What to do with luggage while we wait to check in to apartment in London
 

Hi all,

My husband, 6 year old daughter and I will be visiting London for the first time. Our flight will arrive at Heathrow this Saturday (June 25th) at around 10:40 am, but we are not able to check in to our rental apartment until 2:30pm. (Note that the apartment is located in Bayswater, right above Hyde Park.) As recommended here, I'm considering hiring Just Airports to take us from Heathrow to London.

I am guessing we'll probably get to London before 1:00pm and it would be nice if we could have lunch and walk around while we wait to check in to the apartment. Question is - what should we do with our luggage while we wait? I understand we can leave our luggage at Paddington Station. Should we hire a car from Just Airports, have them drop us off at Paddington Station and leave our luggage there while we explore for an hour or two? ...then perhaps take a cab from Paddington Station to our apartment?

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks so much!

Joby

This is, unfortunately, one of those unspoken downsides of renting an apartment sometimes. Have you asked THEM for suggestions because I suspect your situation is not unique.

First of all - you won't have all that long to wait really. W/ a 10:40 arrival you likely won't be to your flat until about 1:30.

But IF you happen to get through the LHR formalities quickly, you can leave your bags at Left Luggage in Paddington station.

Dukey1, the rental company did suggest leaving our luggage at Paddington, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to also ask here :-)

Janisj, If we decide to leave our luggage in Paddington station, should we still hire a car from Just Airports or would it make better sense to take Heathrow Connect?

Heathrow Connect seems to be the cheaper option, but I'm worried about having to lug our bags up and downs stairs. Will we have to go through a lot of stairs if we use Heathrow Connect?

Note that the fee is 6£ per item for less than 3 hours.

Heathrow Connect is a train so no stairs. So this is one of the few instances where a train to Paddington could make sense.

If you have a lot of luggage (hopefully not) then in either case you'll be taking a taxi from the station to your flat.

Thanks for the luggage fee info Marija!

Janisj, just need to clarify - will there be a lot of stairs going from airport departure to Heathrow Connect and from Heathrow Connect train to the Left-Luggage area in Paddington?

It does seem like Heathrow Connect is the best option for us. I just want to know ahead of time if we'll have to deal with stairs, so I can prepare my husband for it :-)

I think your plan makes sense, leaving it at Paddington, I don't really know what other good options you would have. Some people have bashed the train to Paddington, I forget why, I guess they think it is too expensive but I have used it and liked it a lot and thought the price fine for the service. I suppose if there were a lot of you, the price comparison would change versus a taxi. I was alone.

In any case, I've stayed in that area a couple times and really like it. I like the Swann pub near Lancaster Gate station.
http://www.swanbayswater.co.uk/

Also, you can just walk across Bayswater Rd to Hyde Park and walk around.

Have a plan B if it looks like it would take too much time waiting to store and claim luggage at Paddington. You luggage have to go through an x-ray machine.

No, I agree, it usually doesn't hurt to ask for other ideas but I am very happy to hear that the rental folks at least made a reasonable suggestion.

Of course, you could also just take the luggage to lunch with you, if there's not too much of it, you likely won't have time for much else. Along with maybe getting to check in early, this is one advantage of hotels over apartments at the start or end of a trip.

@greg, you're right, I'm not sure I like the idea of waiting a long time to store and claim luggage at Paddington, especially if we're hungry and jet-lagged. Hmmm... I may just take thursdaysd's suggestion to take our luggage to lunch with us.

I'm looking at Tripadvisor now to check out restaurants near the apartment, (which is on Inverness Terrace close to Bayswater Rd). Santorini Restaurant, which is just a couple of blocks from the apartment looks promising :-)

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions and comments!

Does the apartment have a place to store luggage while you wait to check in?

Scotia, the rental company suggested that we store our luggage at Paddington Station, so they most likely don't have a place to store luggage.

Thanks again everyone for all your suggestions! In case you're interested, I've decided to hire a car from Just Airports and have them drop us off at Lokkanta restaurant, which is about a 10 minute walk from the apartment. I've already contacted Lokkanta to make sure it's okay to bring our luggage there and they assured me that they'd be able to accommodate us.

Great solution.

If you are early you can have a leisurely lunch, and if you are late . . . just ask the driver to take you to the flat instead (there would be no difference in the car fare)

I have always dropped the luggage at the apartment early. Usually they're cleaning and they don't want you underfoot but luggage is fine. You verified that's not an option? Once we drop our luggage we go walk around and eat/get our bearings, etc.

>> You verified that's not an option?<<

Since the landlord suggested Paddington, I'd guess that isn't an option . . .

thursdaysd beat me to it. Why not just find a place nearby to have lunch and sit down with your luggage there? We're only talking a couple hours max.

>>Why not just find a place nearby to have lunch and sit down with your luggage there?<<

The OP has already decided to do that

>>I've decided to hire a car from Just Airports and have them drop us off at Lokkanta restaurant, which is about a 10 minute walk from the apartment<<