Transportation advice from Gatwick Airport

The train to Edinburgh goes from Kings Cross station. It’s operated by LNER. In a lot of cases trains aren’t like planes in that a destination is served only from one station.

As I understand it the roads between London and Gatwick can be very congested. Therefore I elect to take the train into town.

There are a few options:

For Victoria Station

• Gatwick Express - frequent nonstop service
• Regular train service run by southern. Takes a little longer but cheaper, especially if you pay by Oyster card or contactless.

There’s also regular train service to London Bridge and St. Pancras rail stations.

" Does anyone know what the taxi fare might be?"

A taxi journey from Gatwick would be purgatory (and expensive), take the train.

We always stay in the Bayswater/Knightsbridge area on the north end of Hyde Park. Great access to the Underground is there going every direction, and Kensington Palace is just a short distance away. Paddington Station is also close by which is where the Heathrow Express train comes in.

The Gatwick Express is always busy and you will be struhggling with all the other passengers with their luggage. Catch one of the regular trains from Gatwick to St Pancras. They are ignored by most people landing at Gatwick and a lot quieter.

To answer the specific question, a pre-booked car would be a minimum of £70 ranging up to £90 or so. A taxi from the rank would be further north of that. Take the train.

Why Inverness? There are more attractive places to stay in Scotland...

Thank you to all who responded with such helpful information. I’m thinking maybe we should find another place rather then Inverness. It seems most people don’t find it so great. We thought it might be just a convenient place by train and we are flying out of there to Dublin. Tickets already purchased. I guess maybe also the real reason we chose that place was probably from watching the “Outlander” series, I am also looking at Rabbies tour to go from Inverness to Skye, Donan castle, Portree, Loch Ness.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has taken this tour or can suggest other places to stay that is easily reached by train? Is there anything wonderful about Inverness?

There is no need to take a taxi from Gatwick to central London.

If you decide on Bloomsbury which is the Russell Square/British Museum neighbourhood,
take a Thameslink train direct from Gatwick station to St Pancras station, these are almost new trains, with a/c and open walk through carriages, no pre booking just board, around eight trains an hour for St Pancras, fast ones take 44 minutes, use oyster/contactless/phone pay/ paper ticket.

At St Pancras take the Piccadilly line to Russell sq or walk across Euston rd to Bloomsbury.

St Pancras and Kings Cross are large adjacent stations, Kings Cross is the departure station for Edinburgh.

If you decide to stay in Knightsbridge, take a Southern train from Gatwick to Victoria.

https://tfl.gov.uk/

Public transit, with interactive planner. Useful throughout your visit to London.

www.seat61.com

First place to look for any railroad travel.

This is a wonderful forum! After all this valuable information, my husband was able to change our flights and now we are flying into Heathrow. It’s been years since we have visited London but I think taking a taxi to our hotel might be doable. Thank you all for taking the time to respond and sending me website links.

I'm not certain why people are running down Inverness! It's one of our favorite destinations- we like it better than Edinburgh or Glasgow. It is a pretty, small, very walkable city. it has one of the best Tourist Information Offices I've ever used. Plenty of activities (cruise on the firth to see wales, dolphins, puffins, etc., cruise on River Ness and Loch Ness with stops to visit Urquhart Castel and Drumnadrochit (Nessie focused village, but plenty of other stuff), day trip to Isle of Sky and Elen Donan Castle and Glen Coe, LONG day trip to see Orkney, other day trips.... If you'd rather see a smaller village and more rural area, we love Aviemore (there a plenty of others, too, like Pitlochery, Boat of Garten, etc.). It is in the Cairngorm Mts. and there's plenty to do there and you are in the heart of Speyside- the location of some of the best Scotch Whisky distilleries!

Hi Toni,

Thank you so much for sharing your feelings about Inverness and how much you loved your visit! I really appreciate you noting other areas to keep in mind for our visit. What was your favorite whisky distillery that you visited?

Rather than Inverness itself. think about stopping in one of the smaller towns near by. You are spoilt for choice with any one of these.

Beauly with its ruined abbey

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/beauly/beauly/index.html

Dingwall, an attractive market town,

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dingwall/dingwall/index.html

Nairn with its beach and small harbour

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/nairn/nairn/index.html

or Strathpeffer, a Victorian spa town

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/strathpeffer/strathpeffer/index.html

I'm not certain why people are running down Inverness!

Neither am I. Sure, it's not Edinburgh or Glasgow but it has its own charms that neither have. We also loved our winter stay in a cosy log cabin in Aviemore.