My wife and I are arriving at Heathrow early morning on May 8th. 6:30 early! We are thinking a good plan would be to drop our bags at our hotel in Russell Square and hop on the bus. Seems like a nice way to kill some time without walking after an all night flight. Around noon we might hop off and have lunch somewhere nice then hop back on and return to the Russell Square area. Then if our room is still not ready we can relax in the Square or wander around a bit. To anyone familiar with any of this, we’d love your advice!
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Others have said that sitting on a Hop-on Hop-off bus after a long flight is likely to result in sleep.
Land 6.30, out of airport 07:00-07:30. At hotel 08:00 - 08:30. Just in time for breakfast.
My alternative, there is a bus that runs from Russell Square to Trafalgar Square (No. 91). Hop on that, sit upstairs at the front. Terminus is Trafalgar Square. Then you can sit down in the square and unwind.
You then have a choice:
a) Plenty of Ho Ho buses from Trafalgar Square.
b) Walk through Admiralty Arch, up the Mall to Buckingham Palace. Wave to the Queen.
c) Down Whitehall. Past Horse-guards and Downing Street to the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben. Then walk across Westminster Bridge to the South Bank. Walk/sit/walk/eat/walk along the south bank for the rest of the day.
All 3 a good start to London.
"Spider map" of all bus routes from Russel Square: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/russell-square-a4.pdf
For the bus (+ tube and all other public transport in London) you need either an Oyster Card, or a contactless bank card. You can sort to out at Heathrow, as presumably you are getting the tube to Russel Square, all the way on the Piccadilly line.
Posted by
The Heartland USA
9025 posts
We did this in Paris. Decide when you get there, and see what the weather is. If sunny or at least clear, sitting on the top deck, you might stay awake. If you stay on the bus, its an okay way to kill time and get oriented. Its the hopping on/off that we didn't think was a good idea. Waiting at a bus stop for the next bus with room to get on was a problem, and the traffic makes their "every 15 minutes" schedule, a hope, not a promise. Based on that experience we decided not to do it in London, where the traffic looked worse.