Layover at London?

Question

I am bringing a group of 20 people through Heathrow Airport in mid-July. We have a 7 hour layover. We are looking for an inexpensive way to explore London in a short period of time. I'm most interested in a bus to pick us up at Heathrow, and start the tour there.

Answer 1

7 hours is tight.  

You need to budget about 30 minutes for customs and whatnot, and do you have to recheck your bags?  Another 30 or so if that is the case.

To get to Central London you can take a bus but that is about 1 hour there and 1 hour back.  If you take the Heathrow Express train that is about 20 minutes each way plus a few minutes waiting for the train, so maybe 40 minutes total to Paddington.

Plus you need to be back at LHR about 2 hours early (lines suck in the Summer).

So, 1 for customs, 2 for bus or tube, and 2 before your flight.  That leaves with a 2 hour layover.

2 hours in London...I guess you could see a few things.  Moving 20 people around though might be a bit of a bear.  

My advice is to pick 1 or 2 things to do and then make a beeline straight there.  For example, take the tube directly to Picadilly Circus and then walk down to Trafalgar Square, across the Charring Cross bridge to the other side of the river, and then over to Big Ben.  Back to the tube, and then back to the airport.  

But no stragglers.  

If you were on your own, you could probably work it out, but with 20, might be a bit of a challenge.

Answer 2

yes, use either the Heathrow Express train which brings you into Paddington Station, or get the tube from Heathrow (there are three tube stations at Heathrow , all of them on the Piccadilly Line)

if you use the Heathrow Express, there are open-top bus tour which go past Paddington Station, for instance

www.bigbustours.com/

but I'm not at all convinced that you would have time to do the whole tour in the amount of time you've got

if you opt for the tube, then look at the maps on the Transport for London website ... all of the maps available are at

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1106...

but I think you'll find most useful the standard tube map

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/S...

I would suggest getting off at Piccadilly Circus tube station ... there are a number of exits from this station and you want one that says Regent Street north side ... get to the junction of Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus, admire the statue of Eros in the middle of Picadilly Circus, then walk to your right (northwards) along Regent Street for a short way, enjoying the view of the Regency buildings on this street, while walking to bus stop G on the map

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/...

from there get onto one of the following buses ... 12 (destination Dulwich), 159 (destination Streatham) or 453 (destination Deptford) ... get off outside County Hall, which is the first stop after you've gone over Westminster Bridge ... on the way on the bus you will have gone through Trafalgar Square, down Whitehall (see the soldiers on the horses at Horse Guards Parade on your right and the Cenotaph which is the memorial for soldiers who died in the first and second world wars in the middle of the road), and past Big Ben ... walk back over Westminster Bridge, admiring the view down the Thames, the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben ... across the square to the left is Westminster Abbey ... then get back on the tube again at Westminster Station and take the Jubilee Line one stop to Green Park, change back onto the Piccadilly Line and go straight back to Heathrow before you miss your plane ... hopefully doing it this way you won't lose any of your party ... when first getting on the tube, everyone should buy a one day travelcard which can be used for both the tube and the bus journeys

you haven't got time to see Tower Bridge or the Tower of London as they are too far off your route, and there isn't a bus which goes in front of Buckingham Palace

have fun !!

Answer 3

The traffic around Heathrow is brutal, if you catch a bus there to go into London it can take forever.  I would take the Heathrow Express train, google it for info, into London, it takes less than an hour, then catch a tour bus there at one of the main train stops like Kings Cross. or St. Pancras.  You dont want half of your tour to be on a bus sitting in traffic going into the city.