only 47 GBP.

Airport to Hotel Transportation

There are FREE public bus transfers from Arora Hotel Heathrow to all the Heathrow Airport terminals, simply use the following public bus services to the hotel: To Heathrow Central Bus Station located at Terminals 1, 2 & 3 use Bus 75 or 76.

If you have a hotel on the Bath Road, you can use free public buses into the central area. These are normal red London buses. These are free because the airport authority subsidies the cost. The airport authority has a free bus route map that depicts the free bus area with hotels clearly marked. There are bus stops in front of all the hotels along the Bath Road. East of Heathrow’s entrance tunnel these buses operate a 24x7 service. Apart from being free these buses are more frequent than the Hoppa Buses and several routes run a 24x7 service. The red London buses are low rider entry which provides easy access and room or luggage.

They run from the airport central bus station and buses for Bath road are numbers 285 from stop 20 or bus 105 from stop 19. A saving of £9 per return trip makes the free red London buses an attractive option.

If you are leaving from Terminal 4, transfer to Heathrow Central bus station at terminal 1, 2 & 3 via Bus 75 or 76, and then take the Heathrow Connect Rail FREE of charge service to Terminal 4. To Terminal 5, take bus 423.

We happened to take bus 423, which was a 10-min. ride to the hotel.