Where to stay two nights before flying from Heathrow?
 

We (mother and I) are considering spending our last two nights on our May 2016 trip in Windsor for a relaxing final day before leaving from Heathrow. The primary reason for Windsor would be its proximity to the airport, but we've been there once before and would entertain alternative ideas for our final two nights. We'll be coming from Cornwall, and will either be arriving by train, which would require two changes (Reading & Slough), or driving, in which case we need to return a car. For either of these options Windsor seems a little less than ideal. Any thoughts on a better base for our final two nights?

London

Yes - that would make the most sense, but I should have mentioned that I'm trying to avoid going in/out of London this trip!

Meant to elaborate but something happened - anyways if you take the train to Paddington Station - get a hotel around there - no not the best place in London to be but utilitarian for your needs - short walk to Hyde Park - Oxford Street, Selfridge's etc and great tube access.

but the key is that you are at most a 20-minute train ride from Heathrow on the Heathrow Express - check the official site for discounts - if you go return tickets you can get some nifty 2 for 1 deals I believe - https://www.heathrowexpress.com/

You could even leave some heavy luggage at Paddington's left-luggage service (but for a pretty pencey).

Otherwise Reading is not a bad town - I walked around it once - nothing to see much tourist-wise but direct airbuses to Heathrow and buses to nearby Oxford for a nice day at college.

Cheers!

a car seems to give you more options - like staying in Salisbury two nights.

There are coaches from lots of towns to Heathrow, including Oxford. Look here, http://www.heathrowairport.com/trans...oaches/coaches
and click where it says "View Heathrow coach network map" near the top for a visual.

Making a choice would include the time of your flight.

If not been to Oxford consider it strongly and as Mad Lost says coaches from Oggsford to Heathrow are about as quick as taking a car from London to Heathrow.

We actually used the coach service from Oxford to Heathrow on our trip last year, and it was easy and efficient. I like the idea of staying in Salisbury, but not sure how easy it is to get to Heathrow from there.

Thanks for that link, MmePerdu - very helpful!

Salisbury to Heathrow - I thought if you drive but train from there would not take you near the airport - maybe coaches but maybe not. Again I thought if driving then it's probably not bad unless a very early flight.

From Salisbury to LHR, you need to take the train to Reading then coach to Heathrow. You could also have a driver/ car service take you from Salisbury to LHR. There are several such agencies in Salisbury. I've done it in reverse but that was several years ago and can't remember the price of the service. Sure was easy.:)

Sorry, PalenQ - I thought you meant to drive to Salisbury from Cornwall and leave the car there, but if we dropped it off at the airport that probably wouldn't be too bad.

I'll check for car services from Salisbury. Good idea, Historytraveler!

Dropping a car at LHR is no problem - all the rental locations are grouped together and then you catch a shuttle to the terminals. Easier actually than most of the train/coach options.

If you keep the car you could stay anywhere, Windsor, Salisbury, in a country village.

It partly depends on the time of your flight. If in the morning, IMO you can't do better than Windsor.

Thanks Janis - good to know it's so easy to return a car at the airport. My original thought was that if we stayed in Windsor I'd return the car to Slough (Enterprise has an office there), then get a taxi (or have them drop us off) to Windsor, then taxi to the airport. But I don't know about driving into Slough - how congested, confusing, etc. it may be. Would it be easier to return at the airport vs. Slough?

On the other hand, I hadn't considered staying nearby WITH a car and returning to the airport, so I'll also look at other nearby villages/towns.

Return the car at the airport. Slough is awful.
Maybe consider a town a little further out than Windsor. Henley perhaps?

I thought that may be the case! Henley...I don't know it, but I'll check it out. Thanks!

Henley is nice and I like Marlow even better. There's a nice country house hotel nearby, not too expensive, in Taplow, Taplow House, where I've stayed a couple of times.

http://www.taplowhouse.com

I'll check it out - thank you MmePerdu!