Stansted Veterans, information please...
 

Last spring I flew to Paris via Stansted. We had a friend drive us and it seemed to be MUCH farther from London than I thought. Usually I make all of my own preparations but this time they were handled by an (English) friend so I am unfamiliar with the cost of trains, busses, cabs, to and from Stansted.<BR><BR>I like London to begin with and, because of super reasonable rates on airlines such a Buzz, I’m thinking about visiting London in the future and using it as a springboard for more extensive European travel. (For example, I’ve always wanted to visit Berlin and Buzz flies direct for &pound;35 one way, an excellent rate. By the way, the flight to Paris was comparable.)<BR><BR>If anyone out there has used Stansted extensively and would like to offer information/pointers, I’m all ears.<BR>

Try this:<BR>http://www.stanstedexpress.com/

We will flying from Stansted to Frankfurt soon. What is the easiest and most economical way to get there from the Victoria Station area? 3 adults and one small child.

Hi<BR><BR>You can get to London easily by train, or bus.<BR><BR>Ryanair sells tickets on the plane for the train at around Euro 20.<BR><BR>I believe it takes about 45 mins<BR><BR>Peter

Stansted is about 30 miles from Central London. I suppose the coach is the cheapest way to get there but you do have to watch the traffic.

Stansted Airport's official website is at http://www.baa.co.uk/main/airports/stansted/<BR><BR>Lots of useful information, such as 'Getting Here'.

In fact, http://www.stansted.co.uk takes you to the same web page and is much easier to type and to remember!

Considering the distance, Stansted Express is the quickest link between the airport and central London, and it has the added advantage of arriving just under the terminal, which means you are 3 minutes away from your check-in counter. There are some flaws, though:<BR>- as all rail travel in Britain, it's outrageously expensive, something like &pound;23 return (once I took it to catch a flight to Charleroi that had cost me &pound;22 return ! )even if buying the ticket on board a Ryanair flight might save you a couple of pounds<BR>- for some obscure reason, it is the least frequent when passenger pressure is at its highest (in the evenings, on week-ends, when you only have 2 trains an hour)<BR>- this being Britain, there is always some kind of "exceptional" or "essential" works going on, and more often than not you end up in a bus, or the in between station is not Tottenham Hale any more, but Seven Sisters. So always check the Stansted Express web site before leaving<BR><BR>Actually, if there are many of you in your party, another option worth considering is the mid and long term car parks. They respectively cost &pound; 10 and &pound; 7.50 a day (I think... ), so it might be worth it if you have a car. However, expect an extra 45 minutes of shuttling for the long term car park. Or do as I do: go to Stansted by motorbike, and leave it at the long term car park, it's free !

Coming back from Stansted usually goes fairly smoothly - although the so-called Stansted Express is often a fair bit slower than you'd expect. (By contrast the Heathrow Express never seems to be more than 5 minutes slower than its 15 minute scheduled trip.) Occasionally, travel on the train to Stansted is a complete nightmare. I would be careful with travel plans at peak periods (eg getting to the airport on Friday afternoon/evening). Also, the train stops running a little before midnight (and lots of the discount flights arrive later than that, especially if there are delays). It's definitely worth investigating the cost of mini-cabs to the airport if there are several of you travelling.

The easiest way is to get the Stansted Express into Liverpool Street - though as has been discussed above, it might not be the quickest!<BR><BR>You might also want to look at the other low cost airlines too. Buzz, Ryanair and Go primarily use Stansted, but easyJet flies from Luton and increasingly Gatwick. Of the three, Gatwick is by far the easiest to get to from central London with trains from Victoria (Gatwick Express and South Central) and London Bridge (South Central again and Thameslink.) Luton Airport station can be reached by Thameslink, or you can go with Midland Mainline from Euston to Luton and then get a cab.

Thanks for a shining example of how well this site can work. You've been very helpful and offered plenty of options.