Heathrow to Hotel : Cab or Uber : Size Matters

A true London black cab will definitely fit both of you and your luggage. It is however the most expensive way to go, so just know that.

Who knows! We have no idea of your luggage size (BA allows 23kg but that tells us nothing about your actual luggage dimensions) nor the vehicle type of your transport.

I'm going to assume you're not considering a black cab because that would be your worst option so that leaves Uber and general minicabs. Most taxis (and Ubers) tend to be saloons with Skoda Octavia, Hyundai i40 and Vauxhall Insignia being the most popular all of which will accommodate two average full sized suitcases and perhaps the two backpacks. With Uber you can select an Uber XL which will be a larger vehicle but could be any make and model and will be more expensive than a standard UberX. UberX will typically be a small car, not one that will likely be able to accommodate your luggage. The price you quoted is not one to base your decision on as surge pricing could increase the price dramatically. A minicab will typically be either one of the models I've mentioned or something similar. When calling or arranging a cab mention the storage requirements at the time of booking thereby giving the company the opportunity to provide a sufficiently sized vehicle.

Personally I’d buy Heathrow Express tickets in advance. 15 minute ride to Paddington. Exit and use the Tube. District or Central line to Bayswater.

Most cost effective. You can purchase your Oyster cards at Heathrow from kiosks.

Heathrow Express to Paddington Train Station. You can catch a cab for the short ride over to your hotel around Bayswater. Or, you can walk underground to the Bayswater underground station and it's just a stop or two. I cannot remember, but I'm not sure Bayswater may just have steps up to the street.
We were in the neighborhood 5/2018.

Each of your two bags is over 50 pounds of weight? Plus carry on? For two people to manoeuvre? And you are going on from London to Italy and have to manoeuvre to and within Italy too?

Or is Italy off now, and you're returning from London?

If you don't want to take the Heathrow Express, I'd book a minicab. This is Brit-speak for a car booked in advance, as opposed to a black cab you just get at the airport without an advance reservation. Not only will it be much cheaper, but you can make sure to reserve the size of car you want/need.

Look at Just Airports, Simply Airports, or Blackberry Cars. Note that British terminology for each size and style of car (such as saloon or estate car) is different from US terminology, so look carefully at the different types (Just Airports shows the different kinds on their website).

Nigel- As to the weight, yes, I think each bag will be nearly 23kg / 50lbs, and the dimensions of our bags are within the maximum dimensions of 90 x 75 x 43cm (35.5 x 29.5 x 16in). We will be in the UK for 5 days and then Italy for 19. What I've read thus far is that the steps at the Bayswater Station are "short and steep" and I'd prefer not to tackle them after our overnight flight.

It seems the Heathrow Express to Paddington Train Station to a cab may be the path of least resistance. Thank you all for your comments.

Hello again richarde99

Thanks for that.

A 6 minute walk from Bayswater?

If I'm telling you stuff you already know just bash me on the head and I'll shut up. Do you know that Bayswater is only 3/4 of a mile (16 minutes plus or minus) to walk, and by the time you have found the taxi queue and told the cabbie how short a ride you want and gone to the second cab because the first one suddenly got a stomach ache or something, and then they're taken you the "best" way (they are required to take the most direct, but of course they know of congestion and delivery vans and road works, so they might just "have" to take you around the long way) to some sort of a figure on the meter which justifies them waiting in the taxi queue for an hour at Paddington, you could probably have walked it just as fast? Give you some good clean London air into the bargain.

You don't say which way the 6 minutes' walk from Bayswater is. It may be just as good, really, to walk, or if you are the other direction maybe the best really is to book a minicab from the airport, especially if after loading these steamer trunks you decide it is just too much effort to try to move them. Warn the cabbie though before she or he start to hump them up into the boot. You don't want him or her doing themselves a mischief.

Nothing more reassuring as you come through the frosted glass doors all tired to see your name in great big letters on a sign being held up by a driver.

Good luck with the trip....

Nigel, you make a good point regarding short rides in cabs being disfavored by the drivers; perhaps an Uber then. In any event, dragging the baggage up the stairs at Bayswater (4-6 minutes once above ground) or from Paddington to the London House Hotel (16-20 minutes) after an overnight flight is not high on my list of ways to start off our trip.

