Luton Airport???
 

Has anyone flown into Luton Airport in London?? Whats the best way to get from there to Piccadily, I'll be staying at the Ritz... although I don't have a Ritz budget, so I'm looking for the most cost effective route.

You can take the Thameslink train to King's Cross (app. 10 pounds if I remember..) and then take the tube (Picadilly line) to Picadilly Circus or Green Park. I am not sure which is closer- Haven't had the pleasure of staying at the Ritz myself.

Note that from Luton airport, you will take a shuttlebus (free) to the Thameslink station where you will catch the train. It is approx. a 25 minute train ride from there. The ticket agent will assist you in working out which type of ticket is best for you.

Green Park underground for the Ritz (it's virtually next door). Be aware that there's quite a long walk from the Kings Cross Thameslink station to the Underground lines, but it's well signposted through dedicated underground walkways.

In fact, from September 11 for 9 months, the southbound Thameslink from Luton and Bedford will NOT call at Kings Cross Thameslink.

It will terminate at St Pancras: the nothbound Thameslink from Gatwick and Brighton will terminate at KX Thameslink.

Oddly, the walk from St Pancras to the tube at KX is rather shorter than from the Thameslink station. But at the moment, it requires you to thread your way through construction works and across a road.

The good news, though, is that if this is a hassle, it's easy to get a cab at the St Pancras rank - something that's always been close to impossible at KX Thameslink.

If you stay at The Ritz, you organise a private car to take you to the hotel. You say you haven't Ritz money, then you shouldn't be staying there, you won't enjoy it as everything they offer is highly priced, you won't fit in. If someone is paying your bill for you as a gift, then you can afford the money for a private hire car at around 60GBP with Aircars2000.com.

Why are you staying at The Ritz?

Obviously in the hope of meeting such a charming greeting....

We're off to Luton Thur with 2 kids so looked at the train/coach/car transfer scenario.

Train seems fastest but involves 2 changes Luton-coach-Train station-train-Kings Cross-tube or Black cab-hotel

Car transfer most stressfree, no changes but slower in having to deaql with road traffic & most expensive at a best quote of £90 return

Coach transfer our choice as 1 transfer pickup outside terminal coach to London Victoria then Black cab to our hotel + coach tickets total £34 for 2 adults/2kids - book online at https://kiosk4.ts.com/k?arrivashires...p;ka=greenline

hope this helps

Congratulations to m_kingdom on what has to be the most pompous and insulting post I've ever seen here -- even compared to previous ones from the same source!!!

Flanner,

Perhaps I should stop giving advice- I had always thought that King's Cross and St. Pancras were the same station.

Thank you for setting the facts straight.

Not at all...

I'd hate to be somewhere where I felt I didn't really fit in. The Ritz is an ultra snooty establisment (staid) which still requires gentlement to wear jackets and ties. If you turn up carrying your own cases from the tube, heads will turn. You will not feel comfortable in this sort of property. I did not mean to insult, merely question this bizarre logic. If you've won the holiday or something like that, then you can surely afford to pay for a car (which is less than a night in any London hotel).

Staying where you'd never normally stay is a little like taking friends to a restaurant, and telling them they can only have the cheapest dishes on the menu, and tap water to drink. I don't want you to be neurotic about being uncomfortable and out of place, this will severely disrupt your London experience.

pandaschu:

You really ought to get out more. Not in the offensive sense, but you ought to get out of the tube station called Kings Cross-St Pancras and look about you.

On one side of the road, one of the most spectacular railway stations in the world - matched IMHO for sheer over-the-top extravagance only by Bombay and Kuala Lumpur. Whence trains go to such vital parts of Britain as Cheterfield and Market Harborough. And surreally empty. St Pancras

On the other, a glorious piece of understated early Victorian elegance, brilliantly hidden by one of the most hideous modern extensions that even the UK has managed to create (and that really is setting the standards for vandalism high). A major tourist venue in its own right: for this is where you get the train for Hogwarts. As well as much of Scotland, and the glories of the stretch between Durham and the Scottish border. And bursting at the seams all day long. Kings Cross proper.

The two are as different from each other as cheese and the stuff Kraft makes.

Flanner,

The worst part of it (now I am really going to expose my ingorance) is that I HAVE left the King's Cross station. On my first trip to London I stayed in a youth hostel near there. (& I used to pass it regularly on my bus ride home from work!) I did, at least, notice how beautiful the station was.

