Travel from Heathrow to Victoria/Pimlico area

Jane - I have not used Speedy Shuttle, I have however used Just Airports(www.justairports.com) and found them to be quite reasonable. Their fare would be about £32 and take about 1 hour.

The National Express Bus(www.nationalexpress.com) from Heathrow to Victoria Coach Station would run about £7.00 per person and take about 50 minutes. You then have to get from the coach station to your hotel. I'm not sure what a taxi would run.

You could also take the tube(www.tfl.gov.uk) from Heathrow to Pimlico. The journey would take about 1 hour and cost about £11.80.

Hopefully Emma, Nigel, Phillip or Marco will see your post and respond. They are all extremely knowledgeable about London transport.

First, the fare is nowhere £11.80 GBP. With an Oyster Card its £3.10 (off peak) or using cash it's £6.00

When are you traveling? Normally, the easiest way would be the Piccadilly line to Green Park and then the Victoria line two stops to Pimlico. However, Green Park is currently going through some escalator work through the end of November and there will be backups.

I just took the National Express coach from Heathrow to Victoria Coach Station last Friday. It worked very well altho I landed at Terminal 3 which is close by the main coach station. Including standing in line to purchase a ticket and waiting for my coach I probably waited about 20 minutes. The staff in that area are very helpful.

There is a taxi rank at the Victoria arrivals station altho to me it is in a slightly hidden spot. Walk out the front of the station, turn left, walk toward the restaurant called Sicily and then turn left down the side street before you get to the restaurant, lol. It is probably signed inside the arrivals hall but my hotel is just around the corner so I didnt need to use a taxi then.

I have previously landed on a Sunday and took the Underground to Victoria Station and that was easy as there was little traffic but I did have to get up escalators and stairs to exit.

Speedy Shuttle is a new one for me.

Shuttles come and shuttles go in London. None seems to last long.

I've never used Just Airports but I've never heard a bad word about the either.

wary about riding escalators while dealing with luggage

How much luggage??? Unless there is something big on you shouldn't have much of a crowd on the tube mid morning on a Sunday. You need to be at Heathrow 3 hours before your flight on the Friday so you need to be there by about 10. The tube outbound at about 9 shouldn't be too bad either.

Note there is no way out of Pimlico underground station without going up some stairs as inaccessible stations were still being built in the 1970s. The same is true still about Victoria but the construction will eventually cure that.

The exact location of the hotel would be useful for the best advice.

Thank you all for the advice. Our hotel is The Belgrave at 80-86 Belgrave Rd.

Our flight dates are arrive 9/25 (Sunday, 9:00 am) and return 9/30 (Friday 1:00 pm) so any construction work currently in progress will probably still be in progress.

As noted in my post above we will each probably have two bags each. I will have a rolling bag (standard sized, not carry on) and a cross body messenger bag that should not be too heavy. He will probably have a regular back pack (not a large hiking/travel kind) and a carried duffel bag. He may switch to a rolling bag if that would be a better option for walking longer distances. He is mainly concerned with getting on and off crowded trains with luggage, but it sounds like most people use the tube to get to and from the airport.

I'm generally okay on escalators if not overloaded with stuff, but I took a bad spill on a really long one when I was very young and i have a tendency to hesitate a bit getting on (only when going down). Thank you for the tips on managing the escalator with luggage, emma. And I do know to stand on the right.

After doing more research, the reviews on Trip Advisor for the "shuttle service" by City Transfers it seems that the service is not very reliable. I'm leaning toward canceling and saving some money by using the Tube. I guess if the trip in turns out to be difficult we could always get an Uber for the trip back to the airport.

I will look into National Express. Their website is currently down for maintenance.

Another cunning plan may be the 24.

Just a few feet from your hotel is a bus stop, the only line at that bus stop is the 24. The 24 can be your friend. It is a double decker which goes between the river in Pimlico up to Hampstead. It goes past Victoria station - but not particularly near the Victoria Coach Station - and then to Westminster station and all the stuff there like Downing Street, the War Rooms, Westminster Bridge over to the Eye, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and all that is there, then up Charing Cross Road past Leicester Square, up Tottenham Court Road - short walk to the British Museum, up through Camden Town and by Camden Lock Market and up to Hampstead Heath. That's a great choice of bus.

If you take the tube to Victoria you will have a pile of stairs from the top of the escalators until the renovation work at the station is complete, but there is another choice. Stay on the District Line tube two more stops beyond Victoria to Westminster. You can go step free from there to the surface either by lift (elevator) or escalator and the 24 is just outside. With luggage you will want to stay downstairs (probably) and it will take you right to your door.

The bus stop you will need will show up on the display screen (and audio) in the bus is Belgrave Road. Press the bell after you pass the previous stop (Warwick Way). If you have carried all your stuff upstairs (much better view but nowhere for luggage) be careful about walking downstairs when the bus is moving.

We just traveled to London last week. When we arrived from the west coast we barely had slept, but were easily able to manage the London tube. It is a fantastic system. We bought our Oyster card (also easy to do) and were on our way. We went from heathrow to Victoria station. We each had a rolling carry on and backpack. I believe there may have been some staircases to climb and heavier luggage would have made the stairs more difficult . We were happy to have packed light, saw lots of folks struggling with large luggage. With carry on, the trip from the airport was much easier than we had imagined.

Bus 24 sounds like a good option and it's going to a lot of places we want to see. Thanks for that tip. Y'all have been very helpful.

We opted to take the tube to Westminster Station and the 24 bus. It went pretty well. The tube is so easy to navigate using CityMapper app. We have done so much in only 1.5 days! The 24 bus is also convenient.

so glad it is working out for you. yay!