Timing arrival to London from two locations
 

We plan on traveling from Paris to London via train on a Sunday morning in November. My daughter will be joining us in London but will be taking a plane from Copenhagen. I am worried that her time going through Immigration and Customs and then traveling to our B&B in London will take up half of the day and will cut into the amount of time we were planning on visiting London. Would we be better off arriving the night before so that we can have a full day that Sunday or is immigration and Customs not that bad? I am guessing that her Immigration and Customs is worse than ours will be arriving by train. We are all U.S. citizens. Thank you.

You will have an easy time as you clear UK Immigration at Gare du Nord in Paris before boarding Eurostar. Customs is non-existent unless you look very dodgy.

Your daughter will go through Immigration when she lands because the UK is not in the Schengan zone. It really will depend on the length of the lines as to how long this will take. Customs is just a walk-through the EU path. She'll then need to get in from the airport. Sunday traffic will be much less than week day but from the time she lands, plan 2-3 hours. Can't really say as don't know your location in London.

If she has carry-on only this will speed things up. Coming in by the Underground is 40-60 minutes to central London, depending on your location. If the b&b location involves several underground changes, obtain a quote from www.justairports.com

Your basic question is sort of unanswerable - what time is her flight and which airport is she arriving?

Is Sunday your only time in London?

But yes, arriving by plane takes longer than arriving by train - mainly because most of the airports are far outside of town (with the exception of LCY) and St Pancras is in the center . . .

Plan on staying in London Sunday - Tuesday and leaving Wednesday morning for our next destination. I am worried that the whole process of immigration, baggage, and traveling into the city will eat up half of Sunday. I am thinking that perhaps she should arrive Saturday evening and stay at an airport hotel overnight if she can not find a friend to stay with (she has several friends who are studying abroad).

joni,

It is going to take time and there's no way to speed it up much from any of the main airports other than what was suggested above. In my opinion, two hours from deplane to arrival at the b&b is very, very optimistic and only a guess as I don't know where your b&b is or which airport she is coming into.

But seriously, if she does fly in the night before she should come into central London to your b&b or other accommodation, why put her in an airport hotel?

Cathinjoetown - thought the airport because it would be less money and we would not be in London yet. Didn't want her taking the train at night by herself.

What time would your daughter be arriving in London? I am not sure airport hotels would be much cheaper.

There is absolutely no reason to be concerned about her taking the train at night.

I don't understand your problem. You can arrive independently at the B&B and leave your luggage (it will likely be too early to check in) and meet up somewhere for lunch or afternoon tea. There's no reason for you to hang around waiting for her.

>>I am worried that the whole process of immigration, baggage, and traveling into the city will eat up half of Sunday.<<

that almost entirely depends on what time she lands.

>>Didn't want her taking the train at night by herself.<<

Why on earth not? How old is your daughter? 10? If she is flying out of Copenhagen solo -- she most certainly can get into London on her own.

If she flies in the night before - great -- but doing so and then staying at the airport makes no sense IMO. None. Plus -- If you arrive on the Eurostar in the morning your room probably won't be ready yet. At least if she checks in the night before you'll already have a room available to freshen up and leave the bags before going out for the day.

I can see the concern for anyone traveling alone at night, not so much on the train, but then walking to the B+B which may not be across the street from the station.

>>I can see the concern for anyone traveling alone at night, not so much on the train, but then walking to the B+B which may not be across the street from the station.<<

If she lands at any reasonable hour she won't be walking anywhere in the wee small hours. If the hotel/B&B is in the center of London there are going to be lots of folks out and about on a Saturday night.

There should be many licensed taxis available at the train station. She should have an idea where the B & B is in relation to the station and take a taxi if the B & B isn't in easy walking distance.

If the B&B is in central London I have a hard time imagining it's not walking distance from a tube station. Or a bus stop.