Hi,
What's are the best/reasonable options for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) to travel from Chelsea / Kensington area to LHR? We have a 7am departure to Rome on Alitalia. We are travelling fairly light.. I expect to have about 4 carry-on duffel bags, 4 small backpacks, and 1 large check-in bag.
It seems that public transportation may be limited for early departures. Any recommendations for car services / shuttles / other options?
Thank you!
Hilda
For a departure that early and with kids, I would be looking for a hotel at the airport
For a departure that early and with kids, I would be looking for a hotel at the airport
I agree. Even though we live about an hours drive from LHR we would always take the hotel option for a flight that early, we've done this even with flights leaving at 10. A taxi could take 30 minutes or it could take closer to an hour, who knows! You'll need to be at Heathrow for 05.00. Allowing for potential delays in the taxi journey would mean leaving around 04:00, for me and with kids that would mean getting up at 03:00. This is the reason I no longer take flights earlier than 10.00 if I can help it. If you stayed at the airport or on the perimeter you could have an extra hour in bed!
Thanks for the recommendation to stay near the airport. Unfortunately, I prepaid my hotel before I thought about the logistics of travel to the airport. The kids are 11 and 14 so it's easier... but will still be difficult to get them going. Hindsight is 20/20.
Sounds like a taxi may be the best option...
What day of the week is this going to be?
It's on Wednesday, June 27.
Ask the hotel to book you a taxi (don't take a black cab, watching that meter fly round is truly disheartening). For the less risk averse 04.30 might be ok, I would prefer 04.00. Security opens at 04.45 so if you are a bit early you might have to wait around a short while.
Try Blackberry cars or Parker Cars (pre-booked) car services, as they are recommended on other travel forums, IME asking the hotel to book a car will bump the price up as they also get commission.
IME asking the hotel to book a car will bump the price up as they also
get commission.
Based on my one experience having a London hotel book a car (a cab in that case), I believe it. Fortunately it was only a cab from the hotel to Paddington train station, not a long trip like to LHR. But it turned out to be some really rude guy driving a regular car, not a black cab, who charged me significantly more than I'd paid a black cab driver for the trip from Paddington to my hotel. Maybe he was a licensed min-cab driver, but there was nothing in the car to show that. Maybe there never is, Anyway, I felt like a stupid sucker for having agreed to let the friendly manager at the small hotel arrange that. I'm sure he got something out of it.
I'd go with one of the car services recommended above.
Have a conversation with your hotel about refunding that night, in full or partial. The worst thing they can say is no. By the time you add in the transportation costs, the ordeal of waking at zero dark thirty, you may be better off forfeiting that night and booking the airport hotel and chalking it up to lesson learned.
