Greetings:
My wife and I will be returning to the Middle East from Canada on August 26, 2004. We will arrive in London at 0825 and depart for the Middle East at 1600. Our stay at Heathrow will be approximately 8 hours. My wife and I know very little about Heathrow Airport or in fact London therefore I have the following questions for this Board:

1) During this long wait, I would like to do something special for my wife. However, I have no idea what to do at the Airport because I simply don't know what is available there. Does anyone know what facilities or whatever are available at the Airport to entertain us but especially my wife during this special day? Any good restaurants or whatever?

2) We are catching an international flight, and one to the Middle East at that, so I know about the check-in time restrictions (i.e. be there at least 2 hours before the flight). However, does anyone feel that it is worthwhile to venture anywhere outside the Airport, near or far? Again, any good restaurants or whatever nearby?

Any suggestions based on the above questions are greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone has any other suggestions that might make our long stay at this Airport more enjoyable or at least more bearable are greatly appreciated, for example, we are arriving in Heathrow after a long flight from Canada, waiting 8 hours, and then embarking on a long flight to the Middle East. Any "refreshing" things we can do while waiting in Heathrow?

Please here or send your suggestions to:

sigmuu@hotmail.com

Take the airport train into Victoria Station and have a look around in the downtown area. It's a short walk over to Buckingham Palace or Hyde Park or Piccadilly. Stop someplace for a bite to eat and enjoy the exercise. You can do this and still be back to Heathrow in plenty of time for your flight out. Get yourself a map at the airport or use Mapquest.com to familiarize yourself with this area so you don't waste any time.

You would have to check up if this still exists. There used to be a Living Well Health Club a 2 minute walk from Terminal 4, with swimming pool, sauna etc. They had storage space for luggage and you could buy a reasonably priced day pass.

In 8 hours you have time enough to go to central London, have a good walk, eat and go back to Heathrow on time. It takes about one hour by underground (Piccadilly line)to go to Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Sq., Covent Garden... or take the express train to Paddington St. that takes 15 minutes to get there.

I saw a news story the other day which said that check-in times at Heathrow this summer may be as long as six hours. Yes, that's right, SIX HOURS. Better check with the airport on check-in times before you plan to do anything with your layover.

Hello Sigmuu,

After doing a bit of research on the web, I have managed to find a website which might interest you.

www.heathrow-airport-guide.co.uk

I have had a quick look at the above and the facilities at the airport seem quite limited to restarants and shops so treat your Wife to breakfast, duty free shopping and lunch.

In my opinion, I would not travel to Central London because of possible delays with public transport and you could miss your connecting flight. I think you may need more than two hours to check-in so contact your relevant airline for details.

best wishes



Kevin ;-)

Hi,

I'm a travel agent, I wanted to advise you that if you do leave Heathrow Airport you will have to go through customs, collect your baggage (for security reasons you cannot leave it at Heathrow), travel around London with it, and re-check in for your onward flight (which also mean you will have to go through security.

If you did this and missed your onward flight, the airline you are travelling with will NOT put you onto the next flight, and will charge you for a new ticket if you still want to continue with your journey.

I would seriously advise against this unless you had longer than twelve hours at any airport.

I hope this helps...

Caroline

Just at Heathrow Airport squire? Here I don't know.

I did just what you described at Sydney airport and the nice airline check in lady allowed me to get a flight the next day without paying. The flight was jjust leaving. I think it was Quantas but it could have been NZ airlines.
I just realised that my watch was wrong when I went up to the desk to check in for the flight. Garuda Airlines gave their passengers the wrong local time on arriving in Sydney, maybe they do it every day, who knows?!
The same thing has happened to me at Edinburgh Airport, where a male check-in person, (can't remember the airline) told me that I could take a flight the next morning, when I was held up for hours in a taxi in a traffic trying to make the flight.
There are some nice people working at airlines.

Regarding the airport train (Heathrow Express) it is 15 pounds one way, though it is quick (15 minutes).
I don't know how muich a day return ticket is - but this is the price of a meal for two in a good restaurant in London, just to get from the city's airport to Paddington Station.
Six pounds gets you to the centre in a much quicker time (like an hour and a half). I don't know about buses - they're probably a better idea for an inexpensive daytrip.

For those flying to or from Stanstead it is, I think roughly the same price for the long old train from Essex to London Liverpool street.

You could probably hop a bus to Windsor which is very close to Heathrow. There's the Castle of course, Eton College.....and Windsor itself is a lovely town for lunch and a stroll.