Hotels Near Heathrow Airport
 

Hello there!

We have made reservations for Hotel Renaissance on Bath Road near Heathrow Airport. Has anybody stayed at this hotel, and if so, how is it? Also, how convenient or difficult is the transportation to central London?

Your help will be appreciated.

Kay

Not stayed there, but used to work opposite it and it's fine. Nothing spectacular, but close to airport and good 3 or 4 star.

Best way into central London is to take the shuttle bus back to the airport (about once every 15 or 20 minutes), and then take the Heathrow Express train to London. It runs every 15 minutes and takes 15 minutes into central London. The only downside is that it is quite expensive.

There is also tube service into London from Heathrow that's much cheaper, but takes longer. It's fine if you have no luggage to haul.

Kay, it sounds like you might have a 1 day layover at Heathrow. Another option is to stay in Windsor which is very close to Heathrow & do some sightseeing there.

And to get from the airport terminals to the hotel, you can use the Heathrow Hotel Hoppa Bus Service (www.nationalexpress.com/p.cfm?n=pai-hhh)

hope you are not planning to use heathrow for a base for visiting london...its far too expensive and removed for that....if just for a day trip that is another thing...

i recently stayed at the marriott, also on bath rd i think...got it on priceline for about $60/nite...decent location...a taxi to the terminal was 9 pounds...no shuttle bus when we needed to go...
i would prefer to stay around windsor for relaxation...you might want to look at that...there are many hotels, including a marriott, and courtyard...

I agree with all of the above. Heathrow hotels are great if you have a stopover but not as a base. The Heathrow Hoppa costs £5 return to get to the airport from the hotels and the Heathrow Express train costs a hair-raising £25 return for the 15 minute journey into Paddington Station (on a price v time calculation, is there a more expensive form of public transport in the UK?) - even though I concede it is an excellent service.
I use the Holiday Inn M4 Junction 4 as it is convenient for the motorway and obviously for the airport.

Hello there!

Thank you ALL for your responses. We actually intend to spend 3 nights in London. After reading your suggestions, I think it will make more sense to stay at a hotel in Central London. The question is, do you have any suggestions of hotels in downtown London that are reasonable? It's just two of us; we would need Hotel names and approximate rates per night. Also, I hear there is a cruise that you can take for a couple of hours along the Thames River - anybody knows anything about this cruise, and how much it cost? And finally, what are some of the sightseeing places that we cannot afford to miss while in London apart from the British Museum, Trafalgar Square, Picaddily Circus, and Madame Tassaud, etc.?

Thanks again, and any input will be appreciated.

Kay

OK - everyone was assuming you were just stopping over at Heathrow enroute somewhere else. sine your trip is TO London there is absolutely no reason to stay near the airport.

Now for your other questions - there are hundreds of threads already posted here about hotels in London - with things like location, prices, how to book them, quality, etc. Do a quick search and you get more info than you can use. There are also hundreds of threads about what to see and do.

It sounds like you haven't done much if any research. That is not a criticism - just an observation. You need to do a little reading, decide why you are going to London and start to frame an itinerary. Then we can jump in and help - but you need at least a minimal knowledge or our suggestions will just be wasted.

Re Thames trips - there are MANY river trips - from water taxis, to the Tate to Tate shuttle, to 45 min cruises, to 1/2 day excursions, to lunch or dinner sailings.

In case you don't know how to search here, type in the box above & click find for previous threads on a topic. For example, budget hotels AND London.

The very best value for Americans is bidding on Priceline (you bid in $). Look at biddingfortravel.com and STUDY before trying this.

Look at wotif.com website. Last I looked they had several hotel with offers of 3 nights for the price of 2 which would work well for you.

We've gotten some excellent rates on London hotels through priceline. But as McLaurie mentioned, do your homework first on www.biddingfortravel.com. And I would be cautious about bidding for anything less than a 4 star.

Regarding what to see, IMHO the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey are the two absolute must-sees in London. And a walk around Westinster Bridge at night is beautiful.

don't forget my favorite which is windsor castle...near the airport unfortunately...