Layover in London - can we leave Heathrow?

Lee, I seem to recall a train called the Heathrow Express into central London. Turns out I was right! www.heathrowexpress.com. Goes into Paddington station. From there I'm sure you can catch the 'tube' anywhere you want to go. That should give you 4-6 hours to explore London. Better than sitting at the airport I think!

A return ticket on the Heathrow Express will cost £34 for you and half that for your child, or £51 total. The Heathrow connect, which also goes to paddington but makes intermediate stops, is about half that, £17.80 for you and half-price for the child. Just getting out of the airport can take an hour or so, although the lines at immigration may not be long at that hour of the morning. If you just want to get out of the airport and take a walk, you might consider Windsor, whichis closer, and much less expensive to reach. The local bus takes about 45 minutes.

Yes- you are allowed to leave the airport AND you have time to visit (briefly) either central London or Windsor. You can take the Heathrow Express (15 min.), Heathrow Connect (20-25 min.) (trains) or the Picadilly line of the Tube (45 min.) to get into London. If you decide to visit Windsor (only about 15 min. away by car), you can take a bus (30-45 min.) or a taxi or a 'hired car' service. Of those three, the hired car service is most time and cost effcient- but you need to arrange it beforehand. You can probably be out of the airport (through Immigration and ready to catch your transport) by 7:00 -8:00 am. You will need to be back at Heathrow by 1:00-2:00pm, so allow plenty of time to return. That will mean that you will want to head back from central London by tube no later than noon or by train from Paddington by 12:30. From Windsor by car/taxi no later than 12:30-12:45. You'll wind up with about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to spend sightseeing, max.

I like the Windsor Castle idea. Wish I'd thought of it!

The above all assumes that you are both US citizens and thus don't need a visa. If not, check visa requirements carefully and plan accordingly.

Thanks everyone for the speedy replies! That is all very helpful information :) Cheerio!

Going with the Heathrow Connect tickets - much better value and not much of a delay...thanks! Lee
https://www.heathrowconnect.com

The key to remember is that you must go through passport control on arrival, and then through security on the way back into the airport. Most of the time it goes quickly (at Heathrow) but last summer we were hit with 2.5 hours on the way in at Gatwick (from Lyon) and more than an hour getting back into the airport. Don't cut it too close.

Hi all - Everything worked out just fine. The only confusion was not getting aboard the Heathrow "Express", vs Heathrow "Connection" - they use the same tracks at airport, but need to transfer from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 to get the H. Connection train. The Express goes from T5, and you can actually ride it for free to T3 - get off there to wait for other train. Even better, when we went to Buckingham Palace they were getting ready for a ceremony: the Queen came out to unveil a Jubilee year stone tile in the ground, just in front of the main gates...a lot of unexpected hoopla for us to see! The only sad part- The Red Lion Pub wasn't serving lunch until 12, and we were worried about being late, so had to have our fish and chips at the spot next door...tasty though! Heathrow was great - just big- so we allowed lots of time to get back. Tubed from Westminster to Paddington, transferred there to the 1:03 H. Connection back to T3, then the airport transfer train to T5. Had a half hour before our gate opened to shop :)

Thanks for the follow up and what a pleasant surprise to get to see the Queen.

Thanks for the feedback.. I was lucky enough to see Prince Charles once but never the Queen. That's a biggie :)