In early February I am thinking about a 2 night stopover in London on my way to Egypt. My flight would arrive in the morning from Heathrow, and I would spend 2 nights in London before departing from Gatwick at 9:30 in the morning of day 3 (these are weekdays). I have been to London for a short trip before, and during this brief stopover I would plan to have some unstructured time to visit a few museums, walk around an interesting neighborhood and just recover a bit from jet lag.

I will have a smaller sized checked suitcase and a backpack. I don't want to hassle going up stairs in subway stations. What area would you suggest I stay in order to have easy access coming in from LHR and to easily get to LGW for my departure, and what modes of transportation would you suggest? Thank you.

I'd stay at/near Victoria Station. Easy tube in from LHR with a step-free change at Hammersmith. Then the trains from Victoria to LGW leave from the street/concourse level.

I appreciate this. Now, another question.

Flight to Egypt departs from Gatwick at 09:30, and I understand I need to be there 3 hours early. Would I be better off just spending one night near Victoria station and then leaving my luggage at the hotel for the day while sightseeing, and end up the second night at a Gatwick hotel?

Thanks so much.

That's up to you. The train only takes about 30 minutes and drops you right at LGW - so staying at the airport really only saves you maybe 20-ish mins.

I have stayed at the Bloc Hotel in Gatwick a couple of times. It is like a pod, it is not cheap, but you cannot beat the convenience for a flight out of Gatwick. You go there to sleep, that is all.

if it were me in your situation, that is what I would do. But I am a total woos when it comes to early departures.

Personally I would stay around Farringdon station. Central with some decent accommodation options and very convenient with direct Elizabeth line trains from LHR and Thameslink trains direct to LGW.

Another alternative would be Blackfriars - right on the river and accessed by tube from LHR in much the same way as Victoria and then Thameslink to LGW.

Both locations I think are better than Victoria, although I appreciate that others disagree!

Thanks for your thoughts.

John, I am going to follow up on your suggestions. I honestly don't know a thing about Thameslink.

rialtogirl, I am not a super morning person so am debating whether it is worth it to be a half an hour closer to the airport the morning of departure.

The Bloc Hotel is IN the airport. I have had too many problems with trains to Gatwick (strikes) and also the Elizabeth line (just last month, a "signal failure" and no trains) and now I am just going to spend my night before an early flight close to the airport. Later flights, I do not worry so much.

I love the area around Farringdon but lodging is expensive around there. Sundays are soooo boring, Thursdays everything is packed, because it is a business area. It has been a couple of years but I stayed at the Hatton Garden hotel in Farringdon after a flight from California, it was fine, easy to find, and not too expensive then (it has gone up a bit.)

julies- you don’t really need to know anything about Thameslink. It’s just another train company that in this case rune the trains through central London and south to Gatwick and Brighton amongst other places. You can just use it like any other service in London, ideally with a contactless method of payment.

I am back with a couple questions now that I have had time to actually think a bit and look at transportation and hotel possibilities.

I have decided that I want to prioritize ease of access and a speedy connection to Gatwick. With the arrival into Heathrow I figure speed to get to a hotel doesn't matter as much because I won't be on any tight timeframe. (If possible I would also like to just be in an interesting neighborhood.) Does this change your recommendations at all?

I did look at the Bloc Hotel right at Gatwick but haven't yet convinced myself that this is my best solution. But, I'll admit that I am now running a bit scared of attempting to get to Gatwick for a 9:30 am flight since when I just accessed the Thamesline link, a warning of a major disruption was the first thing I saw. If I were to plan on a route and discovered a major problem accessing the airport, would I be totally screwed or are there viable last minute alternatives?

Thanks again for your expertise.

Julies - I imagine that you have looking at information about engineering work on the lines over the Christmas/New Year period. That will obviously not be relevant in February, but it is possible that there could be other works planned on the dates you plan to travel. This is much more likely if you're travelling at the weekend, but right now I can see no planned work for the first two weekends. In any event there is an alternative route if something unplanned should happen.

Given this I think your best plan is to stay in or around Blackfriars station. Blackfriars is easily accessible from Heathrow - just take the Piccadilly line tube from Heathrow and change to a District line train at Hammersmith for Blackfriars. The change is a simple cross platform one, about 20 feet.

You can stay anywhere on either side of the river at Blackfriars but you might want to stay on the north side to make things easier if there should be a problem the following day. There is a well placed Premier Inn there for example and other options. You can get to Gatwick by taking a Thameslink train from Blackfriars train station, which is literally on a bridge on the river. Should there be an issue with Thameslink trains then you can take a tube train west to Victoria, from where you can get a Southern train to Gatwick. All of these journeys can be done by using contactless payments - there is no need for any kind of physical ticket on any of those options.

If there are problems with the trains, there is always Uber. But it will not be fast (or cheap.)

What do you mean by “interesting” neighborhood? Classic London mew houses and cozy pubs? Proximity to museums and/or theatre? Personally I would choose Farringdon over Blackfriars as a base, but if you are going to be wandering all over it won’t matter much.

