issy

We will be going to Europe in a couple of months, and due to our flight schedule, we need to arrive in London Heathrow the evening before our scheduled departure back to the states. Our flight the next day is at noon, so we won't have any time to enjoy the city. What is the best LHR hotel in terms of comfort and convenience?

Lori

It depends which terminal you are departing from. If it's Terminal 4 then I recommend the Hilton. It's connected by a covered passageway to Term. 4 and there are usually luggage trollies out front to use to push your luggage over to Term. It's a nice hotel and for convenience you cannot beat it, we have stayed there twice as we flew out of Term 4 and loved being so "close" and no hassle with buses to get to it. The rooms were smallish, but quite adequate. The bathrooms (at least in rooms we had, were very nicely appointed).

For other Terminal departures I suppose any of the airport hotels will work. There are no free shuttles to the hotels tho, you have to take the "Hoppa Bus" and there is a charge of several pounds per person. We stayed at a Sheraton one trip and it was fine for an overnight stay. (there are 2 Sheraton's and I forget which one it was).

I imagine you might get a few recommendations to go into London to stay for one night - frankly, for one night I think that is more trouble then it is worth in terms of comfort and convenience. Hauling luggage in and out of buses/trains/tube is not my idea of a good time (just my opinion).

With a noon flight you need to check in by 10 a.m. so I would not stray too far. Our flights back to U.S. have always been around noon and crowds/lines were huge every single time we have been at Heathrow.

Where2Travel

What Terminal at LHR will you be flying out of the following day? If Terminal 4, there is a Hilton attached to the Terminal so that would be your most convenient choice.

If any other Terminal (i.e. 1, 2 or 3), you may want to pick one of the many hotels nearby (they're all there: Sheraton, Marriott, Radisson, Holiday Inn etc etc). Most have a quick (each shared with two other hotels) bus service to the Airport called the Hoppa. A taxi from a nearby hotel to the airport will be about £15.

Most of these hotels are along Bath Road. To me, one airport hotel is much like another, so when I need one at at LHR, I just pick the cheapest and as long as it's one near the airport and a decent hotel, then that's fine. It sounds like you'll only be there to sleep anyway.

Where2Travel

Sorry, I must have been posting at the same time as Lori but it's reassuring to see we're thinking along similar lines!

Gardyloo

One word. Priceline. Bid around US$75 for a 4-star and you'll almost certainly get the Sheraton Skyline, the Marriott, or the Crowne Plaza, any of which is quite comfortable and convenient enough. It does make a difference regarding access to T4, which is (amazingly) not served by the Hoppa, hence a transfer from T4 to any of the above is a serious pain as you have to take the HEX to the T1/2/3 station, do a long march through the tunnel to the Hoppa stop, then wait (forever sometimes) to pay your £3 each for a 5-minute bus ride. Taxis are supposed to take you where you ask, but the LHR cabbies get ticked off when you only want to go to one of the hotels. A fight with a cab driver when you've just gotten off a long plane ride is something most people don't relish.

However, the savings by using PL can pay for the cab you <i>do</i> find.

Use www.biddingfortravel.com for pointers and recent PL results.

issy

Thanks for the quick replies. We will be leaving from TERMINAL 4. Sounds like the Hilton is the way to go.

Voyager2006

Issy: Not to make things even more complicated for you and since you are only spending ONE night...but you might consider reading the reviews on TripAdvisor.com about the Hilton at Heathrow..they seem to be somewhat &quot;mixed&quot; as I recall.

Lori

Tripadvisor.com reviews are always &quot;mixed&quot; - I would take any review with a grain of salt. We have stayed in places we loved and then read a review and wonder if those people stayed in same place as we did. We have traveled a great deal and have learned if you want a hotel (or anyplace) exactly like home then one should stay home

That said I'd still recommend the Heathrow Hilton for a one night stay.

Patrick

How much are you willing to spend? A few years ago we spent one night after driving in the UK before an early morning flight to Istanbul.

The highest rated airport hotel at that time was the Edwardian Heathrow Plaza Hotel (a Radisson). It was really wonderful. And we had dinner there, expecting the worst, but had a five star type dining experience that was memorable. They picked us up at Hertz where we dropped off the car and they delivered us to the terminal in the morning.

issy

Patrick- Thanks for the tip on the Edwardian. We'll definately look into that. Aterall, if you have to spend the last night of your fabulous, much anticipated, and well planned vacation at an airport hotel, you might as well feel good about it!

Patrick

Actually, now that I think about it, we got a good deal on the room -- internet special maybe? It was really the dinner that was the splurge. We seemed to be surrounded by businessmen who had flown into London from Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York for business dinners and were flying back out.