We are mother/daughter traveling alone to London. We will be arriving at Heathrow at approx. 11:00pm. We are concerned about safety traveling to our hotel in the Bloomsbury area at that time. We are considering taking one of the private/semi-private transport companies. At about 20 pounds per person, we want the right option. Anyone with experience with these companies? Any comments on safety of London at night? Thanks!

I've never arrived that late at night. But why not ask the hotel to send a car? I would certainly book transportation just for peace of mind. The hotel should be able to connect you with a car/driver company that they use.

If money is no object take a taxi or have the hotel send a car. Or instead to save a few (maybe quite a few) pounds, book one yourself. I use Swiss Cottage Cars which has always cost us 25 pounds (that's for the car for two, not per person) to go to Covent Garden -- about the same as Bloomsbury. You can call them with your flight details and address you're going to:
dial 101-6868-011-44-207-431-2700.

Or book www.justairports.com online. If you pay cash rather than credit card it will be about that same price.

There is certainly no reason to take a sort of "shared" shuttle as two people will cost more than your own private car.

We just got back from London (and Paris/Vienna/London again) yesterday.

I can recommend Just Airports - good service and a good price.

Normally we take the tube to and from Heathrow, as we usually stay in S. Kensington on the Picadilly line. This time we took the tube in, but going back to get our flight to Paris the Picadilly line wasn't running, so we ended up having to take a cab at the last minute at £50. The car service the hotel uses would have charged £38 but they were all booked.

When we returned to London after Vienna, we had booked Just Airports because we were staying at Marble Arch and there would've been too much hassle with the tube. Our flight was almost an hour late arriving but the driver was there waiting as promised.
We took Just Airports again when we left 2 days later. They had a special price of £21 for hotel to Heathrow and Heathrow to hotel was £27. The Marble Arch hotel we were at would have charged £55 for Heathrow to hotel and £45 for hotel to Heathrow.

You can book online but make sure you get an email confirmation back. We didn't - there was a problem with their email - so ended up calling when we were in London for the first part of our trip. And yes, if you pay cash it's a better deal.

pamk, we were in London about a month ago and made use of Express transfers. (I see they have a rate of 21GPB per person from Heathrow to central London now) We booked online about two weeks before we left - and everything went smoothly. I was really impressed. Arriving at the airport, the guy was there, holding a board with our name and on returning, they were at our hotel exactly at the time - it was 5h30 am - we stipulated in our booking. They deduct the money from your credit card 2 days before the service.

Have a look at www.londontown.com and go to "airport transfers". That is where I found Express shuttle. It is not a shared shuttle - and I cannot recommend them enough!

And London is generally a safe city. There are a few areas I wouldn't want to wander round at night, but as a tourist you are unlikely to find yourself in those. Bloomsbury is fine.

11pm is not really that late in a city...

sorry that last bit came out a bit wrong, I didn't mean to sound so condescending.

What I meant is don't waste your holiday evenings locked in your hotel room due to imagined 'dangers'. Two adults can get out and about at 11pm no problem...many areas will still be very busy until 1 or 2 in the morning. I've never had a problem walking around on my own at night - of course it depends where you are - but honestly you'll be fine in Bloomsbury and tourist areas.

Thanks for replies so far. justairports.com just comes up a blank page for me in the the States. Do I have the site wrong? Thanks.

Sorry. That's www.justairports.co.uk

Safety isn't likely to be an issue, but the last tube from Heathrow to Russell Square leaves around 11.30, and the Heathrow Express to Paddington not much later. So a car is the most sensible option, if only for that reason.

hmmmm. And good luck with that as well. For some reason I can't seem to bring up their website at all today.

That's weird. Although Googling gives the. co.uk address for Just Airports, I still can't get there that way (I even had it bookmarked that way on my favorites). But now all of sudden the .com address is working for me. Maybe it was a glitch before? Try again.

Thanks.. justairports.com seems to be working now. You saved me some cash with your suggestions! justairports seems to be a cheaper alternative than what I was considering. Is it customary to tip the driver? If so, how much?

We've used JustAirports many times. Drivers have been prompt, courteous, excellent drivers with very clean vehicles and they've always taken care of our bags for us. We tipped them the customary 10%.

ttt

If your flight is a long one, and you anticipate being jet lagged, or if you have the usual load of luggage for a long trip, I recommend a car service.

If you think of as a percentage of your total trip cost, it will be more realistic.

Three years ago when I was recovering from major surgery and had trouble walking without a cane, I booked a car service to Luton Airport. Yes, it cost more than the train, but in my condition it was well worth it.

In my experience with van services, I have found that the cost was not much less than a taxi, but the convenience considerably less. My attitude is that if I am going to pay more than tube transportation, I might was well go first class and arrive less frazzled so that I enjoy my visit more the following day.

At age 22 when I had more brawn than brains and more brains than money, I carried my luggage on subways and trams. At age 73 I am not about to do that.

I'd highly recommend Ray Skinner of London-Transfers.com. He's reliable, charming, and very knowledgeable about London. We've used him many times.

I would disagree that Ray is "reliable". Our reservation was never confirmed, even after I phoned from the US and was promised an e-mail confirmation. And, that's how I found JustAirports.

Curiously, the day we left, I received a phone call from Ray, himself! I explained that I had booked online, but had not received a confirmation, then phoned and still had not received a confirmation, so had made other arrangements.

Folks continue to report no response to web booking, no one to pick them up at the airport, and no success with phoning from the airport. And, Ray's rates are significantly higher than JustAirports.

I know that a lot of people rave about Ray Skinner, and the above is the first negative I've seen posted about his service, but he clearly is not for the frugal. His rates are approaching double what I normally pay with Swiss Cottage Cars (or with Just Airports, for that matter).

We used Ray Skinner and loved him, he's just a one man service, with some other drivers if he needs them. He waited for over 3 hours for us at the airport. He is expensive, but not so much if you are a group. I think because is a one man service, and maybe not so techno savy, this could explain his slow response time. But he showed up all 3 times for us, no problems.