Long Heathrow Layover

Your Tube ride will take about one hour. How old are your children? Depending upon their ages, they may be able to ride free or at a reduced rate. There are staffed left luggage facilities in each terminal at Heathrow. The cost is £8.50/item for 1-24 hours.

If you're short on time, consider taking the Heathrow Express train. It takes about 15 minutes to travel non- stop between Heathrow and London Paddington station, which is just north of Hyde Park. Buy tickets on the train or at the stations at either Heathrow or Paddington. From there you can take a cab or the tube, or just walk. Here's a link to the Heathrow airport's page on transportation options to central London. http://www.heathrowairport.com/portal/page/Heathrow%5EGeneral%5ETo+and+from+Heathrow%5ETo+and+from+London/fd0d9b25f9599110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____/448c6a4c7f1b0010VgnVCM200000357e120a____/

John - You may want to consider Windsor, it is about a 15-20 minute cab ride from Heathrow airport. edit John - Is your 9 hours from 1st flight arrival until 2nd flight departure? If so I think you need to subtract a little time. Say 1 1/2 hour(s) to get thru passport control. 1/2 hour to get to London and back if you use the Heathrow Express, and 2 hour to get back if you take the tube.. Also figure some time to get thru security, giving you really 5-6 hours for sightseeing.

Pay for left luggage, buy Heathrow Express tickets from the kiosks (use a CC), grab a seat and you'll be in Paddington Station in 15 minutes. Exit the express and follow the masses. Walk down the stairs to the Underground (well marked). Buy day passes for you and the kids from a manned ticket booth. Ask for a pocket Tube map. Check the large Underground map on the wall. Take the Circle Line (Yellow) to Westminster. Exit at Westminster and walk out Exit 1. First thing you'll see is the London Eye across the Thames. Walk over to the wall, turn right and look up. The Clock Tower of Big Ben looms. Climb up the stairs and you'll be across the street from Parliament. And so your London adventure begins. Use Google Maps satellite image and type in Big Ben London UK. When the image comes up zoom out just a little and you'll see that when you exit at Westminster you'll right near The Abbey as well as Parliment and Big Ben. You are also only 10 blocks or so from Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park one way and Trafalger Square another. Very walkable city and with your Tube day pass you'll be able to see a great deal during you 9 hour layover.

If you're planining to go on from Paddington to Westminster or another station near the Thames by Tube, then taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington is a waste of money. Paddington and Westminster aren't all that close to each other. By the time you get below ground at Paddington and catch a Tube train, you'll only save about 15 minutes over taking the Tube all the way from Heathrow.

Hope you are speaking about a weekday. All bets are off on the Underground on weekends.

Tim my recommend was base on time not money. The Tube is an hour from Heathrow. If they want to see a lot of London then in MHO 15 minutes on the Express is worth the cost. Up to them of course.

Claudia neglected to include the time to go through passport control, which you must do to leave the terminal. Depending how many other large planes arrive at your terminal, and from where, this can easilt take an hour or more. Windsor is much closer (although an expensive taxi ride) and your kids might enjoy seeing the castle. There are nice pubs and restaurants along the river for mealtime.

I agree with Tim on this. Assuming the tube is running from Heathrow on the day of your visit, you are not going to save much time by taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington when you want to go to Westminster. While the Heathrow Express takes only 15 minutes to Paddington, to get to Westminster you would then need to walk from the platform to the train station, queue to buy your ticket, walk to the tube platform, wait for the tube. This is going to take another10 minutes. Then you will spend another 15 minutes on the tube to get to Westminster (or a nearby stop like Embankment on the Bakerloo line). That is 40 minutes right there. Taking the tube will be about 50 minutes or so. The Heathrow Express is 36 GBP round trip for an adult. You do need to check tfl.gov.uk to make sure no planned works on your tube route on the day of travel; these generally occur on the weekends as Nigel mentioned. You can use the journey planner to see what the options are. As far as your luggage, go to the Heathrow website and search on left luggage for the locations. Make sure you allow time to retrieve your bag and go through security on your return trip.

Regarding what to do with your luggage for several hours while you visit London, one option to using left luggage might be to just check it in for your next flight. I've done it a few times in the USA without any problems. I don't know if there are rules restricting this in the UK, but might be worth looking into.

Why not just check your luggage all the way to Athens? You don't have to collect it or re-check it in London (unlike the US, where you have to clear customs & re-check at the US entry point). It'll take at least an hour from landing time to exiting the terminal, depending on how long you wait at immigration. It's at least an hour on the tube, depending on where you want to go, into central London. As someone else mentioned, Windsor is a good alternative if you just want to get our and about for a bit and enjoy the scenery. Much closer -- 15-20 mins by taxi.