Next time I am there I will try to visit St. Pancras.

I second you on the cheese.

Isn't it sad to think that someone could want to splurge on a "luxury" hotel for a vacation and yet be totally lacking in class? And isn't it even sadder that some people don't understand that just because someone may want to splurge on one aspect of a vacation they don't necessarily want to splurge on all the other aspects?

When someone proudly brags that they are able to afford more than one week or "whirlwind spending in 5 star hotels and restaurants", it is especially sad that they think anyone without such funds is going to publicly embarrass themselves because they have no class. Anyone who is embarrassed because they carry their own bags into the Ritz (actually that isn't going to happen as the doorman will assist you with the bags as you approach), is more of a snob than he thinks he is. Actually for all the doorman knows you may have just parked your own Rolls in the garage that is just around the corner where you have your own reserved spot! Not all people who stay at the Ritz are such snobs that they worry only about what the doorman will think when they arrive carrying their own luggage. GASP!

well said Patrick!

So...

Back to the question. It sounds to me like the two best (most cost effective) options both involve taking the Thameslink train from Luton and then disembarking at St. Pancras station, taking a moment to appreciate the beauty and contrast of neighboring King's Cross station and then-

A. Take a taxi to the Ritz. Does anybody know the approximate cost? Will depend on time of day I suppose.

B. Maneuver through a construction zone to King's Cross tube station and take Picadilly line to Green Park and walk to Ritz.

I suppose it would depend on how much luggage Varabone travels with . Do you pack like a true Fodorite? i.e., everything packed in a ziplock baggie and tucked discreetly in your handbag?

Or with several unwieldy suitcases constantly toppling over and children in tow tripping you up?

If someone "splurges" then they should "splurge" properly or not at all.

If you can't afford everything (within reason) then wait until you can. Staying at The Ritz and taking the tube is like going into Jimmy Choo, trying on hundreds of pairs of shoes, knowing that you can't (or aren't willing) afford to purchase any of them.

60GBP (cash) is all it costs to use Aircars2000.com. I fail to understand how you won't be able to afford this relatively (compared to circa 350GBP min a night) small sum.

pandaschu, I'm not sure that you're listening to all the advice here. Do not take a taxi unless like some people you love throwing money around. If you want the ease and convenience then hire a car, which will be a fraction of the cost of a taxi. Otherwise it is up to you to decide how much effort the transfer within the tube is and how difficult it will be with your luggage. But for heaven's sake don't choose your mode of transportation merely to please those who are watching you. What you want to do is far more important than making a "proper appearance".

"Message: If someone "splurges" then they should "splurge" properly or not at all."
Odd, that doesn't sound like the same poster who recently posted about looking for a much less expensive hotel for a weekend trip to Belgium, and tried defending his apparent "cheapness" as saying it was only an "unplanned short trip", and then ranted about how although he took Eurostar, it lacked the class of flying. Seems like that person would follow his own advice about splurging totally or not at all. To follow his own thinking, if one splurged on first class Eurostar, shouldn't he continue to splurge on only a 5 star hotel? Oh, I get it, "do as I say, not as I do."

With reference to my recent Antwerp trip (see report) I decided to spend the extra money, and as predicted it wasn't really worth it as the hotel in Brussels would've been better, and cheaper.

The cheapest The Ritz will be is 350GBP which is very steep, even by London standards - Claridge's would've been 125GBP per night cheaper, and in my opinion, far superior.

When I stay at hotels, I never worry about nearby tube or bus stops, if I'm paying a top bracket rate, then I should be able to afford to take a taxi, if I couldn't then I'd reconsider and choose a cheaper property.

Taking the tube to The Ritz is laughable, it's rather like washing down a MacDonalds with a Chateau Margaux '83.

Some people just don't get it, do they?

If someone walked into MacDonalds brandishing a bottle of Petrus Pommerol '45 (costing around 100k GBP for a magnum) and matched it to a BigMac, what would people think?

I don't know what people would think, and frankly why would I care what other people would think? But I'd be more impressed by someone who did it because they wanted to than someone who did it only because they were concerned with others thought.

Believe it or not, some people don't drive a flashy car to impress the valet parker. Some people actually order the cheapest thing on the menu at a very expensive restaurant because it is what they want, rather than ordering the most expensive thing because they feel they should! Some people don't deliberately hire a taxi when the tube is convenient just because they are concerned with their image. But I know all those things are beyond the grasp of people who spend their lives being pretentious, showing off, and worrying about their image.

