We are in London and our daughter will be joining us. She is 20 and is inexperienced in navigating public transit options. We are staying near Tower of London and planning on meeting her at the airport but wondered if the tube is the best way, (most efficient/economical for a round trip for hubby and me) or is there some other option we had not considered. Her flight will arrive around 2100, so will be late after she clears customs.
Thank you!
The tube is fine and it will take a little over an hour to get from Heathrow to the Tower of London area. But do you want to be walking from the tube station to your accomodations around 2300?
If she has a lot of luggage, you might look into a car service. It's like a cab but pre-booked and much less expensive. They meet you as you come out of customs and drop you off at your front door.
With a car service, there is no need for you to go to the airport. All she has to do is look for her driver as he will be holding a sign with her name on it. They'll let her know (or whoever books the service) where to look for the driver.
I'm estimating the cost will be somewhere between 50 and 75 GBP.
No personal experience, but is a frequently suggested option.
Provide the postal code for your hotel to get a quote.
There are multiple options for getting from Heathrow into London, and there are further rail options besides the Underground. Heathrow Express costs £25 and takes about twenty or thereabouts to Paddington.
As your daughter is inexperienced with public transport I would get a taxi from Paddington to Tower of London area. The journey on the Tube is complex for someone who is not accustomed to public transport systems.
As your daughter is inexperienced with public transport I would get a taxi from Paddington to Tower of London area. The journey on the Tube is complex for someone who is not accustomed to public transport systems.
They sound pretty similar to me.
Tube: get an Oyster or contactless (20 year olds are usually pretty good with their tech), board the tube train. Ride it until Hammersmith (read the names of the stations through the window or listen to the PA, and count down until Hammersmith). Get off, cross the platform and get on a train marked District Line. Count the stops until Tower Hill, get off. Go upstairs where you will be waiting.
Heathrow Express: get a ticket (in advance), get on the Heathrow Express, get off at the final (only) stop. Find the taxi rank - that's the hard part, take taxi to destination.
One change either route.
We used Blackberry Cars back in 2016 to pick up our then 21 yr old daughter from LHR & drop her off at the apartment we had rented in London. She had a school commitment & met us a few days after our trip started. Her connecting flight was delayed several times in Iceland. They monitored her flight, had a driver waiting for her when she finally arrived & dropped her safely at our apartment.
I think it would be a comforting learning experience for your daughter to have her first experience of public transport with her parents to back her up. I know that my father did the same for me at about that age and it has given me the confidence to navigate public transport all over the world since then. You could take the Piccadilly line Tube to one of the District line stations, change to the District line and get off at Tower Hill station if that’s near to your accommodation.
While I love and worry about my kids, before I spent 2-3 hours simply getting them into town, I would coach them through getting to the Hotel themselves, especially if both of you will have phones.
The TFL site gives very easy to follow step by step directions from how to get from point A to B. https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/
She should have a credit card, it likely has "Tap-to Pay" so she does not even need a ticket or Oyster Card, just tap in, tap out.
With a phone, you can keep in contact, if an Android (Apple likely has something similar) you can set up Google Maps Location sharing, where you can see her on the map down to a few feet.
Will she have a mobile phone with her? I typically take a flight to London that arrives around 9pm and then take the tube into London. I had one experience where my flight arrived after midnight due to delay and the only transprtation option was a black cab. Check both the TFL website and the Heathrow Express website and note the time the last train departs from Heathrow.
If it helps assure you, my first trip to London was in my 20s and I very successfully navigated the tube … and that was well before the internet.
Some options are:
1) Car Service - door to door, but most expensive
2) Tube - Rather than go all the way to Heathrow, you could meet her half way. You could have her call before she departs and meet her on the platform at Hammersmith where she will need to change to District line. Then you could ride back with her to Tower Hill (I assume that is your nearest stop). This would be cheapest option and it really would not be difficult.
3) Heathrow Express - Meet her at Paddington and then continue from there by taxi.
The Tube is easy. Do what Nigel said unless she is so late that a cab is necessary. It is really easy, and the best part is that it’s all in English. I did it to Tower Hill. I’d definitely meet her at that station or another just so she isn’t walking to the hotel alone that late at night.
By the way, at the point where the walls of the tube train meet the ceiling there is a maybe 8 or 10 inch high linear map of the line that car is assigned to with all the stops in order, easily read across the car from the seats on the other side. It is repeated between each set of doors. Easy to get back on plan if you're distracted and miss a station, by the next one you are back understanding.
Thanks for all your wisdom! We are exploring the options. Since the arrival is so late, it likely will be 10pm before she clears customs. We are leaning towards the private driver option and have requested a quote from blackberry. You all are so helpful!! Thank you, thank you!
I always take the tube. It's very easy for me. Forty five minutes and a one block walk is my journey. But that's from Heathrow to Earls Court and not Tower Hill. (Which would be 20-30 minutes further.)
Considering the time of her arrival, her inexperience of traveling, with luggage, on the tube, and most importantly two worried parents at the other end, I think the idea of taking a car service is wise. It will cost you more, but you'll have more piece of mind.
