Sanity Check - Gatwick to Greenwich

There is no train strike on your travel day but there is a tube strike that day and the following week. That means service will be disrupted but probably operational.

What is the closest station to your hotel. There are a few in Greenwich. Going to Victoria might not be the most efficient way.

The normal way would be from Gatwick Thameslink to London Bridge then train to Greenwich or possibly an alternative station depending on the location of your hotel. However, the London Bridge to Greenwich route is closed on that Sunday for engineering work. Hard to advise further without exact location. Victoria though in any case would be a poor option.

We are staying one night at Premier Inn, Greenwich High Road.

You may want to use a car service.
https://www.blackberrycars.com/

This Sunday this is not the easiest of journeys.

First of all it is the morning after a strike day so there is the residual risk (a small one) of some lingering disruption due to that. Small but worth mentioning

Secondly the rail line from London Bridge (the station for Greenwich, as opposed to Victoria) is closed for engineering work. So go on Thameslink from Gatwick to London Bridge. You can then either catch a train from London Bridge to Lewisham, then the rail replacement bus to Greenwich- or probably my preference when I had got to Lewisham would be to take the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) from there to Greenwich, which seems to be around a 5 to 10 minute walk from your hotel.

The journey planners are also suggesting some weird routes via Central London with a couple of changes but I'm not sure they are really suitable for a jet lagged visitor.

Those seem to be your rail based options. Whether you think a car based service of some kind would be preferable is your choice. Normally this is a really simple journey. On this particular day, a bit complicated.

PS- the tube strike which was due that day has been called off, although that wouldn't have affected any of these routes as the DLR is not part of the tube network, so was due to run normally in any event.

Looking at where the hotel is Greenwich is not necessarily the best station to be heading towards anyway but there aren't any other great routes. The simplest in way of least changes might be to take the 47 bus from London Bridge to Deptford Bridge from which it is an 8 minute walk. About the same journey time would be rail to Lewisham and DLR to Deptford Bridge.

OK. Daughter suggests taking the ferry from London Bridge to Greenwich Pier. Any comments?

You can do that- take the Uber boat by Thames Clipper- https://www.thamesclippers.com/plan-your-journey/timetable/weekend-eastbound. 4 an hour. You'll both enjoy that.

The thing is that drops you in the centre of Greenwich, basically at the Cutty Sark.
A great way to arrive. But it looks like about a 20 minute walk back out of Greenwich to your hotel, or a cab/uber, or a #177 bus (bound for Peckham- stops right outside your hotel), or the DLR 1 or 2 stops to Greenwich or Deptford Bridge- Deptford Bridge does look to be that bit closer.
If you have minimal luggage just maybe you could do some of the sights in Greenwich before check in, will be good to be in the open air after the flight.
If you wanted to you could get a day rover ticket for the boat and continue on through the Thames Barrier to Woolwich, or go the other way through the centre of London.

You can use Oyster or Contactless etc on the boat, but it's excluded from the daily/weekly price cap.

The minute I saw the title of your post, I thought of Thameslink train plus Uber boat. We love riding the Thames Clippers, and it is easy with luggage due to the ramps.

We have walked through a different area of London the same distance as you will from pier to hotel, but you could get a cab if you don’t care to walk.

OK. We took the ThamesLink train to London Bridge and the UberBoat from City Pier to Greenwich. No problems. We had to ask directions at both Gatwick and London Bridge. We had to stand on the train. We walked from Greenwich Pier to the hotel. Not a big deal but I should have downloaded the map for my phone beforehand. Deptford Bridge would have the closest rail station.

@dpoweron

Thank you for your report back. I wouldn't have expected the train to be so busy on a Sunday morning.

I am sorry to hear that you had to stand on the train. Did you have to stand all the way from Gatwick all the way into London?

Deptford Bridge would have the closest rail station.

Yes that's what I said above 😁. Mind you not the most convenient routes to it either. The boat ride would be more of an experience than the bus though.

Sunday morning trains are often very busy because of lower frequencies. I don't know the details about that route in particular but often the timetable is worked out assuming part of the infrastructure could be unavailable.