Stansted Express
 

Just want to make sure this is my best option, and that I have my facts correct. :)

We are arriving via RyanAir to Stansted express on Thursday, the 30th at 6:30 pm. We return via Stansted leaving Sunday morning at 7:20 AM. We can get return tickets on the Stansted Express for 43 pounds to/from Liverpool. Our hotel is the Marriott Regents Park which is near the Swiss Line (?).

My biggest concern is the return portion on Sunday. Again, our flight leaves at 7:20 AM. It looks like the Stansted Express starts leaving Liverpool at 4:10 am. Can anyone tell me the exact lines we need to catch from Liverpool to/from the closest tube station, Swiss, by our hotel? Thanks!

First and foremost please call it Liverpool Street Station. If not you may find advice on how to get to the city of Liverpool. Many posters here freely abbreviate place names, street names and station names in London and elsewhere and they are lucky that they don't end up in the wrong place or get sent all round the houses when on foot. Ditto Swiss, it is Swiss Cottage, you will get some strange looks because nobody will know what you mean, Swiss what?

Re the ticket they seem to be offering you the first class rate, which is nearly double. You can book online and save a further 2 pounds. It is nearly double the price of the standard ticket.

https://www.stanstedexpress.com/inde...6656C032B9A%7D

The train takes just under an hour at that time on Sunday but they are only half hourly till 7 am. You need to order a car to take you to Liverpool Street from your hotel, they will have a list of good services, or you may get a black cab, they wait outside that hotel in the daytime. The Underground does not run at that time on a Sunday.

Sorry for the homily on place names but it is confusing for the locals who try and guess where you want to go.

PS. Swiss Cottage Station is on the Jubilee Line (grey on the maps). You can take two directions from Liverpool St. Metropolitan Line to Baker St and change to Jubilee Line or Central Line to Bond St and change to Jubilee Line.

Thank you for the corrections! Also, the train prices are through RyanAir, which I have read offers the cheapest rate. (?) This is for 2 passengers - 43 round trip.

Personally I'd find somewhere nearer the centre of London to stay as Swiss Cottage is a bit out of the way.

Also note the down escalator at Swiss Cottage won't be working until September but as you are going to have to have a car service or taxi to get you to Liverpool Street it's a moot point

We got the hotel through priceline. I wasn't crazy about the location, but we have to make it work.

I don't know if you have looked on the website but the offer for two return tickets for 43 pounds is cheaper than on the website. It sounded like the price of one ticket in your original post. Swiss Cottage is not in the outer suburbs as has been suggested. There are several centres in London and so wherever you stay you will be some distance from some of the interesting places, you may find you share the hotel with more European guests than in some localities.

I found an interactive map that gives you a timeline. It is saying about a 40 minute commute from Liverpool Street Station to Swiss Cottage! That is not convenient at all.

Hi there,

Liverpool street to Swiss Cottage is about 25 mins on the tube. You can check at:

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/use..._TRIP_REQUEST2

And its only 10 mins from Swiss Cottage to Green Park (which is Buckingham Palace area) so its not to bad.

No, it's not, but it's not like you'll be traveling from Liverpool Street all the time. Swiss Cottage isn't the most central location, but you're really only a few tube stops from touristy things. If your flight arrives at Stansted at 6:30pm on Thursday, you wouldn't have much time to see things that evening anyway.

jamikins - I'm glad you looked for more details. I thought 40 minutes sounded awfully long!

Jamikins is correct.

It could be 40 minutes from the platform at Liverpool Street to the door of the hotel in Swiss Cottage but frankly the problem is not so much Swiss Cottage as Liverpool Street which is in the East of London. If you can change your hotel you could choose one in the business area which is around Liverpool Street. It is not far from the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Also good for the British Library that you said you wanted to visit elsewhere.

The other possibility for this confusion is if you used the journey planner link and punched in leave now at a time when the services are not running fully, for example the middle of the night in London but day time wherever you are. Then you would get extremely accurate information about the twists and turns, perhaps including night buses you had to take.

If you are in a completely different time zone or you want to plan for a specific date then you need to click advanced options first before entering your start and end point, dates and times. You can also delete all modes of transport except buses if you want to only travel by bus

It will be about 30 mins (including walking to the hotel) from Liverpool Street Station. But that is not a worry since the ONLY two times you'd be anywhere near Liverpool Street station are arriving/leaving on the train.

Otherwise you'd be going completely other directions and have much shorter travel times. your hotel is not that inconvenient -- ESPECIALLY considering the rate you got on Priceline. Don't worry.

Swiss Cottage to Bond St is only 3 stops; to Westminster (Big Ben, the river, the Eye, Westminster Abbey) is only 5 stops w/o a change; to Piccadilly Circus - 5 stops w/ a transfer; to South Kensington (the V&A etc) is 6 stops w/ a transfer.

So it is not any less convenient than places like Earls Court (which some recommend for being central/cheap) - Earls Court to Westminster or Piccadilly is 6 stops for example.

Do not worry . . . .

"<i>If you can change your hotel </i>" these suggestions to change the hotel are not practical/helpful -- as the the OP has said - they booked the hotel through Priceline. All this whinging about the location isn't helping, and the OP got a terrific bargain (only a little over $100 for the Marriott Regents Park).

So let's help the OP have a wonderful weekend and stop telling them to move hotels . . . .

"That is not convenient at all."

If the OP uses an expression like the one above one can only suggest they move.

"<i>If the OP uses an expression like the one above one can only suggest they move.</i>"

Ok - once again, they CAN'T move . . . It is a <u>priceline booking</u> . .

Yes, you could do the Stansted Express bus and the tube. Or you could compare it to the alternative to use a car service such as justairports.com. Price Stansted Airport to NW3 (where that Marriott is) is 46 pounds (total for two people as unless you get to more people where you need a bigger vehicle that is their price for the car). It's the same price in reverse. Certainly that would be the best for the early morning return if the tube doesn't run that early on a Sunday morning. You can book online. It's very easy. I used them often when I lived in London last year and always found the service reliable and good.

Here is the link I came across:

http://www.brail.org/transit/london.html

I am glad to hear the route may be a bit shorter! I was hoping you helpful people would have alternative routes or answers like you have posted, and that I just came across wrong info. I was thinking "a 45 minute train ride on Stansted Express followed by another 40 minute commute" wasn't sounding too fun. But for the price I got, we will make it work.

Have I mentioned that I have spent the past 3 days - all day - trying to plan for this trip? my eyes are about to pop out of my head. Time for a glass of wine....

THANK YOU EVERYONE for all the helpful info.

I had no idea justairports would be that cheap from Stansted (I use them in from LHR pretty frequently)

If it is only £46 (and there may be a discount for R-T/ cash) I'd definitely consider it. The trip would probably take longer than the train/tube but it would be door to door and save hassle.