I have a quote from Ray Skinners' transfer service and I thought the outbound (after reading travel talk) would be less than pick up. It's 39 pounds for pick up at Heathrow, and 59 for drop off at Gatwick, does this sound okay? I need to confirm, and i want to be sure. thanks

It sounds right to me and we've used Ray's service a lot. The 39 pounds includes the waiting/parking charge at Heathrow. If you were going back to Heathrow it would just be 35 pounds (no waiting/parking involved). Gatwick is considerably further out then Heathrow, hence all charges out that say are more.

You'll enjoy Ray, he's an original !!

Ray's web site lists fares as £34 for Heathrow and £54 for Gatwick, with a £5 surcharge for pickup, so I think your Gatwick dropoff rate might be £5 over. Gatwick is farther than Heathrow, hence the higher basic rate.

I second the recommendation for Ray. We just used him for pickup and drop-off at Heathrow. He is reliable, charming, and, I thought, relatively cheap compared to other services we've used.

Good luck!

Ray Skinner (or Swiss Cottage or any of several others) is a good choice for to/from Heathrow.

But if you are staying anywhere near Victoria Station, the Gatwick Express would be faster and cheaper. Even if you have to add a short cab ride to get to Victoria it would still be cheaper/faster.

Gatwick is a LOT farther out and the drive can take a lot longer.

If you are staying a long distance from Victoria making the cab ride really expensive - then the car service would be a viable choice.

But the Gatwick Express is so easy - and the walk once you arrive at the terminal is MUCH shorter than the one at LHR.

When deciding whether a car service or the express would be cheaper, don't forget that the cars charge per trip rather than per person, so can be a better buy if you have 3 or 4 in your party.

thanks for the answers, we are staying at the Trafalgar Hilton. I remember taking the train in 86' from Gatwick but couldn't remember how far it was. I will check to see if Trafalgar square is anywheres close to Victoria station. Since we're using points for the hotel we can splurge on the transfer service.

janis: i just looked and Victoria station looks pretty close to Trafalgar square. We are planning on buying the 7 day travel card, would we be able to use it for the train to Gatwick? It says its good for train, buses, tubes, and boat. We will be getting the one for all zones. thanks, dollie

dollie: No - Gatwick is outside of the 6 zones covered by the travel card.

But for two people the train plus the short cab ride (or tube ride) to Victoria would be about £20 cheaper than a car service to Gatwick.

BTW - for about 99% of tourists it is not cost effective to get more than a zone 1 or zone 1-2 travel card. Almost everything you will visit is in zone 1 with a very few in zone 2. The main sites out in zone 6 are Heathrow and Hampton Court Palace. If HCP is the only place you are going to in zone 6 you will save over £30 by just getting a zone 1 travel card and then pay the £3.50 supplement to Hampton Court.

Same applies if you decide to take the tube in from Heathrow - just buy a zone 1 transport pass and pay the small supplement for LHR in to zone 1.

janis: thanks for the info, i thought we needed the zones 1-6. i think we will take the train to gatwick, that alone is an experience for us. i don't think my husband has ever been on a train! this is going to be fun. we are arriving in London sept 27, leaving 10/3 for Rome, then leaving 10/9 for Greece. thanks for the info. ttt