I’m travelling to Europe this summer. I bought a nice cheap flight in and out of London, with plans to go from there to the continent. I planned out an itinerary and booked a flight back to London on the day before my flight to Canada. So far so good right?
Except for one thing. My Dad, trying to be helpful, booked me into a hotel near Gatwick (where the flight to Canada leaves from) for that night when he saw a good deal on it. My flight from Europe lands at Stansted, at 10pm. I didn’t realize how far apart these two are.
Is there a reasonable way to get from Stansted to Gatwick at that time of night? I am carrying only a large backpack, so fairly mobile to transfer from buses to trains or whatnot, but I don’t really want to be wandering around possibly dangerous areas of London in the middle of the night.
I feel like kind of an idiot for not checking this out sooner. If nothing else I could stay near Stansted and go over in the morning (flight not until noon), but the hotel near Gatwick is non-refundable, so my Dad would be out money and probably upset that his nice gesture didn’t work out.
Help!
ETA: This is occuring in early August, if that makes any difference.
All is not lost, however. There’s numerous coach services from Stansted to Victoria (check the Stansted website for details), which is also where you can get the train to Gatwick - and this is one of the few services in the country that runs throughout the night, albeit at 30-60 minute intervals. (Ignore the fact that the trains from Stansted will still be running at that time, because getting from their destination at Liverpool Street to Gatwick would be problematic.)
Stansted is well to the north of London; Gatwick is well to the south. It’s roughly a two hour train journey - Stansted to Tottenham to Victoria to Gatwick. A coach from Stansted to Victoria would make things a lot simpler. You’d be arriving well after 01:00, so they probably won’t keep your room unless advised. That said, the hotel near Gatwick is probably a better option than one near Stansted: you have to check in ridiculously early these days and if you leave Stansted in the morning, you’ll be caught up in rush hour if it’s mid-week. Going from a hotel near Gatwick, you can take your time.
Yeah, this is my feeling too. I would rather get in late and at least know I’m there, rather than panic in the morning.
GorillaMan- do you mean the Gatwick express? Or is there another train from Victoria-Gatwick. Because on the Gatwick express site it seems like the last train is just after midnight and doesn’t start running again until 5am.
Ah, that’s exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! Thanks **Quartz **(and GorrilaMan). Everything I searched just came up with the express.
Now, one more stupid question from this poor Canadian. If I show up in Victoria Station in the middle of the night will there be people there to buy tickets from and ask questions of if necessary?
This might not be helpful, but the name of the bus agency out of Heathrow, at least, is National Express, if you want to look up that name. They are the bus I took from Heathrow to Brighton (via Gatwick airport) when I got delayed in Toronto and couldn’t meet up with my husband in England in February. Tickets were in the 25GBP range, IIRC.
Victoria, being a prominent railway station, is staffed all the time: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/vic/details.html#Staffing, so yes, there will be people to ask questions of and buy tickets from. There are also ticket machines that you can use, which are pretty straightforward and will take any major credit card.
Yup, you want the National Express from “Stansted Airport” to “London Victoria rail station” from here: Coach Travel & Airport Transfers | National Express. You can buy the ticket in advance online and print it out yourself, if you prefer, although I doubt there will be much of a crowd at that time of night.