Which is closer to Heathrow: Gatwick or Stansted
 

If we fly into Heathrow or Gatwick, we can take a cheapo air carrier from Stansted to Venice and save several hundred dollars. Question is, which is closer to Stansted? Thanks

The faster route is train Gatwick (30 miles due south of London)-Victoria, tube Victoria-Tottenham Hale, train Tottenham Hale-Stansted (30 miles due north)

The shorter route (in miles) is National Express bus Heathrow-Stansted (most Gatwick-Stansted buses call at Heathrow - 20 miles west of London - on the way).

Both journeys are a pain, and you need to time them out carefully. Allow at least six hours from scheduled touch-down to scheduled departure. And be very sure you really are saving all these hundreds of dollars. Take the booking process on Ryanair right to the end to see what you're really going to pay, and add on the cost of all this running across or round London. Then add in the risk of losing it all anyway because you miss the connection. Last, see what deal you really can get from BA or Alitalia for a straight connection at LHR or LGW

Links to the travel operators are in the "getting here" sections of each airport's pages at www.baa.com

If you fly into Heathrow, there's a good chance that the BMI flight to Venice might work for you. It's not that expensive, although not quite as cheap at face value as EasyJet or the others. For the dates I looked at the difference in ticket price were about $50 USD compared to the cheapos, and obviously the connection is way less of a pain and no extra cost.

Check out http://www.flybmi.com .

I agree with the advice you've been given. There are no train links between the various airports, only bus service or taxi/car service. Or, as flanneruk mentions, each airport has train service into London. If you're able to fly BA the whole way, they have flights from Gatwick that shouldn't be that much more expensive.(As I recall, it added only about $100/ticket to a NY/London fare).

BMI (British Midlands) & Alitalia I think have Heathrow/VCE flights. Don't forget the cost of roundtrip bus connections.

And please factor in the baggage requirements for any flight that occurs within Europe.

There are a LOT of people who frequent this board who, if I didn't know better, could easily be the Cathy-Lee Gifford of the European cheapos because they are constantly talking about EasyJet and RyanAir and I suspect some start feeling guilty because they HAVEN'T taken one of these flights.

But the cost in time and money of transfers, re-claiming and checking baggage, packing "light" and all the other stuff that goes with it should be considered. Guess it depends on priorities. Good luck with your trip.