Whether you’re travelling for business, leisure or even a bit of both (‘bleisure’…?), the key to a good trip away is making the most of your time, and that means spending your time in ways that you want to.
Ask any frequent traveller (‘fraveller’…? OK, we’ll stop now!) and we’re betting the most common travel frustration is the amount of time lost due to delays and general ‘milling about’ (technical term for ‘not doing much’).
Well we’ve been surveying people across the country (chatting to a handful of colleagues, a couple of people we share an office with and this guy called Dermot who brings the mail up on a Thursday), and we’ve found that the journey from the airport to the hotel is often one of the worst parts of a trip abroad. And we get it – you’re tired, you’re antsy to get to where you’re going, and you’ve overdosed on Duty Free snacks. It’s a veritable nightmare!
Heathrow is the UK’s busiest airport so we want to help the 40,000,000 people who arrive into Heathrow every year have a more pleasant journey getting into London and starting their trip. You could take the tube, but is there space for 40-million more passengers on the Piccadilly Line? Don’t answer that.
You could get a taxi, but it’s going to cost you and London traffic ain’t as fun as you might think! But there’s one way to make this leg of the journey infinitely more pleasant; introducing, the Heathrow Express!
Like, seriously quick. It’ll get you from Heathrow to Paddington in just 15 minutes. Then you’re pretty much smack bang in the centre of the city with four connecting tube lines (Bakerloo, H&C, Circle, District). Compare that with the tube from Heathrow which has a single tube line and will take you through 10 stops before you get to the next main station. That’s a lot of time with Karen from Sales chatting about how much ‘bank’ (her word, not ours) she made the company last quarter
There’s WiFi.
Yup, even through the tunnels. This is good on two levels:
- If you’re coming into London on holiday, you can carry on making those vital last minute additions to your itinerary (we recommend trying the Akuri at Dishoom!)
- If you’re on your way home from holiday, you can use the time to upload more of those all-important holiday snaps.
- If you’re on a work trip, you can pretend you’re checking emails from the flight so you don’t have to carry on listening to Karen.
There’s space.![]()
Taking luggage on the tube is always a risky business. In short, other tube passengers just don’t like you doing it. At all. Suitcases get caught in the closing doors, wheelie cases crunch over people’s toes in the aisle, and big bags can take up a whole step on the escalators, breaking London’s most beloved rule (‘stand on the right, walk on the left‘). Basically, the key to tube travel is speed. ‘Movimiento es vida’. On the HE, you’ve got all the space you could want for you and your luggage, and you’ll even get a seat too!
It’s hassle-free.
Seriously. Just book your ticket (either in advance or on the day) and then scan your voucher on your phone, just like your boarding pass. No printing required. Jenga!
So there it is – your inside guide to making the most of your time in ol’ London Town! If you’re looking for other London ideas, just click the link and keep looking…