Your wine reference is more than a bit absurd, but if someone wants to do that -- more power to him. To me it makes more sense than the type of person who would order that wine just to impress the people around him -- and we all know there are lots of those types out there.

It's not so much about doing things for other people, but consider this scenario, the reverse.

If one were staying at a youth hostel, would you think it a little strange if the person wanted to organise a transfer in a Rolls Royce Phantom?

Again, you really don't get it do you?
I wouldn't think anything about such a scenario, because I could care less about the image another person is making. Maybe he's really into cars and wanted to splurge on a Rolls on this trip because he's never done that, but wants to stay at a hostel with his friends. It doesn't bother me one way or the other how he spends his money. Just like I see nothing wrong with a person staying in one grand hotel and splurging on one grand meal on a holiday, that is otherwise a budget trip. "Some" people think that is horrible, that it has to be all or nothing. I don't spend my life worrying about the "image" one projects.
Now, that was my last post, since obviously we are from different worlds in how we react to such things. If you want to feel the way you do, fine, that's your business. I just thought it was unfair to try to impose your standards on someone who was merely asking about transportation to a hotel, not about how to "keep up appearances", Mrs. Bucket.

I'm almost sorry that I couldn't have part of this exchange earlier, however regardless, I'd like to thank those of you who have been helpful. Why I am at the Ritz is really neither here nor there... but maybe the reason I can stay at the Ritz is because I take the metro and not private cars. And maybe because more often than not I'm in a private car and I'm bothered the expectation that I am "snotty" becasue of it.

However, to recap and correct me if I'm wrong my best bet on travelling from the air port is.....

1. The free shuttle to the Thameslink
walk s fair way, yet well marked? to..
2. Thameslink to St Pancras
3. St Pancras walk to the Kings Cross Station and then the Green Line to Green Park Station???

PS... I will have just spent a week working in the south of France and will be travelling with a good size piece of lugguage and my laptop bag... My flight gets in around 4pm on a Thursday.

Vabarone:

You're right.

Whether, at the end of the 20 yard walk from Green Park tube, the Ritz's Transportation Appropriateness Committee lets you in, or whether you'll be the subject of a Bateman-style cartoon ("The Vabarone who carried his/her laptop into the Ritz") is a different matter.

Personally I'd grab a cab at St Pancras with luggage, but that's probably why I rarely can afford to stay at Ritzes. You'll be richer and fitter for the exercise. Ignore anyone who comes onto the board and tells you it's impossible to travel on the tube at rush hour (you'll be arriving round 6).

Millions of us do, and in spite of the whines, none of us are any the worse off for it.

The way to the free shuttle from Luton Airport to the train station is clearly marked within the airport.

Once you do the walk that flanneruk describes from St. Pancras to the Piccadilly Line at Kings Cross station and get on the tube, you will then proceed directly to Green Park and you do not have to change tubes. I can verify from experience that the Ritz is 1/4 block from one of the Green Park tube exits - unfortunately I can't tell you which one to take although it won't be much of a walk with any of them.

Haven't been in Green Park tube for a long time, but if the Ritz itself isn't signposted, then the key words to look for would be Piccadilly (south side) or Green Park.

And for my own two penn'orth (I'm so cheap I wouldn't expect much more for my opinions), I wouldn't presume to go behind other people's reasons for doing what they do, whoever odd it might appear - except insofar as understanding them might help answer their question or warn them of potential embarrassments. And if the Ritz lets its guests get embarrassed about their mode of transport, luggage, appearance or any other appurtenances that don't affect anyone else, it would be so far up itself as to be unworthy of anyone's money anyway.

PatrickLondon is exactly right...come up the stairs and then turn LEFT..the Ritz is across the street (road)and it is hard to miss the place.

The two ageing divas arguing outside will be Patrick and M-Kingdom!

My dear, a kept man is ringing alarm bells.

It's just mighty queer that someone who is paying to stay at The Ritz can't afford a private car. You say that perhaps for "snob" reasons you don't like them, then why on earth are you staying at the snobbiest hotel in London? There are so many more worthwhile hotels that offer finer accomodations and cuisine, yet the person of the people that you are chooses The Ritz?

Ageing, I accept - my mirror permits no less. But 'diva' - moi? and as for 'kept man' - I wish!

"'diva'" Patrick, vabarone is the kept one, not you.

Story of my life...