You all have been so helpful to me as I plan our trip. I have one final transportation bit to work out. I need to get my family from a flat in the Paddington/Little Venice area to Gatwick on a Friday morning. Our plan to the States leaves Gatwick at 10:30 am. How early should we plan to arrive at Gatwick before our plane leaves? And what is the best route to get there? We are a family of four. Thank you!
Heather
You will need to be there by 7:30am. That early I would take a cab to Victoria Station, take the train from Victoria Station to Gatwick. Have a cab pick you up at 6:00-6:15am, it's about a 15-20 minute ride to Victoria Station, then the train to Gatwick is 30 minutes.
Be there no less than 3 hours before. 7:30, or a little earlier.
Depending on how organised you are, and if you have some credit left on your Oyster Cards, either walk to Maida Vale or Warwick Avenue tube stations and take the Bakerloo Line to Oxford Circus - easy cross platform connection to the Victoria Line to Victoria (I'd pessimistically allow half an hour for the tube) and then upstairs into the station and take the Gatwick Express (or if you have a few minutes longer and a few fewer pounds to spend, take the Southern service) straight to Gatwick. It goes frequently, and is about half an hour. So I'd want to be walking into the Maida Vale tube station - or Warwick Road - about 6 am. At that time you are ahead of the rush hour, and the rush hour is lighter and later on Friday mornings.
OR
Take a cab from the flat to Victoria and then as above. You might save half an hour but spend more money, although with 4 of you and luggage you may come out ahead.
DON'T use the cab all the way to Gatwick. There's no way it can go on the A23 and other rat runs with 30 mph speed limits and loads of traffic anywhere near the 125 mph that the train reaches, and the fare would fry your whiskers.(or hubbie's).
Perfect! Thank you both. I think we'll indulge in the taxi to Victoria and take the train from there. I like my husband's beard! :)
Rather than getting up at 430AM, I would be looking for a hotel near the airport.
I can understand the confusion surrounding our staying in Little Venice. rather than nearer to Gatwick. Not a typical tourist thing to do, is it? Two simple reasons: 1. This will be our fourth airbnb in London and we are trying to stay in different areas each time, and 2. This is at the end of our three weeks in London, Edinburgh and Paris. We are meeting, at this tail end of our trip, a college-aged family friend who is coming to England for a semester study at Cambridge. He will be arriving via Heathrow and will take the train to Paddington, so we are meeting him there, stashing our stuff in a very charming flat with the appropriate number of beds, and showing him London for a few days before we fly home and he heads to university. We don't want to lose even that last night together, so that ruled out a hotel near Gatwick.
Besides, everyone who lives in London full-time and happens to travel from Gatwick has to get there somehow, right? This really doesn't sound too hard. ;) I think we'll be fine. I simply haven't used Gatwick as an airport before, so was unfamiliar with times and routes to take into consideration. You have all been helfpul!
