least painful way to get from Heathrow to Victoria B&B

I second the call to take a taxi. Make sure it is a black London taxi, they are the only vehicles that can drive in the bus lanes other than buses of course. We love London taxis and have enjoyed every ride in them. Alternatively, you could take the Heathrow Express to Paddington, and then a taxi from there, but you might as well take a taxi straight from the airport to make it easier. I'd expect around 40-50 pounds for the fare, which I think is worth it considering you will be dropped at the door to your hotel.

Ruth, If you are already planning to buy a 3-Day BritRail Flexipass or England Flexipass and will get an extra day free, I would recommend taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington, and then catch a cab to your Victoria area B&B. According to http://www.worldtaximeter.com/london the fare for a weekday trip from Paddington Station to Victoria Station around Noon would be about £10 ($16.40) and take 13 minutes. You can plug in the address for your B&B to get a more accurate fare. Also, quite a few travelers have mentioned using a car service called justairports from Heathrow, but we have not used them ourselves. BTW, my husband and I are also arriving at Heathrow around 10 AM, and since we will be using our BritRail Flexpasses to go on to York the same day, we will be taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington, then catching a cab to Kings Cross Rail Station. Yes, the Heathrow Express is expensive, but why not use it if you can take it for "free" to get to downtown London in 15 minutes, and combine it with a reasonable cab fare. Besides, everyone needs to ride in a London cab at least once - they're great!

The least painful by far for 3 travelers with luggage is a taxi straight to your B&B. The coach as I recall goes to Victoria Coach Station, not to Victoria (rail) station if that makes a difference to you. The Underground runs via Piccadilly Line from Heathrow to Hammersmith where an easy cross-platform change gets you to the District Line for a straight shot to Victoria Station. However, coming up from the tube at Victoria is likely to be crowded and with plenty of stairs/escalators. If it were me, I would shell out the dough for a taxi.

Ruth, cab fare into London will be about 50 pounds or so, depending on how much luggage you have. The Express really does take just about 15 minutes to get to Paddington. Cab fare to a hotel in the West End should be 10-20 pounds The ride shouldn't be too long unless you run into traffic problems. (And a cab from Heathrow will run into the same problems. If it was me, I'd take the Express and then a cab. The Victoria area is relatively close to Paddington, not across town.

One of the Heathrow trains (connect or Express) then a cab. Paddington to Victoria by car generally skirts the big traffic hangups (especially midday ish). Motorway from heathrow to London can get frustrating and expensive. See how you feel when you get to Paddington- you could tube it from there, although I find its less stressful to cab (from Paddington)

For door to door service, a private car service will be cheaper than a taxi. The Victoria station area is in postal code SW1. Just Airports has a cash discount fare of £34 for an Estate (station wagon) from Heathrow to anywhere in that postal code.

Most of the B&B's at Victoria are south of the railway station close to the Coach Station. National Express operate direct buses between Heathrow and Victoria Coach Station for 5 GBP per person. These are comfortable long distance buses with wc's etc on board. They only pickup at the bus station, (not any of the terminals) at Heathrow between Terminals 1 and 3.
Not so good for T4 and T5, where you'd need to get the train shuttle over to the central area where the bus station and other terminals are.

Thank you so much! I feel like we have a couple of really good options now....I will look into both the Express Train/black cab option (I agree the cab experience would be fun) and the location of the Victoria coach station relative to our B&B. I really appreciate how helpful this forum is!

Since you asked for the "least painful way" to get from LHR to your hotel, I'll repeat my suggestion for door-to-door-service with Just Airports. While I agree that a ride in a black cab would be a fun experience, I suggest that you wait and take a short ride somewhere in central London at least one day after your arrival.

If you do take a taxi from Paddington, and since I've been there and had locals ask me how to find the taxi rank: If you stand directly facing the trains at their gates, the taxi rank is to your left. There is a line embedded in the floor leading to the taxis. You follow it along the left interior side of the station, by, I believe, a Costas coffee stand, for a few hundred feet, turn left and go outside to the taxis. If there is a queue, take your place at the end. It will move quickly.

Taxi rank seemed well signposted when I was at Paddington. Never had a problem finding it