Looks like an XL Uber from Paddington is the best bet. I've take pretty short Uber rides before, and it was uneventful, do you anticipate a problem similar to the cabbies?

I’ve used Blackberry Cars for a number of years, for travel to/from Heathrow, and highly recommend. Quality cars, excellent service, reasonable price, and no surge pricing. The price you book is the price you pay.

Their website is showing a station (estate) wagon for £44 from Heathrow to Bayswater, including parking and wait time at Heathrow. To be sure you get the right size vehicle for your luggage, you can email them, perhaps a cheaper saloon car will work.

The link is below.

Blackberry Cars

I gasped when I saw this: "We'll have two checked bags (maximum size / weight) and two carry-on backpacks."

And this:  "As to the weight, yes, I think each bag will be nearly 23kg / 50lbs, and the dimensions of our bags are within the maximum dimensions of 90 x 75 x 43cm (35.5 x 29.5 x 16in)."

It seems that your large and heavy luggage is dictating how you get around: how big a taxi you need, how many steps you want to avoid, how far you want to walk with it, etc. You mentioned that on your previous trip to Europe with your daughters you stayed in only 2 locations.

Having large and heavy luggage is not so bad if you stay put in one spot and get a taxi to and from it. But if you go by train, bus, tube or metro with that luggage, it will be a very big challenge getting it up and down stairs and on and off trains or vaporettos. Not to mention over the bridges in Venice which are steps, not smooth curves you can easily roll over.

You two will be on your own. Have you practiced lifting those big bags up and down 2-3 steep high riser steps while one of you stands at the bottom and the other is at the top and you both are wearing backpacks at the same time? Is there someplace you can practice doing the same thing into and out of a rocky boat?

I know this last bit is more about the Italy part of your trip, but for only 24 days in Europe 100+ pounds of stuff is a lot. You've probably already considered how to travel less encumbered and rejected the notion. And you probably already have explored the packing info on this RS website. But there's one posting on the Packing Forum that is a real eye-opener: Why didn't I listen to you, Rick?

You might enjoy some of the many discussions on the Packing Forum about how much to take on a trip.

I travel for the entire summer (which requires many pounds of medically necessary vitamins and supplements) with a 23" to 24" suitcase weighing around 30 lb., which is a lot. That includes considerable weight in paper (notes, guidebook segments, maps, etc.). Believe me, moving that suitcase around isn't fun at the beginning of a trip. It gets lighter as the trip goes on unless I do something dimwitted like buy a piece of glass or pottery.

Going up the steps onto a train is a bit like going up the steps of a step stool. Perhaps you have one of those at home you can try out?

All:

Thank you for your considerate (and legitimate) concerns regarding our packing acumen, or lack thereof. So, I used the outside weights and dimensions for purposes of getting an estimate of the trunks (boots) in the London area. I've now retrieved the luggage in question, and after a web search, find it not quite as large as the maximum allowable by BA. The manufacturer lists the outside dimensions as 31" H x 21" W x 13" D. My wife assures me that last time around we were closer to 39 to 43 lbs. (I don't know why nor how she would remember that, but there it is), and I was able to drag them up, one at a time mind you, the steps to the 2nd floor apartment in Paris (Rome fortunately had a lift). As to the backpacks, they will not have much on the outbound trip, but will have medicines, electronics, toiletries, and a sweater for the flight. On the return we'll have a few presents as well. We have a two story house, and I will absolutely practice with a weighted bag up the 17 stairs (great idea). Our housing in the UK and ITA is either on the ground floor or has a lift.

As to the commentator alerting us to the bridges of Venice, we arrive from Bologna to the main train station, then plan a Vapporetto to Rialto; and Google Maps reflects a 4 minute walk, so that'll be 15 or so for us (dragging the bags) to our apartment at the Palazzo Selvatico, but that discussion is for a different board. I do appreciate that the bridges of Venice will be the most demanding part of our travels.

So, if we can get an Uber at the Paddington train station, we'll use the Heathrow Express; if not, then we'll reserve a "mini-cab".

https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/top-tourist-mistakes-7.htm
I know this is not the Italy discussion, but have a look at this site about how to travel easier and lighter in Venice.

