How long to get out of Heathrow, into town, and back?

I would head to Windsor instead. It borders the airport and there is lots to do. Do a search for "Windsor" as this this has been discussed a bunch of times.

I'd say you'd need at least an 1 1/2-2 hours to get off the plane, use the facilities, pass through immigration, get money, find the tube, queue up, buy tickets and finally be on your way to central London.

For the return, I'd say once you are on a Piccadilly line train from central London you need an hour to get to LHR and another 1 1/2-2 hours to get through security and have time to relax before your flight departs.

Tube lines have been known to close unexpectedly or you get on the wrong train or miss your terminal stop at LHR and have to double back... all three happened to me recently! I had 10 mins to boarding after over an hour of delay and had to take a bus to the terminal when the line closed. I was sweating that one!

So if that is 5-6 generous hours to ensure that you will not miss your flight, that leaves you with only 5 hours or so to see some of London.

My favorite London walk is from Victoria to Buckingham Palace, through Green Park to the Horse Guards, down Whitehall, past Number 10, to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and Westminster, cross over the Thames to the Southbank to the London Eye and walk along the Southbank. If you still have time you can cross over the river again towards Charing Cross station, have a quick look at Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, the West End theatre district. This is a good area to grab a bite to eat or when you are on the Southbank before you head back to LHR.

The hop on and of bus would take a lot of time and cost you money when the above walk is doable for average-fit travelers. You can always pick one up at Victoria station when you change lines from dark blue Piccadilly to the green District lines (at Hammersmith is the easiest as it is just crossing the platform). Or you can go straight to Westminster station on the District line and walk out and immediately be standing under Big Ben.

Exactly where we would go/what we would do is not really a concern yet -- your suggested walk sounds fine. Mostly I'm looking for ballpark estimates for how long to allow for getting through the airport, to central London, and back.

Sounds like it's up to a maximum of 2 to 3 hours each way, and that would leave us with about 5 hours to allocate. That sounds like it's just enough time to justify the back-and-forth. If the layover was a few hours less, I'd just skip it, but in this case, we'll be there early in the day - the short flight from Paris gets us to LHW at 8 am on a Sunday, so we should be fairly fresh and capable of walking and doing a little sightseeing. Our flight home from LHR to Seattle will be a long slog (fortunately a non-stop), so I would rather not spend a whole day in the airport waiting for that long flight home.

And since my wife has never been to the UK before, I'm sure she would like to go take a quick look rather than kill time in the airport.

Sounds like we should have just enough time to make the trip worthwhile.

I think you should go for it, but I'd recommend against taking a hop-on hop-off bus. Ride city buses and walk to give your wife an above-ground introduction to London. See this zoomable map that has Tube routes on one side and central London bus routes on the other and shows the location of major tourist attractions.

Buy one-day, zone 1-6 off-peak (good anytime on weekends) travelcards for £7/person. They'll get you from LHR to London and back on the Tube and will cover all Tube and bus rides you take while in London. Plan to leave London at least four hours before your plane's scheduled departure time so you'll be at LHR a FULL THREE HOURS beforehand.

If you aren't able to check your luggage through, you can use the left luggage facilities at the airport. Allow a little extra time to retrieve the luggage and check it in.

You'd do yourself a favor if you checked the TFL.gov.uk website for weekend line works or closures before you arrived but you can get all that info when you arrive too.

Get a £7 zone 1-6 paper travelcard. This will include your tubes and buses. I don't think it would be worth fussing with the Oyster for such a short trip.

Also, use Heathrow Express to Paddington. That will give you at least another hour of time in London. Skip the tube pass and use the black cabs to move around. It will be more expensive this way but time may be more valuable.

Thanks for all the good advice, I think that should all work out.

Now I've just got to figure out the visa situation for my wife: she's not a US citizen and although she has a Green Card, she travels on a foreign passport. I'll call the UK Consulate on Monday to find out if she needs a UK tourist visa for this 5-hour visit, or if she can leave the airport and return a few hours later without such paperwork.

Thanks again.

Have you seen the Britianusa.comm website yet?

It will tell you some information about who needs a visa and what type to get.

There is a transit visit for under 48 hours which might be what you need. Visas to the Uk aren't cheap though.

Good luck.

Yes, I have been to that website, but it raised as many questions as it answered. They appear to have SOME provision for allowing transiting passengers who are in-country for less than 24 hours to enter with no visa at all -- but it's not clear what additional criteria there are for that deal. Then, as you say, there's the transit visa. I'm going to call them and try and get definitive answers before proceeding.

Thanks.

The estimated time you wuld have in city at 5+ hours is quite reasonable. I suggest you go for it. If time becomes a concern and depending on the time of day (i.e. not rush hour) taking a taxi to the airport is quite viable as well. The money spent on the whole couple hours is well worth it especially when compared to sitting in an airport for 10 hours. Ughhh

David, I'd skip going into London. Its a long travel, even for a 10 hour layover.

I had a one day layovr and did that in June.. My flight arrived at 1:30 pm, and I had tickets to see Spamalot at 8 pm.

We checked into the Sheraton Heathrow at 3-ish, took a quick shower, then took a taxi back to Heathrow (cost 10 pounds), took the tube to the City.

It took about an hour to get to the City. We didn't get to do much except walk around, went to a pub at 6:30, ate a light dinner, and by 7:20 arrived at the Palace for the show.

I'd explore the areas closer to Windsor. There's plenty of things to do

Well as it turns out, the information I've been given from those who allege to know says my wife will not be able to leave the airport without a visa (she is a national of another country and doesn't travel on a US passport, although she does have a US Permanent Resident Alien (Green Card).

A visa for her would costs us something like US$150, would require her to submit fingerprints and other biometric information, and jump through hoops that just seem insane. I tried calling British consulates and nobody would answer my questions, they just directed me to their paid service. So I held my nose and called their paid service, and for a minimum charge of US$12, I was told no, she would need a visa, even if she held an onward ticket, no exceptions.

So if that's the case, we'll skip London and just enjoy the confines of Heathrow - $150 and all the hassles for a few hours walking around London just isn't worth it. Their loss - we would have spent more money there than we will at the airport. Oh well, thanks anyway.

Now I'll post a related question - what's there to do if stuck for most of a day at Heathrow...