Daydreamer

Ended up having plans change & trip to London layover altered. (FIL grew much sicker & we lost him a couple of days ago) :-\ Hubby is heart-sick so we could really use a restoratve layover in London on our way home from Norway.

Since plans changed, now no longer have early departure from Heathrow (necessitating Paddington stay for us previously)...and now we instead arrive at Stansted.

From what i gather there is a train or bus from this airport. No

rmally, i'd prefer a train but it seems it goes to Liverpool St Station. If we're considering a stay at the Rubens at the Palace (nuts to do?) would a bus from Stansted to Victoria Station make a lot more s sense for us with 2 pieces of luggage each? (vs the tube?)

If we arriveat stansted at 3pm...will hit London at rush hour. Is the traffic heading the other way or just horrible in all diretions?

Also, open to any other favorite hotel options for a first time visitor to London with only 2 nights.
Just read the Rubens can be fun. But maybe it feels too big & impersonal? Ideas welcome as last time we mostly stuck to ideas for the Paddington area.

Thanks again!

philstravels

The tube is never fun with luggage, especially two pieces each! I did this recently with a bus service called Terravison from Victoria to Stansted, which runs 24 hours and is good value. We stayed in Paddington too, and got a cab from our hotel to Victoria.

Which area you choose I guess depends on your budget. Paddington is fine, but my preference is in the West End as you are close to everything. The Thistle Charing Cross is an ok hotel in a great location (but fairly expensive). Otherwise, try Priceline, you can get great bargains there.

CotswoldScouser

The Terravision coach doesn't go to Victoria Station. It goes, like almost all coaches, to Victoria Coach Station, which is about half a mile (or, with luggage, several hundred miles) away from the tube - and half a mile further from your intended hotel. With two pieces of luggage, you really need a cab: allow about £5 from the bus station to the Rubens.

There IS a lot of reverse commuting around London. Generally (say 95%) of the time, this means you go slowish: but you're rarely seriously delayed. The Terravision bus, followed by a cab, is the leaet effort journey. But make sure you get that bus, as there are buses to less convenient central London locations.

ben_haines_london

I should take the train. You can wheel your trolley, by a lift, to beside the train, and use a one pound coin to take a further trolley at Liverpool Street. There you can wheel to a taxi. Or (faster and cheaper) wheel it to the lift down to the tube station. There you must give up your trolley, but can roll your luggage, with no steps, to the platform for the circle line, where trains run straight to Westminster. I choose Westminster because they have lifts up from platform to concourse and concourse to pavement, where you can take a taxi a mile to the Rubens hotel. Of course, once you are on the circle line you can go anywhere, and half a mile from Westminster stand the Thistle hotels of Charing Cross and of Trafalgar Square, and the Royal Albany hotel near Charing Cross tube. I have on disc long comments by Fodors forum readers on Thistle and family-owned hotels at Victoria and at Charing Cross. I shall gladly copy them to you if you ask me.

Ben Haines, London
[email protected]

Daydreamer

Thanks for the advice & clarifying where the bus goes. (not to the same area I'd thought exactly)

If I would take train to Liverpool station instead...
are there any hotels right near there that any of you enjoy? Or maybe that should be some other thread?

I believe that's more the financial district, however, correct? (sorry haven't had the time to study much of this due to immersing ourselves in father-in-law's suddenly declining health) Was only diagnosed with cancer for the first time, not even 3 weeks ago. (and we've already lost him!) :-{

Will send email address to get more info re: hotels.

Oh...and could one take a tube to Victoria Station instead from Liverpool one (without transfers) so that we'd end up closer to Rubens if we ultimately decide upon it, for our lodging? Sounds like the Rubens is only 2 blocks or less from that station...which seems closer than the Westminister one, which was mentioned here.

Or perhaps that's just too much work from the Liverpool station.

Then again, a cab from other Vict Station to hotel...maybe that is quicker overall & not all that much of a price difference...?
Sorry. Will stop now. Guess my mind is racing as I finally got to a REAL Internet spot at the local library here in Norway & find it so much easier to type!

Hence, asking everything at once.
Also, growing nervous knowing I should book something, at least.
Thanks again so very much for all the help!!

alanRow

Just a note - it's "Liverpool STREET" station, not Liverpool station which is a couple of hundred miles away & which you could also get to from Stansted.

As to your question, look at the Stansted Airport website which covers all the possibilities for getting into London. Alternatively the journey planner for www.tfl.gov.uk allows you to put in Stansted as a start point & the address of the Rebuns as a finish point

Daydreamer

Thanks! Will do that.
And yes...I did mean to write Liverpool St Station...just forgot to add that in.

Believe me, as a Beatlemaniac when growing up, I'd never forget the actual town!