London

So your hotel is near Piccadilly Circus? If you can afford it, take a taxi or car service. http://www.heathrowairport.com/transport-and-directions/taxis-and-minicabs Or you can take the Heathrow Express or Heathrow Connect which will take you to Paddington Station and you can get a taxi from there. http://www.heathrowairport.com/transport-and-directions/trains

A cheaper option is to take the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow Airport to Green Park station, which is about halfway along Piccadilly the street. Heathrow Airport has lifts, and Green Park is one of the few tube stations in central London with lifts all the way from platform level to the street (although you will have to walk through some level corridors between lifts).

Carmen:

If you decide to use the subway system to get from Heathrow to a central London tube station and are hauling a heavy load be sure that the station has an escalator or an elevator. As has been pointed out many of the central London stations have neither so you will end up hauling your luggage up a long flight of stairs. See my posting of a few days ago regarding this matter.

You don't say when you are going, but if you look at the news of the day for Thursday May 17th on this web site it shows the two dates that the Tube will be on strike. End of April and the first of May. We have reserved a car because we fly in the second day of a three day strike in May.

We just got back from London, and opted for a taxi from Heathrow into London because a it was faster and easier than lugging our bags on/off the tube and dragging it up/down the stairs/escalators/and hallways when changing platforms for connecting trains. It was more money than the tube/train, but we knew we'd be tired after a 10 hour flight and didn't want the extra hassle. We used Hummingbird Cars, we got a good price and excellent service.

It's more expensive for the trip from Heathrow to London than it is going back to the airport, sometimes 30 pounds difference.

Carnem, I hafta say I think that after putting a four-figure trip on the credit card and enduring a long, tiring day beginning in Oregon, it's a good idea to be comfortable on the trip from Heathrow into the city.

The problem with the Tube is there is no place to stow your luggage. No bins, no shelves, no racks. Bags either go on your lap or in the narrow aisle. The trip in is also the slowest, with a multitude of stops, and, unless you are very lucky and very energetic, you will still need a taxi to get to the hotel. Tube stations are often large and can involve giant escalators and an annoying amount of walking.

My advice: If you have more than one-bag-per-person, take a taxi or book a car from a car service, to take you from Heathrow directly to your hotel. If any of the bags are really large -- too big for one person -- go straight to a car service and be sure to tell them about the bags when you book.

If you actually have one-bag-per-person, take the Heathrow Express rail, which is comfortable and has places to stow luggage on the cars. It's about a 15-minute nonstop ride into the city's Paddington Station. Grab a cab there to your hotel. (The taxi rank is just outside the station, to the train's right as you enter. There are lines in the floor to guide you.)

"take the Heathrow Express rail, which is comfortable and has places to stow luggage on the cars. It's about a 15-minute nonstop ride into the city's Paddington Station."

The Heathrow Express is mile for mile one of the most expensive railway journeys in the world and from Paddington you have to get to Piccadily.

Emma, thanks for the correction on luggage space on the tube.

I like to use Heathrow Express to get into town simply because it is the fastest way in, it's comfortable, and the places to stow luggage are built for that -- shelves and such. I'm usually at the end of a long exhausting day (or a sleepless overnight flight) when I arrive at Heathrow. After a 45-60 minute wait at passport control, I just want to get into my hotel as quickly as possible. The Express certainly is not cheap (I assume business travelers expense it or write if off), but it is a very small expense compared with the entire cost of the trip.

Going back to the airport is a different matter. I've used the tube for that.

Tube station size: Most American travelers, I imagine, have little or no experience with subways of any kind. The scale of some of the larger stations can be surprising, and sometimes is an issue for people who find walking difficult, who are dragging way too much luggage, etc.