Overnight in London/in at Gatwick out at Heathrow
 

My husband and I have a layover in London on Friday, Nov 6th arriving at Gatwick in the afternoon from a restful stay in Venice- but departing from Heathrow the next morning at 10:00 am and back to Texas. Any suggestions on a hotel convenient to these airports
that would place us in an area we could just walk around to enjoy the sights. Have been to London before- but only had a day previously also. Would love to try out their bus or train to the hotel from airport if you have any suggestions. Don't want to spend more than $200 on hotel- if that much. Any sight suggestions or pubs with great ambience and music (traditional.)

If you stay near a Picadilly line underground station you'll be able to get straight to Heathrow on the tube the next day...

If you don't mind taking the tube to Heathrow in the morning, I would recommend getting a hotel on the Piccadilly Line in central London. Then you could easily go see a theatre production that night, take a London Walk, enjoy a nice meal, walk along the Thames, etc.

Possible suggestion: Holiday Inn Bloomsbury. Convenient for tourists, and on the Piccadilly Line. I had a discounted rate, but you can see what price is available for you.

To get there from Gatwick Airport, I'd recommend taking the First Capital Connect to Kings Cross-St Pancras, and then either taking a brief taxi ride, or the Piccadilly Line to Russell Square. The hotel is about a block from the Russell Square tube stop.

For a 10 AM departure you have to be at the airport at 8 or 8:30 at the latest, which means that from central London you have to be on the move sometime around 6:30 or 7 in order to be safe. That means up at 5:30 or 6 or earlier, depending on your style.

Versus, taking the connecting bus from LGW to LHR the afternoon before, getting a 4-star hotel at Heathrow using Priceline for around US$60-70, then sleeping an extra hour or two the next morning, before a 10 hr flight.

If you want to get out the previous evening/afternoon, you can take a taxi (around £26) from most Heathrow-area hotels to Windsor, then the bus back for £3 or so, or v.v., and use the difference in hotel costs to pay for it.

Thanks so much for the suggestions and the time factors involved. The bus system has a reputation for ease of usage so we will find out. Do you have any suggestions for hotels by Heathrow and attractions in Windsor?

W/ that schedule, you won't be able to see anything in Windsor. You don't say what time in the afternoon you arrive at LGW - so I'll just use 2PM as a starting point. Landing at 2PM, you won't get to LHR before 4:30 or 5PM at the earliest. Then you'd have to take the Hotel Hoppa bus (or a cab) to your LHR hotel. Maybe if you are lucky you will be checked in by 5:30 or 6PM. Last admission to Windsor castle is at 3 PM -- no possible way to see the Castle and nothing else in the town will be open except for a few restaurants. Plus it will be dark before 5PM . . . . Staying in a Windsor hotel would mean traveling over there for no real reason than to get away from LHR. No real benefit time or budget-wise.

So - while I often recommend Windsor for a layover, it doesn't really work for you.

I'd either go into cental London and spend the night along the Piccadilly line like in Knightsbridge or South Kensington or Covent Garden and see a bit of London by night - OR - take the airport coach to LHR and stay in a pricelined hotel there.

Meant to add - w/ that same 2PM arrival, you'd be in central London by about 3:30-ish