Over Night In London or Near Gatwick

For simplicity sake, go the bus from LHR to GTW. You could take the underground into London and out to Gatwick, but the bus is maybe a 1 hour ride--depending on traffic. We last stayed inside the airport overnight.

If your flight home is at 1:00 pm there is no need to spend the night near Gatwick. You can go into London and spend the night near Victoria station or other stations which have good connections to Gatwick. (Not sure but it may be Kings Cross and Blackfriers with direct trains to Gatwick).

The espress bus from Heathrow to Gatwick is for people who have to connect the same day (we have done that once and will not do it again). Much better to head into London by tube (cheaper) or Heathrow Express (faster, and not so expensive if you buy tickets well in advance) and then have some time in London. At least that is my view.

I am not familiar with LCY flights and options, so cannot factor that in to the mix.

If you don't want to spend time in London again, instead pick one of the places south of London on a direct train line to Gatwick for the next day. An outbound flight at 13:00 doesn't require travelling either early or in peak time.

LCY is still great to fly into but I don't find it so good as it used to be on the way out as the areas are now overcrowded.

Thank you all for your replies. Emma & Marco - Thank you especially for your local feedback. I am leaning now towards flying into LCY due to the longer distance of LGW from LHR. Would there be a paticular town that you think would be a fun way to spend our last evening if we didn’t stay in London proper? I had thought we would just stay near the airport in Horley or in London near Victoria but now you have us thinking of other options. Thanks.

Another reason to fly into LCY over LHR are the passport control lines. Much shorter at LCY. I've entered the UK at both airports a few times and LCY was a breeze. (This was before I had Registered Traveler.)

LCY is also smaller and only a few minutes walk from plane to immigration to the DLR. Just remember to tap in onto the DLR with the machines on the sides. There are no gates.

If you arrive at 1:30 PM at LCY you should be able to get to the Victoria Station area by 2:30 giving you more time in London than arriving at LHR, waiting for passport control and then the one hour tube ride to Central London.

Since you have a LCY option to fly into London, take it -- and have that last evening in London.

Then you can get up in the morning and head to the airport for your 1 pm flight home from Gatwick.

Easy!

An alternative would be to fly into LHR, then a bus ( direct with National Express ) to Brighton, spend the night in Brighton and next morning take the train to LGW. The train takes about 30 minutes and there are plenty of direct trains.

If it were me I would fly into LHR and take Heathrow Express to Paddington - takes about 15 minutes. Then taxi to a hotel near Victoria Station...only 15 - 20 minutes providing traffic isn't horrible. Have dinner and walk around the city and spend the night. Next day take Gatwick Express from Victoria to LGW - takes about 30 minutes.
I did something similar when I was there a couple of months ago...arrived into St. Pancras by rail just past noon but the rest was the same. Worked out great! Had plenty of time to meet a friend for tea, eat a nice dinner out, and then walk back to my hotel near Victoria from Covent Garden. Was such a nice way to end my trip!

LCY is a dream of an airport. So Central and easy.

Thanks for all your feedback. I think we are settling on a evening in London and more than likely LCY airport but will be comparing the rates again. Thanks again for all your help!