I just got an email from the Orange Tree in Richmond about a two nights for the price of one, they are a Young’s pub and there are other pubs offering this promotion. So if you do choose to go to Gatwick the night before your flight, maybe get one of these deals. Then you have the room all day and evening until you go to Gatwick and it does not cost anything. I am looking at the Pride of Paddington for a February stay. (Saturdays do not work, unfortunately.) A few of the Young properties are very convenient arriving from Heathrow, I love the Orange Tree for that reason but it’s not in the heart of London.
https://www.youngs.co.uk/one-more-sleep
There is a pub in Farringdon on the list, the Fox and Hound. I would love to stay there but the promotion does not work with my dates. It might with yours though!

I will definitely look into that 2 for 1 deal, especially since my nights are Tuesday and Wednesday.

I am sorry, but now I have another possible variation I am wondering about.

I am planning to book an easy jet flight to Egypt but haven't yet booked it. I have 2 choices--one departing from Luton at 9:55 and one from Gatwick at 9:25. Initially I had completely disregarded the Luton possibility because I thought it would be too inconvenient. But, now I am reconsidering. From the Luton airport site, it seems as though this is a fairly quick connection using the Luton Express. Is Luton a viable option for what I am looking for since I also need to get there from Heathrow.

rialtogrl "Classic London mew houses and cozy pubs?" YES. More of a neighborhood feel than commercial or office area for walking. Some interesting architecture.

JohnEW2912 I looked again at the Thameslink website. While there is info about repairs etc during the holiday period, this was regarding current disruptions.

Thanks again.

Luton is a perfectly acceptable choice to fly from. I think most would say that Gatwick is a nicer airport but they are both functional. Clearly using Euston gives you 30 minutes more in the morning.

Flying from Luton makes virtually no difference time wise from central London. If you stick with somewhere near Farringdon or Blackfriars you can get a Thameslink train the other way in about the same time as you would to get to Gatwick. Alternatively you could look to stay near St Pancras station - lots of accommodation including 3 nearby Premier Inns. You can get there from Heathrow direct on the Piccadilly line or could get the Elizabeth line to Farringdon and change on to Thameslink for one stop north. The advantage of St Pancras is that's where the express airport trains leave from - that will get you there in just over 30 minutes, maybe 10 minutes quicker than to Gatwick.

There is a slight quirk to know about - Luton Airport Parkway station is on the edge of the airport and is now connected by a DART rapid transit train, taking just 4 minutes. Make sure when booking the train to book to Luton Airport rather than to the Parkway station - that way you get the cost of the DART included.

I try to avoid Luton wherever possible and given the choice, would definitely favour taking a flight from Gatwick. Rarely have I had good experiences at Luton, it always seems so chaotic! if you do plan on using it , pay the fee for Fast Track.

Assuming that you do want to abide by airline recommendations of being at the airport 3 hours prior to departure, I would strongly consider staying at LGW the night before if only to avoid the angst of wondering whether travel there will go to plan. With a 09:30 flight you would need to leave by 5:30, 6:00 at the latest. Though we live in central London, we often choose to stay overnight at the airport for flights that early.

It is probably splitting hairs to debate the relative merits of staying near Farringdon/Blackfriars or Victoria as suggested in previous posts; personally I would favour Victoria as being a little more convenient for the sights and IMO a nicer area (but much depends upon what youpaln on seeing

I agree with catch23 that the area around Victoria would be more the vibe you are looking for, maybe not immediately around the station but close.

The pub promotion would only be good if you go out to Gatwick the evening before your flight. Otherwise your morning journey would be longer. What about flights out of Heathrow? Maybe too expensive…

There are no flights from Heathrow. I have decided to go with the flight from Gatwick rather than the one from Luton.

Now I just need to decide the area to stay in. A quick journey to Gatwick is one of the key deciding factors for me, perhaps the most important factor. I think I am just going to suck it up and get up early to go to the airport, especially since I have learned that at the time of day and time of year I will be flying I probably don't need to get to the airport 3 hours early and can shorten that timeframe somewhat. Realistically I will have 1.75 days in London. Days are short at this time of year, weather will most likely be crummy, and I will be tired so won't just be wandering around a lot soaking up the atmosphere of a neighborhood or looking for parks and gardens. And, my evenings will be spent in my room since I know I will be tired and recovering from jetlag.

A tentative list of things I will be interested in doing are the British Museum, Tower of London, Leadenhall Market even though I am not a shopper, the Charterhouse, and St Martin's in the Field for Evensong. I know I won't do all of these things and will probably also come up with some other things to do. Or, I could just spend a lot of time in my room recuperating and resting.

The pub promotion does have a room for my dates, and it is awfully tempting. But, perhaps transportation to Gatwick is more efficient from Victoria Station using Victoria Express. Frankly, I don't care about price (within reason) and am willing to pay a bit more for a more efficient public transport method.

I appreciate all of the help everyone has given me.

Happy New Year to all of you!

There's nothing wrong with staying around Victoria, although as I said above I would prefer around Blackfriars. But the train service from there won't be any more reliable than Thameslink - they are both fine options. Note that the Gatwick Express is somewhat missold - it is only 2-3 minutes quicker than the fastest normal Southern trains and can be around twice the price.

I used to travel to Gatwick airport from central London on business and Gatwick Express is a great example of good marketing and very little substance as John points out.

“Leadenhall Market even though I am not a shopper,” Leadenhall is not really about shopping. It is very quaint and photo worthy but mostly restaurants and bars.