Gatwick Airport to London Best way??

The tubes/train is your best option and not difficult. I have no idea about checking your bags - can you go to the apt first and leave them there? Train stations are not the safest places to leave bags. RS does a great job of telling you about transit in his London book and has a good map.
Good luck - you will have a wonderful time, but do watch out for opportunists.

The Gatwick Express goes straight to Victoria Station abourt every 15-30 min. There is also a slightly cheaper service by Southern Trains- not sure of it's frequency, and which stations it serves, but it does make multiple stops prior to (and I think after) Gatwick, so it is more crowded. There is no Tube service to Gatwick. Sorry I can't help about luggage storage. I'd try to work with whomever you are renting the apartment from about dropping off your luggage.

All the train stations in central London have luggage check counters. Including Victoria Station where the Gatwick Express airport train terminates.

When travelling to/from Gatwick, I usually take the Southern Train. It takes 5 to 10 minutes longer than the Gatwick Express, but costs about 5 GBP less than the standard Gatwick Express fare. If you do decide to take the Gatwick Express, you can get a discount if you buy the ticket online in advance. The Gatwick airport lists all the various transportation options with links to the schedules.

I have been pricing and I just cannot seem to justify 41.00 to get from Gatwick to London??? Seems a little outrageous! But, that may be our option!

Unfortunately, London is expensive. Gatwick is about a one hour drive from London so the train is really the fastest option. There are also car services, but unless you have at least 3 people, they are really not any cheaper. There are also a couple of bus options which are cheaper, but they take 90 minutes or so ... not particularly a great option after a long flight.

Melanie, The quickest method is either the Gatwick Express or the Southern train that the others mentioned. From what I can determine, tickets purchased in advance are as cheap as £13.70 PP. It used to be possible to purchase tickets onboard the Gatwick Express, however I believe that practice has been discontinued. You could buy tickets inside the Terminal, but will pay full price. Another option you might have a look at is travel by Coach. National Express has Coaches departing from both the North and South Terminals. For example, there are departures from the South Terminal every 30 minutes. A trip to London Victoria Coach station takes 1H:35M and the cost is £8.00 PP. Check their website for further details. I definitely agree with the others - London is expensive! Your fare from the airport will likely be the least of your costs. Happy travels!

Thank you all so much, we do realize that London is an expensive city to visit, but we have also found some very good deals. It just seems a little crazy that our flight to Venice is cheaper than just getting in to London!

Forget the Gatwick Express. Option 1: Take a Southern train to Victoria rail station and store your bags there. Direct trains run about every 15 minutes. The anytime 2nd class fare on Southern trains is £13.50. If you book well in advance (up to 12 weeks allowed) on the Southern site, you can get a discount fare as low as £4.50. However, the tickets will be for a specific departure date and time. If your plane is late and you miss your train, your tickets will be worthless. Option 2: Take a National Express coach to Victoria coach station and store your bags there. Left luggage prices at the coach station are cheaper than at the rail station. What would I do? I'd take the train. I might book advance discount fare tickets for a departure time about two hours after my flight is scheduled to arrive and be willing to eat the cost of the tickets if my flight is super late. Or I'd simply buy tickets at Gatwick and jump on the next direct train to Victoria. (Note: Some Southern departure times require a connection so be sure to get on a train that is going directly to Victoria.)

Thanks for this will check it out!!!

You're welcome! One more thought: If saving money is most important to you and you don't want to take a chance on having worthless discount fare train tickets if your flight is super late, then take the coach. £8.00 isn't a bad price. And as I said in a previous post, the left luggage charges are lower at the coach station.

The options described in this post so far are best if you are staying in the west of central London. If you are arriving on a Monday to Friday and staying in the east there are also trains operated by First Capital Connect (http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk) which run to Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon and St Pancras stations in central London. Costs will be equivalent to the cheaper Southern trains.

Coach travel is a good mode of transport in the UK. It's clean and comfortable. Also, coming into Victoria, you'll see some interesting parts of London. Buckingham Palace is right up the road from there (not sure if you'll see it from the coach though). You can leave your luggage there and there's lots of pubs and places to have a coffee or refreshment. Or catch the no11 bus, go upstairs, try and get the front seats and get a good tour through London (It goes past the Houses of Parliament and Westminster, Trafalgar Sq and along the Strand) .
Make sure you know where to get the bus back again!

Melanie,
If you are concerned about the expense of London, be sure that you pack in such a way that you consolidate everything you want to check at the station on arrival day in as few bags as possible, and have everything you want to take with you that first day (camera, guidebook, etc.) with you in a smaller carry-on. At 8.50GBP for the first bag and 5.00GBP for each bag after that, the cost of left luggage at Victoria and other stations can really add up quickly.

Here are the left luggage fees at the Victoria coach station. Deposits up to 2 hours: £2 / No weight consideration Deposits 2-24 hours: £3.50 / Under 20 kg Deposits 2-24 hours: £5.50 / Over 20 kg

Thank you all for your insight! We did find tickets on the First Capital Connect to London Bridge 8.50 pp. Only issue we need to transfer to Waterloo station to leave bags any other suggestions that would be closer to that? Thanks again for all of your help!

You could take a First Capital Connect train all the way to St Pancras and store your bags there. If you don't want to be that far north, then your choices for luggage storage east of Victoria are either Waterloo or Liverpool Street. Where is your apartment located?

Our apartment is located off of Tooting Broadway station so I think we are better off with the short transfer to Waterloo and then do our sightseeing over on that end of town, perhaps the Tower of London, St. Pauls etc. We cannot check until 2:45. I see that from Waterloo station Tooting is on that Northern line. What do you think?

If you get in at London Bridge you can get a train from there to Waterloo East, which is adjacent to Waterloo.

Or you can get the London Underground Northern Line direct from London Bridge to Tooting.

Tooting Broadway is southwest of the centre area of London and Gatwick is straight south of London. I pulled up the combined rail and tube map and see that Balham is the closest National rail station and you can make connections off the Southern train from Gatwick at either East Croydon or Clapham Junction (extremely hectic!) to Balham where you can pick up the tube two stops to Tooting Broadway. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/14091.aspx
and the map you want to look at is the one called London Rail and Tube Services map. You would want to get a travel card built in with the train ticket for your first day.