Four of us - two adults and two children ages 10 and 12 - will be staying in Canterbury at the end of our trip to England. We have a 2:45PM flight back to the US on Monday, June 25. Rather than return to London the night before our flight, we would like to stay in Canterbury and take the trains directly to Heathrow, arriving around noon at the airport. Is this possible? Pros and cons, please.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32745 posts
One con is that it cannot be done, not by train.
Trains from Canterbury either take around an hour to get to London St Pancras International High Speed or about 50 percent longer to London Charing Cross.
Neither Charing Cross nor St Pancras have trains to Heathrow.
You will have to involve the Tube or a taxi. Either, on arrival at St Pancras you can go to the other end of the station and down into the Underground and join a Piccadilly Line train which will take just about an hour to get to Heathrow, or you can get a Circle Line train to London Paddington station (around 20 minutes), go upstairs and take Heathrow Connect or Express (15 or 20 minutes once boarded) to Heathrow.
Or from St Pancras you could take a taxi to Paddington or all the way to the airport. Maybe faster - maybe not depending on traffic - but certainly plenty more expensive.
Either way, for a 2:45 flight you need to be at Heathrow no later than 11:45. You will need to leave Canterbury no later than 9. What will you do if your train is severely delayed for any one of a myriad of reasons?
Personally my tolerance for risk is lower than yours.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23267 posts
Nope. They do not have direct trains to everywhere. You need to stay in London or somewhere nearer the airport. Too many trains changes and time is a problem.
Posted by
Atlanta
4827 posts
With four of you, considering train fares and the hotel cost, it might be cheaper to get a car service early on the day of your departure directly from Canterbury to the airport. And a lot less stressful as well. We did that going from Heathrow to Canterbury for about 90 pounds. Let me know if you want to explore that possibility and I'll find the name of the service we used.
Posted by
OP
Southern California
5 posts
Thank you for that suggestion, TC. Please send me the name of the car service.
Posted by
Atlanta
4827 posts
The service we used was based in Canterbury and is named Canterbury Airport Transfers. The web site (if my notes are correct) is taxicanterbury.co.uk/contact The email is firstclasstravel@live.co.uk We were very pleased with the car -- clean, roomy, well maintained. The driver drove quite safely, was most helpful loading our luggage, and commenting on various things along the way. We would not hesitate to use them again.
Posted by
OP
Southern California
5 posts
Thank you, TC. This will be perfect.