How difficult is it to base oneself at a hotel at Heathrow and travel into London? I am weighing if the lesser cost of staying near the airport will be eaten up by transportation costs into London. I am in London for only a day and half...crazy trip to get double air miles from LA.
Any advice and transportation information/hotel information would be appreciated.
You fellow Fodorites are the best!

If you stay at one of the hotels on Bath Road, then you take the free public bus to Heathrow, and the tube from Heathrow to central London. The total time for this all will probably be around 70 minutes, more or less.

It's quite possible to get a less convenient Heathrow hotel. Another option is to stay at a Heathrow hotel near the Hatton Cross tube station, in which case the time into London would probably be about 50 minutes.

But check the Journey Planner at www.thetube.com .

And of course, I'd recommend getting a Priceline or Hotwire hotel, rather than doing this method.

<<< How difficult is it to base oneself at a hotel at Heathrow and travel into London? >>>

If you like travelling for an hour or more each way and paying more than you would for a similar central London hotel then it's not difficult

I spent a night at Heathrow about a month ago. My recollection is that none of the hotels are on either the underground or the HEX. (The Sofitel at Terminal 5 will be a walk away from the HEX, but it is due to open after the double qualifying miles offer from AA ends.) That means that you will, at best, be looking at an eight pound round trip to one of the terminal tube connections to get the tube into the city.

On the other hand, the advance purchase rates at several of the airport hotels are less than half the cost of many hotels in London, and if you are willing to give up the travel time into the city, it may be worthwhile to stay at the airport.

We had to spend a night at a Holiday Inn at Heathrow a couple of years ago (traveling on to Ireland with my elderly father, so took an extra night to rest before moving on). The worst part was that there was no place near the hotel to eat dinner so we had an exhorbitantly overpriced Chinese meal in the hotel. And it wasn't even good!

I'm no expert on fares from LHR to London, but I recently stayed at the Marriott and there are several buses(free...#554,555,556?) that you can take to Hatton Cross Station ( about a 5 minute trip) and then the tube into London. Timewise it is about 40-45 minutes to Green Park depending on the time of day.

There are several hotels along the same stretch of road ( Bath Rd.) other than the Marriott.

You can use Priceline for hotels near LHR and save enough money (and then some) that you can afford to take the Heathrow Express into the city and back, rather than spending an hour on the tube. Most of the time you can get a 4-star hotel at LHR for under US$100 all in. Use the local bus to get from the hotel to one of the HEX stations at Heathrow.

Thanks all for your assistance and good information!

There are other options to staying on one of the Bath Road hotels. The Continental Hotel in Hounslow opened a year or so ago and is just by Hounslow Central station. It's a surprising nice hotel.

http://www.thecontinental-hotel.com/hounslow/Home

Another option is to stay somewhere like Millenium Baileys, in the Gloucester Road area, easy transportation to/from LHR whilst being almost central London.

Ditto Gardyloo, Priceline will be the most cost efficent/nicest place way to stay at an airport hotel. You can see winning bids @ www.biddingfortravel.com. Have a great stay

I have found a great rate on holidayextras.co.uk for several hotels. They are what they call secret but if you read the reviews you can see which ones they are. The rate for the Crowne Plaza is 59£
We will have spent a few days in London prior to a cruise but will be flying in from Athens fairly late one evening and our flight to Seattle isn't until 6pm the next day. Is there a hotel in an area by the airport that is easy to get to by taxi but is in an area where we won't be held captive by the hotel restaurant etc. We will have quite a few hours to kill the day of departure and would like to be in an area where we can walk around etc. Thanks for any info there. In the meantime check out the website I mentioned. If all else fails I am going to book the Crowne Plaza

Traveller69:

We were impressed by the Canyon Restaurant, on the Thames, in Richmond. (There seems to be a binary set of reviews of this restaurant. Patrons either love it or hate it.)

We have not yet had a late departure from Heathrow, but are interested to stay in Richmond, with its own palace as well as easy accessibility to Hampton Court, when next we have that chance.

I'm certain someone on this board can tell you the cost of a cab ride there; it should not be much more than a 15 to 20 minute ride from the terminals at LHR.

I have done this, used a Heathrow hotel, when staying in London overnight before connecting flights onward to South Africa, Istanbul, others. I use Jury's Inn near Terminal 4. It's a short walk, less than 5 minutes, to the Tube station. The price of a day-ticket for the Tube was about £8 the last time, last October. You can use it all day, except during the rush-hour periods. It takes about 40-45 minutes to get into central London. The cost of the room was £59. This varies according to whether it's a weekend or during the week - during the week is more expensive.

I have also stayed in Richmond a number of times. There are several good B&B-type hotels along Petersham Rd, not too expensive, including Hobart Hall Hotel, Riverside Hotel. They are both older establishments, quite 'gothic' in feel, but you can get river-view rooms and good breakfasts, and there are many good restaurants nearby. A walk along the river will take you to Kew gardens, go the other way to visit Ham House, or go up the hill to Richmond Park. You can take a boat on the river to Hampton Court Palace, or it's a short bus ride away. Richmond is a very pleasant place to spend a day or two. Richmond is easily accessed via Tube from Heathrow, it usually takes 30-40 minutes, with one change at Hammersmith.

How about staying in Windsor? I know there are 2 buses that run between Heathrow Central Bus station and Windsor. You can also travel into London from Windsor by rail. And the travelodge in Windsor (right next to the Castle) has good deals if you book in advance. Rooms are as low as £19 if booked 21 days in advance and £29-59 if booked 7 days in advance.