You must have spent several hundred dollars flying across the Atlantic and several hundred more on your London accommodation? Now doesn't seem like the right time to save a handful of pounds getting on the Heathrow Express & walking/taxi from Paddington. Given your luggage, I'd book a taxi (minicab), from the airport to your hotel and relax.

I have mad respect for Nigel and I know that the bad "short trip" taxi scenarios he describes do happen. (Disclosure: during my so-called career I became quite familiar with certain airport ground transportation matters. I can assure you that the cab driver's contempt for short trips with their low fares, is universal. If there is life in some galaxy far away, and they have taxi drivers? Those folks will be like that too. I'm sure of it.)

But my experience last November at Paddington was quite positive.

Sadly, on the day I left for London, I was overtired, not ill but I just from a couple of nights of bad sleep. By the time I cleared border control at Heathrow, I was almost scarily exhausted. Worse than my usual "just off an overnight transatlantic flight where I couldn't snatch more than a few winks despite best efforts" condition. I had my cheap advance fare ticket on the Heathrow Express, and had planned to just walk from Paddington Station to my hotel on Bayswater Road, as I'd done before.

Then at Paddington I realized that I was just too tired to deal with that, and frankly I was even a little disoriented and having trouble finding the right exit. So I headed for the taxi rank. There was a man in a safety vest who appeared to be in charge of the queue, which was blessedly short as I walked up. He pointed me into the first available cab in line and even put my 25" checked rollerbag into the vehicle. The cab driver didn't take a crazy long route to my hotel, and even hopped out and unloaded my big bag at the curb. The total fare, including a generous tip, was comfortably under £10.

Happily, I was soon restored to normal with a good night's sleep, and when I left to return home I walked to Paddington with my luggage. (BTW my checked bag is a 25" or 22" roller depending on how much moving around I'll be doing during the trip, and even the bigger bag never comes close to 50 pounds. Unless I'm ill or exhausted I can always manage my own luggage including checked and carry-on bags. By now over the course of several vacations, I have walked several miles along streets, in and out of train stations and airports, etc., with it.)

I think two people with large bags could easily fit into a black cab. A few years ago I shared a London black cab from Paddington to Victoria with another passenger. We both had big checked-size bags plus carryon items and it all fit in just fine. Those fares are regulated by Transport for London. A black cab ride from Paddington to a hotel near Bayswater tube station shouldn't cost a lot.

A question for Nigel and anyone else who knows about this. At my local airport they have a person whose title is "cab starter." They supervise the line of waiting cabs and assign passengers to those cabs in a first-come first-served orderly way, and no a cabbie can't refuse a short ride customer. Am I correct in thinking that the man at the Paddington taxi rank was performing a similar function?

Nick is right, what was I thinking! I'm done. I'll reserve a mini-cab from Heathrow to the hotel and be done with it. We'll have 5 days to ride the trains, busses, tubes, and bicycles when we're not dragging luggage.

And SJ, and pretty much everyone else, we'll look at some luggage options too. I just hate, and I do mean hate, wasting money and these bags have made exactly one transoceanic trip.

Thank you all for your time, and comments.

Many many years ago in a moment of madness my wife and I bought a huge suitcase. Two big wheels in the middle, and a caster wheel at each end, it tapers slightly towards the top, and when you open it the cover comes open to reveal all sorts of hanging space and tons of room. Sounds perfect? I forget the exact name the sales folks used for it but I things it was something like Rolling Walk In Closet or some such.

We took it on one flight - Dallas - Gatwick, and hated it so much we swore we'd never use it again. We did have to get the thing home, and since then it has been in our attic/loft, and the only time it comes out is when we move and the movers take care of it, and get it down and up again.

To this day it is still in our loft, empty, and unloved.

Every time somebody comes to visit we offer to let them have it to take souvenirs and gifts in, and at least 30 years later we still have that d*** suitcase.

One trip it got! Hundreds of your American Simoleons later and one trip!

Barbara - Thank you for the link to Blackberry Cars. I sent off an email, and with my pick-up and drop-off locations the quote is: "The fare from Heathrow to W2 4DJ including airport parking and waiting, will be £39 (Standard Saloon). For an Executive Saloon, the fare would be £54."

I think we all have that one old, big, only-used-once suitcase darkly named "The Beast".
I use mine for storing out of season clothing in.