Hi all,
I hope you can help. I am looking for the easiest possible hotel choice for an overnight stay before a transatlatic flight from Heathrow Terminal 3. I've been considering the Heathrow Hilton but I'm not sure if it is easy to get to T3 from there. Can anyone recommend the best hotel to stay at for the most stress free morning before our flight. If you can recommend the best way to get to T3 from the hotel too, that would be great.

Many thanks

We always stay a Heathrow Hilton no matter which we land and take off from, easy enclosed walk to train line to travel to other terminals.

What time is your flight as with a few exceptions all Heathrow hotels are NOT at the airport and require time - and possibly money to get to.

So for flights after 10:00am it's easier to stay in Central London itself or even at Windsor which is a far better place to stay than some airport hotel and only 20 minutes by taxi to Heathrow.

If you do decide to go for an airport hotel then any of the ones along Bath Road would be suitable as they are connected either by Hotel Hoppa or FREE bus service to Heathrow

http://www.londontoolkit.com/lhr/hotel_hoppa_bus.htm

The hilton wouldn't be a good choice IMO. It is actually farther from T-3 than the off airport hotels along the A4/Bath Road.

You can priceline any LHR hotel and you'll get one of the Bath rd (or just off the Bath rd) hotels

I'd do that for a flight before about 9AM, and stay in central London for a flight later than that.

There are perfectly decent hotels outside Hounslow Central tube, which is a popular choice for those not wanting to be isolated on the Bath Road but within couple tube stops of LHR eg Days Inn (3 star) and the Continental (4 star with gym and pool, not bad restaurant). There is also an Etap which has really cheap rooms, but would not recommend that unless on a very tight budget.

Thanks for all the responses so far. Our flight is 11:30 I think but my wife is quite a nervous traveller and I don;t think a central London hotel would be suitable for us. As out flight is transatlantic I am assuming we would still have to be there at least 3 hours before the flight, to check in??

Allegedly, but if everyone turns up 3 hours in advance then there's a massive queue.

But 11:30 flight means 8:30 at airport, 7:30 from central London. Which is easy to do.

I certainly wouldn't change hotels from central London just to be nearer the airport.

you definitely don't need to be there before 9:30, and it is totally worth it to stay put in London, enjoy your last night and take a cab in the a.m (about 40 min, $80)

Each year I fly to lonon and back, from San francisco. My return flight is 10:30 and I have never stayed at the airport. What works for me is a hotel in the Paddington area and then the Express or Connect train to terminals 1,2,3. From a hotel, say a five minute walk, another 30/40 minutes to Heathrow and another 10 minutes to arrivals. I generally arrive 7:30/8:00.

Agree that there is no reason to stay by the airport. If you do choose to do so, I'm not sure the Hilton has any significant advantage over the other area hotels. However, the Hilton is nice enough, and does offer the train connection to T3, though I'm not sure this is that big of a deal. The Sofitel at T5 or the Yotel (T4) are your other on-airport options.

I'm also a nervous traveler (about land-based connections and queues, not the actual gravity-defying-suspended-in-the-air stuff!) and I'd agree with your wife to get to LHR 3 hours early. No, it's no fun to just hang around an airport but I'd much rather sit for 60-90 minutes with a leisurely if boring wait than be fretting in traffic or a long line of people. If you have a hotel in London the night before, though, you could stay there and get a car service to pick you up at ?7ish and have you to the airport by 8ish. justairports is highly recommended.

(We stayed at Jurys Inn at the end of our trip before an extremely early flight; it was fairly inexpensive, had rooms for 3, quiet, and we caught the Hoppabus--but it wasn't that great and was smoky smelling. Would probably look at other hotels if ever need to again)

Can't give any recommendations myself but there's a few options listed here... http://tinyurl.com/Heathotel that might be useful to look at.